Purchases made through E-Commerce to resell to others or for your own consumption, in countries outside the European Union, such as United Kingdom (Great Britain), United States, Australia or China, being the shipment in most of the situations made by air and/or mail, given its small volume. These operations are considered imports and imply the payment of import customs duties, in addition to VAT.
So it is necessary to pay attention to your customs duties and VAT payment, so we advise a previous consultation with the Customs Broker Roma Andrade in order to not be surprised with the payment of customs duties plus VAT.
Import duties are not applied to goods of European Union origin, but those arriving from a third country (non-EU, now including Great Britain) that have to go through customs and, in general, must be accompanied by the following documents:
– Purchase invoice (ebay, Amazon, Alibaba, etc.)
– Purchase contract (optional)
– Proof of payment (Paypal, Visa, Master Card, etc.), may not be sufficient to clear the order
– CE certificate of conformity, in the case of electrical appliances or machines.
Taxes are paid to customs through a Customs Broker or its representative by means of a document called SINGLE CUSTOMS DOCUMENT (SCD)
The invoice from the Customs Broker or its representative should include, besides its fees and corresponding VAT, other items to be paid, such as import VAT (documented in the DUA) and customs duties that will depend on the nature of the goods.
Import duties generally range from 0% (books) to 17% (clothing and footwear). Some products are duty free but others may be subject to additional taxes, depending on the country of origin they may be taxed with an additional tax, also referred to as ‘anti-dumping’.