Import duty rate for Germany

Howdy folks, I've just landed here from Ireland and have a quick question. In Ireland, whenever you ordered anything from the net (from a non-EU country) that was valued over a certain amount (I think E80), you were charged Import Duty by the Irish government. This made ordering things like a load of DVDs from the states virtually impossible because of the large charge (I think 40% of the value).

My question here is does anyone know the values for this Import Duty in Germany? (if any), i.e. once it hits 100 euro, you get charged XX%...

Cheers for the help,
Steve

I'm not sure what the exact rate is, but when I first moved here three years ago my sister sent over a package worth $65. She marked it $100, and I got a bill in the mail from GLS for 33 EUR!

I think that the maximum value before import duties are charged is something like 30-40 EUR. Last year I ordered some DVDs from Australia that cost around AUD $80, and I was charged 10 EUR for it.

Import VAT is charged for any private package worth more than €45 and for any commecial package (sent by a company) worth more than €22.50. Additionally, you may incur duty charges (usally another 16%) for certain scheduled items.

Getting someone in the US to be your intermediary and resend the goods after removing the labels and such is OK, but it won't necessarily prevent the package being stopped and held by customs. You'll wait three weeks for a green postcard telling you to come on down to Landsbergerstr. and open up the box. They'll then determine themselves whether they believe the listed value. Small discrepancies will only draw a bill; big ones (new EOS-10 valued at $40, for example) may get you hit with a severe penalty for attempted fraud and they could confiscate the goods.

This has been discussed on a few threads already.

woof.

Import duties are the same % across the whole EU. It's how strictly they are interpreteted that makes a difference.

I good thing to do to avoid any fees is to put a post for people to contact you whenever they're going to the states. Then they could pick up the DVD's for you, or even better you could send the DVD's to their American address and avoid all Fees. I've done this quite often for friends when going home over X-mas or during the summer. Give it a try and good luck.

Or you can get the company who sends the DVD to put the value as 10 Euros, even when it's closer to 80 Euros...