Don't BS NZ Customs

Hi,
a while back, a few days before Christmas, I bought a spindle off a chappy in Vietnam. He gave me a great price and Fedex'ed it to me in NZ. I forwarded an email
to Fedex from the seller without opening or reading it. He declared a 'gift' of low value, $185USD, whereas I paid $1999USD (inc shipping).

NZ Customs smelled rat and seized it. I have been corresponding with them about it ever since. Today they have finally agreed to release it to me, I still have to pay tax/duty etc,
but I was always going to have to pay that.

I have been extremely lucky. This purchase including GST is $4000NZD, and that is personal money.....losing it would hurt big time!

The bottom line is that I did not check the declared value and NZ Customs were within their rights to seize it, and it would have served me right. I had the opportunity to correct
what I knew to be a false declaration and did not. I will not repeat that mistake.

I would urge any Kiwis reading this to consider that in order to save 15% GST you risk losing the entire thing. Don't do it. I came within a hairs breadth of losing a $4000NZD item.

Craig

Hi,
I've had a little more time to consider the implications of my actions and all I can say is that I'm rather shamed by it.

The NZ government is and always has been reasonably responsive to the needs of its citizens. Sure we all have our gripes but what they did not do or alternately what they actually did
but by-in-large they do OK and with vanishingly little corruption. In short I have no need or call to short change my own countries government. Normally, I do not, I always pay the required
taxes, always put cash 'through the books' and all of that. In this case I became aware that the overseas seller had made a false declaration and I chose not to intervene and correct it.
Some sort of 'throwing my hands in the air and claiming "he did it"....' which is a very poor excuse.

I certainly took the money they were handing out over COVID, a reassurance in very uncertain times, and yet here I am trying to defraud that same government of legitimate taxes, and
certainly not onerous taxes at that. The technicalities of the law mean that my actions could be submitted for judgement in a court and cost $1000 fine, over and above the forfeiture of the spindle.
Talk about dumb!!!!

Craig

similar boat here in Canada when it comes to customs . I've had numerous sellers send products reduced as gifts . Under those circumstances customs always asked what I've purchased and they wanted proof of purchase along with price . Other times the purchases were legit super deals which the sellers declared properly but customs still wanted proof for the purchase . Usually the packages are held for a week or so , and I haven't lost anything because of it
They've been onto the whole send as a gift gig since the beginning of ebay if not before . They also try to be on top of undervalued goods even though that can be a bit tougher for them

I run a business so I can't deal with the risk of becoming red flagged , but , we are so over taxed that I have no issue with the little guy sticking it to the government .

Hi,
I am in effect now red flagged. Customs have warned me that repeat offenses will be severely dealt with, and that is of my own making.

Very few items attract duty when they come into NZ, and I think shoes are the worst at 10%. I exclude alcohol and tobacco of course. All items do attract GST
(Goods and Services Tax) of 15%. So it does add to the cost of parts and materials but not extremely so. In the vast majority of cases I pay the GST, sometimes at the point of sale,
but also when I use a shipping agent to NZ. I provide the proof of purchase, they calculate the GST, and I pay the GST and shipping. Works well, no fuss and bother, and Customs
scarcely glance at such items when all the paperwork is in order and the GST is prepaid.

This item was different in that I had to pay GST when the item got to NZ and that 'gift' declaration really screwed it up, for which I blame myself.

For example this spindle cost me $3330.00 NZD, and I will have to pay an additional $499.50NZD in GST, and maybe a little more for any extra paperwork....so yes it does cost
but I cannot or do not claim that its excessive.

Craig

PS: I cannot know, but I rather suspect that when Customs seized the goods I came clean and told them exactly what had happened and why, nor tried to hide my own culpability
in it. They have in effect let me off without penalty. Had I tried to hide or otherwise deflect the blame is suspect the result would have been much worse.

Curious , in NZ do you pay brokerage fee when shipping in through ups , fedex etc ? I've seen me pay $50 brokerage to bring in a $40 item plus the tax(gst) . Ups tend to charge the highest broker fee which is usually $35-50 . I ship a fair bit to NZ and Australia , I've always known they'd pay tax but was never certain about broker fees . I have never heard complaints so I figure they either don't get charged brokerage , or , they do and guys are just as used to the burn as we are

Hi,
for a long time NZ customs only ever collected GST or duty if the total was above $50NZD. Thus you could import and item up to the value of $333NZD (including shipping) and the GST
would be $49.95 and they would not bother. If it was over that then they collected it, but would charge an extra fee of $25.00, called Classification Fee. Always pissed me off, but $25.00 is
not too bad.

I have been told that recently they have changed that threshold and it is now higher.

If I buy of EBay then the 15% GST is charged at the time of sale. If however I buy off Ebay still but use my US shipping agent then I do not pay GST at the time of sale, but the shipping agent collects
it and I pay the shipping agent.

If you import a large item then you have to do a bit more paperwork. I bought a $3000NZD oscilloscope some years ago and I had to pay $70NZD to get the right paperwork with NZ Customs.

To be fair the GST (15%) and even duty, I think the max is 10% on certain clothes items, but most duty is 0% on the vast majority of stuff, it is not a huge imposition.

This spindle is the first large value item I've imported for a while, most of my parts and materials are under $600USD, so it will be interesting to see what creative way they can charge me this time.
I'm still grateful they did not confiscate it for good.

Craig

interesting . .
ups and all those carriers charge the broker fee here which is merely them filling out the customs declaration forms for the goods being imported so they can be taxed . Through the postal system we paid gst for goods over $100 and they pulled a blind eye to anything below that . Thats until our prime minister happened and sees the small items as a cash cow like everything else
I don't take issue paying tax for stuff coming cross boarder and taxes are tough to avoid here , but , the shipping fees are high and the broker fees the couriers charge on top is outright nasty .

Your certainly lucky they didn't confiscate that , it's a good chunk of change to lose . I doubt a lot of guys would be so lucky

Hi,
it all comes down to the numbers. Mostly it cost me 15% to import parts and materials, and I think that is pretty reasonable.

I imported a gear reducer from the US a while back. It cost $148USD which is $247NZD. It weighed about 10kg so cost $275NZD to fly it here. The GST for both
the item and the shipping was $78.30NZD. So really the tax is only the small part, and in this case the air-freight was the killer, but it is what it is.

The real point is I should not be trying to wriggle out of tax. You are right, I think I got lucky this time....and there will not be a next time!

Craig