Customs NZ tried to seize our xmas presents :-(

[TimAck]

Does anyone understand Customs NZ rules for receiving gifts from overseas? I've been reading their website and can't make head nor tail of it.

I got a letter over the weekend saying that our xmas presents from UK relatives had been seized and I was sent the bill for GST and duty, which came to $144 on a $400 worth of gifts ($66 of GST and a long list of xtra charges). I rang up to dispute this, the first lady I spoke to was rather obnoxious insisted I had to pay it and then accused of of being a tax evader. I got enraged I hung up on her. However when I cooled down I rang up again and spoke to someone different who wrote the whole bill off and now I don't have to pay anything but they wouldn't explain why the bill was written off.

On their website it says that imported goods that incur GST of more the $60 will be charged to the recipient. So 15% of $400 is $66...fine, fair enough... but it also says elsewhere there is a 'gift concession' for presents from overseas of $110, so $400 - $110 = $290, $290 * 15% = $43.50 (so 43.50 < 60 so charges applicable, is this how it works??)

Has anyone else had a similar experience?

[ralf-nz]

On their website it says that imported goods that incur GST of more the $60 will be charged to the recipient. So 15% of $400 is $66...fine, fair enough... but it also says elsewhere there is a 'gift concession' for presents from overseas of $110, so $400 - $110 = $290, $290 * 15% = $43.50 (so 43.50 < 60 so charges applicable, is this how it works??)

My understanding of the gift concession is that this is not relevant to GST but only for - the separate - Custom Duty.

[TimAck]

This is where I start to get confused. According to their website the gift concession applies to 'customs charges' (ref: http://www.customs.govt.nz/features/...ault.aspx?s=13)

On their calculations pages the 'customs charges' have a duty and gst component:
http://www.customs.govt.nz/features/...s/default.aspx

[Kanga]

Blimey, I've never been stung for that. I think that's very mean spirited of them, hope you get it clarified and sorted with minimal stress.

[Sun777]

Customs tried to charge us when I declared value of $400 (it was passport inside the envelope by the way!), later I spoke to them and was asked to send another declaration form with value under $350 and they didn't have any problem with it

[Familyofmonkeys]

There is a gift allowance (per person) that is applied, before customs duty is applied. However, GST can be charged, but the don't usually collect it when the amount owing is for under $50, or at least that was the case last time I looked. We've been stung twice. The first time my BIL sent the kids a wii plus some games from the UK as a present, but as he made the mistake of only addressing it to one person, we could only get one gift allowance applied and paid about $30ish on the remainder, which isn't too bad...still way cheaper than we could have bought ourselves a wii in NZ. The second time my MIL sent a parcel with multiple items inside and an incomplete customs declaration. We got charged a fee because they have to make some entry or other in a register when they physically open and go through parcels. They initially tried to incorrectly charge us a rather large sum, but once the multiple gift allowance was applied along with values for each and every item (including things like colouring books *sigh*) we ended up paying about $15.

[newarrival]

I know it doesn't make it any better, but a story from 'the other side': I made a quilt for my auntie's 75th birthday and sent it to Germany. Because I just wanted to make sure to get a decent amount back in case it got lost I declared it with $ 300. She got a letter saying that she needed to pay customs duty on it because the gift allowance in Germany is -unbelievable- Euro 45!!!!!!!

She was asked to bring an order/receipt, which of course she couldn't since she didn't even know the quilt was coming, but they did not except any explanation and charged her. It was not that much, fortunately, but I felt extremely embarassed!

[Duncan74]

Customs NZ didn't try to seize you xmas presents. They followed the correct process to request payment of duties before releasing them (all goods are technically received and then released, even if they don't actually stop it for payment).
There is an exemption for when the duty would be trivial (which is where you work back to get the $400 value), but dispite your rudeness in hangining up on someone then the second person decided to break the rules and turn a blind eye to that extra $6. Note that if they charge that then you also get an additional inspection fee, so it works out as being a fair step between personal goods imported with a value just under the threshold and just over.

I fell foul recently of a technicality where the goods I bought were over the limit (fine, happy to pay the GST) but although the retailer didn't add postage charges then customs add a standard value for postage when not declared. So I paid GST on $140 carriage when in was free / actual cost $60. So always get people to declare the 'actual' postage cost even when you're not paying that.

[TimAck]

If it makes me rude to hang up on a public official threatening to have me inspected for tax evasion when all I have done is ring up asking for clarification about a bill, I'm prepared to live with that.

They've since replied to an email I sent them yesterday, it turns out they had neglected to notice that 'Gift' was ticked in the customs declaration which meant there were no charges liable. Does make me wonder if they make that mistake a lot and people just pay the bill without checking first.

[Duncan74]

For reference.

http://www.customs.govt.nz/news/reso...Sheet%2028.pdf


The $110 is normally irrelevant as you'd be OK up to about $400 for items that don't attract duty, and $200 for items like shoes that do. However if there are a group of items in the one parcel (and there are ecveral people in the family) then you may need that process to 'split' the value. In this case then I assume that the application of the X people x $110 off the total value of goods then resulted in the duty dropping below the $60.