This is mostly a factual question, but I’m posting it here instead of in GQ because I’m asking for advice.
I recently sent a gift from the U.S. (where I live) to a friend in the Republic of Ireland. I did all the required declarations, and when it got to Ireland it was held by customs there for a rather substantial fee. Most of it was VAT, which was based on a value higher than what I had declared for the goods I had shipped. It’s possible that Irish customs included the cost of postage as well as goods, although I don’t know why they’d do that.
Normally the recipient of an international parcel pays any customs fees. I understand why it has to be that way (the fees are based on the laws and regulations of the receiving country), but it creates a sort of embarrassing situation in a case like mine. I don’t want a gift that I send to cost the recipient anything, and I don’t want it to create an inconvenience, either. I’d prefer to pay any fees myself so that the recipient gets the gift without having to pay or do anything.
I supposed I could offer to reimburse the recipient for customs fees, but even this seems a little awkward.
In my experience living in the Caribbean the customs duties were based upon the value of the item plus shipping and insurance. If the package was sent without insurance the customs office would add 1% to the items value plus shipping and then calculate the duty based upon that total.
IIRC DHL, FedEx, and UPS had an option (might be required, not optional?) for the sender to prepay the duty. But that usually meant paying their MUCH higher shipping fees plus a service fee for clearing the package through customs.
Better option, if at all possible, is to buy the gift via the internet from a business in the recipient’s home country.
When calculating VAT (and customs duties) they base it on the value of the goods plus cost of postage, because the tax base is what it would cost a resident to import the goods, and the cost of shipping the goods is part of the cost of importing.
I note that the goods in this case were items of Americana. But in general you can avoid this problem not only by ordering from a supplier in the destination country but, in the case of Ireland and other EU countries, by ordering from a supplier in any of the 27 EU countries.
In Switzerland the recipient not only pays the VAT, but they also pays for the assessment. So the base fee is 16 CHF. And then the VAT charges are on top of that.
Can this be made easier by purchasing from Amazon in the destination country and having them deliver it directly to the recipient? (or any other retailer in the destination country).