GeniB

My long awaited parcel from the USA has landed in Customs.. I received a two page letter and form yesterday, all in formal jargon Portuguese .Anyone had one of these before ? How did you tackle it.? get it translated ,or just fill in the bits you could recognise.?
It's a gift from the ED( ok ,won't be doing that again )
I know you can go online to fill it in, but is it in English ?\\

BillBullock

I translated the form and sent it off without any problem. You then receive a form to take to your post office I seem to remember. The only bit I didn't understand was how they worked out the IVA at 23%; I made it about 24.5% but couldn't be bothered to argue with the authorities.

Naaling

They charge a flat 12 euro service fee as well as the 23%

BillBullock

That's right but they still got the IVA wrong.

mfesharne

At the risk of being the bearer of bad tidings, the last thing I bought from the USA was a $14 car spare for a 36 year old car & customs held it for more than 4 months despite my sending them the required screen shot & proof of payment on 7 separate occasions.................. And then had the brass neck to charge me over 300% duty.

liveaboard

Be happy; I sent the info 5 times and they never sent me my item; a free T-shirt I won in a contest.
They kept insisting I send the invoice.
I asked what if it's a free gift? There was something to fill in for that, I forget what exactly, but I did.
They sent me another demand for the invoice.
And another.
To be fair, when I bought an item and did send an invoice, the tax was pretty much as expected; came to around 50% altogether.

My US uncle sent me a gift; even though he's American, he's clever. Bought from Amazon UK and had it sent to me here.
I only had to change the plug.

GeniB

Oh guys This is looking pretty bleak isn't it. There is no invoice, as ED sent for the items from an online company in the USA. Any 'invoice' would be inside the package I am not particularly keen for them to open it up to find it.( altho ,heh they probable already have)
Will try ED and see if she can send me something .I guess the Brits can now see what will happen once we are out of the EU. Will get this every time they try and purchase anything outside the UK

Shanorme

Ask for the invoice to be emailed to you. Should be simple enough.

RichardHenshall

... and for those in Portugal, possibly every time they try to buy from UK-based online suppliers, such as amazon.co.uk, for delivery to Portugal?

liveaboard

Shift to amazon spain, france, germany.

Ebay too. I buy so many little hard to find things, or things [parts, supplies] that are overpriced here.
But a large proportion of France and German sellers don't send outside their countries.

Good luck, Geni.

Shanorme

Fortunately, those in Portugal can patronise quite a considerable amount of EU countries without worrying about customs.

GeniB

In principle yes If my ED still has it .This was a gift

Shanorme

I see.

stephan71

I had this issue with a gift from Australia... after sending the original form completed back nothing happened, they just asked more and more info (weight of the item???). Eventually, I just filed an official complaint ... and boom the item appeared without any payment.

GeniB

Thats interesting stephan71 where did you get the form for that from ? I may just have to do the same. YD spent a couple of hours translating and filling in the online form for me the other night. She didn't trust the online English version to be correct . Twice the CTT connection failed on her . It involved many repeat questions. A couple of unanswerable ones. A couple of texts to ED in the USA ( the sender ) to supply everything connected plus blood ( a joke ) but she prevailed and got a 'being processed ' reply... Now what ?that was two days ago. How long did you wait before complaining ?