Hey there, EU friends. What is the process for you all when you get something shipped to you from the USA?

Are you expected to pay a duty or VAT before the shipping service releases it to you? Are you ever able to, or do you expect having the shipper pay those duties up front?

I am going to start shipping stuff to the EU from the USA and I want to make sure it is smooth for you all, and not painful. My first package will go to Germany, in case that has its own rules. Thank you in advance!

Yes. I just had a trombone shipped from USA to the Netherlands. It gets processed by customs and then i received notification that i had to pay the import duty which is 21% of the valuation of the item plus 21% of the cost of shipping plus an administrative fee. Once that is paid it is released to the local post delivery service. and then duly delivered. In Germany I believe the process would be very similar but then it would be 19%

So, in Germany there are usually two options of how it goes:

1. You get the horn shipped to your door. In that case you have to pay the customs (19% + small transaction fee) to the postman. In cash. Yes, Germany apparently can't afford the post to have electronic payment methods and they have no change too, so you have to give them a tip if you don't have the exact amount at hand. That's usually the case with instruments or parts of lower value.

2. The trombone gets delivered to the local customs office and you have to pick it up from there. You have to fill out several documents to make a customs declaration and need to open the horn in front of the customs officer. If everything is alright, you can pay the same as mentioned above (they have electronic payment, yay!) and take the horn home. This is for more expensive horns. The tax declaration is a pain but that's the way it goes.

What Erikon and Schultz are describing is more or less what you have to expect when receiving a package from the US or from anywhere outside of the EU. The details vary from one country to another. But it's basically always the same: the importer gets contacted by customs and has to pay VAT etc before receiving the package.

If you want to make is as hassle free as possible to your customer you need to ship DDP. But that means you're paying for shipping and all fees.

I have started to go the DDP route. Yes, it's more expensive for me. But I can include that difference in my pricing and avoid a lot of administrative work for my customers.

Thank you so much. So this is something that you already expect and are prepared for when you buy from outside the EU online. This is not something that you feel cheated by the US seller about. Correct?

I feel bad as a US seller about this, especially adding the increased shipping charges on top of that. But now we are also dealing with this in the USA too.

[quote="harrisonreed"]Thank you so much. So this is something that you already expect and are prepared for when you buy from outside the EU online. This is not something that you feel cheated by the US seller about. Correct?

I feel bad as a US seller about this, especially adding the increased shipping charges on top of that. But now we are also dealing with this in the USA too.[/quote]

Yes, this is something that you expect when you buy from a country that's not part of the European Schengen deal.

[quote="harrisonreed"]Thank you so much. So this is something that you already expect and are prepared for when you buy from outside the EU online. This is not something that you feel cheated by the US seller about. Correct?[/quote]

Most - I'd say almost all - customers in the EU are acutely aware that both VAT and customs fees will be added when buying private goods from outside the union. It could always be nice to be reminded that indicated prices are not adjusted for taxes and fees, Reverb and E-bay do that, but if I were selling from the U.S. I would not worry too much about it, albeit nontheless remind people whom I am in contact with just to be courteous.

[quote="harrisonreed"]I feel bad as a US seller about this, especially adding the increased shipping charges on top of that. But now we are also dealing with this in the USA too.[/quote]

Please don't. All these tariffs, added fees and rising costs are due to us grunts being led by ignorant, self serving people holding office all over our poor planet. I'm not against taxes and fees per se, as long as they are just, serve a purpose and are directed to level out side effects from monopolies of transactions and amassing of excessive wealth, but the situation now is more of childish power display and bolstering those who already have wealth, than doing anything common a favour.