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Trouble with the Customs


Nex_necO

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I'm awaiting two watches from the UK, and today I received a letter from the post office telling me

to send in my social securitynr. and a receipt for the goods in the package.

What to do... what to do...

I live in Norway. Any fellow collectors from Norway that has any experience with this?

Damn :(

Nex

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Nex

If this is the first time they have stopped something, this is common practice. They use your social security number to register your details, so that the next time something needs to go through customs, they will find your account and then send you and invoice for any taxes. Usually the dealers send these watches marked as a gift (might be a good idea to verify this though, before you follow my next suggestion), so I suggest you give them a call and just tell them that you were expecting a gift from a friend in china/HK/etc.

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I'm awaiting two watches from the UK, and today I received a letter from the post office telling me

to send in my social securitynr. and a receipt for the goods in the package.

What to do... what to do...

I live in Norway. Any fellow collectors from Norway that has any experience with this?

Damn :(

Nex

Hi,

Posten is doing the customs declaration on behalf of Norwegian Customs. They need your number to identify you and invoice value to charge you for VAT (and a fixed fee of appr NOK 200 for the job).

I have had a couple of cases similar to your situation. My strong advice is to get an invoice at a low amount from your provider, give a copy to Posten and pay your taxes - if you want the watches this side of Christmas. My experience is that it is near impossible to argue anything with Postens Declaration Office, the option they will give you is to file a written complaint (in three ex !!!) to Toll- og avgiftsdirektoratet. They will most likely turn your complaint down. And it is a lot of work for you.

One of the cases I had was a parcel form California, declared as "Personal Gift, value 100$". The parcel was shipped from a business account at USPS. Was charged VAT etc based on Customs assessment that a personal gift is not shipped from a business, such cases considered to be a business gift.

One other case Posten ignored that the goods was actually declared correctly as personal gift. Posten informed me that I had to file a complaint to Toll- og avgifts..... due to "done is done", and Posten only acts on behalf of Customs. And can not override Customs decisions!! God, give us grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed, courage to change the things that should be changed, and the wisdom to distinguish the one from the other.

To be sure of having your stuff through customs without VAT etc, it must be Customs declared by shipper as "Personal Gift" (that is from person to person, no business). A declaration of "Gift" without the personal will probably cost you VAT and Fees

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