Jazz Is All
Well-Known Member
- Messages
- 853
- Locality
- Barcelona, Spain
Back in the 90s and up until Spain was fully entrenched in the EU I could buy mouthpieces and saxes from the US with little concern for extra costs. If the package did get stopped at customs here in Barcelona, the duties and VAT was fairly low. On top of that they didn't inspect all packages because they were understaffed and totally inefficient because they weren't digitalized yet. I went there once to get my palette of household belongings shipped from the Port of Houston and saw how they used paper forms and stamped them by hand while chatting with each other and the customs brokers who came in. It was like the neighborhood deli and between trips to get coffee, go to the loo, talk to someone on the phone their workload output was at a pace of one importation every 25 minutes. That was good for me because it meant that all mouthpieces regardless of value got through and even saxes did too, especially if the seller wrote it was damaged and simply parts or some such thing.
Well jump forward to Internet World with everything in the buearocracy computerized and done online, the EU's rules governing how certain aspects of the economic life of the country are run and the rules governing them, and the desire of the Government to get as much cash as they can out of the enormous amount of importation due to online sales, and you can understand why bringing a sax in for your own personal use is now treated no differently than doing it for resale. The way they cracked down on the enormously gaping hole in the importation of products of this type was by first localizing all the Customs arrivals to a giant center in Madrid and closing all the old-fashioned offices in cities like Barcelona. Even if someone outside the EU sends a package to me in Barcelona, it has to first go to and through Customs in Madrid before being sent on to me here. So right away if it is dutiable it takes longer to get to me.
On top of all this the fees and taxes are what I consider exorbitant given that I am not a business selling the things I buy from the US in order to make a profit. Maybe that is their reasoning because if I were, at least I would be paying sales tax and income tax and as a private user of the product I am not. Basically they consider that they are protecting their market for those things (whether they exist here or not) by making you pay the same taxes and fees to at least acquire them that a business here would. On top of that they charge you VAT on the cost of the shipping from that non-EU country to here!!! Think about that a moment. There is no way I can have anyother shipper than USPS or UPS send a sax to me but never mind that, Spain considers that since it wasn't a Spanish shipper to whom I would have paid tax they'll charge me anyway. I guess the illogical logic is that a Spanish Company should have been used to bring it to Spain.
So when the package gets to customs they send me a bunch of papers in the snail mail with the amount I have to pay at any bank into their account. Once that is done the package is free to be removed from customs and here is where they figured out a way to screw us some more. See, back in the old days when I had paid the duty and taxes to the bank, the package would be given back to the Postal Service -- Correos de España -- who would deliver it to my door as the continuation of the shipping I had paid USPS for. It was just the same as someone sending me a letter that USPS would deliver to Barcelona and Correos would then deliver to my mailbox. No more. Now, in order to get your package out of Customs you need to have a Customs Broker to remove it physically and send it on to you. That can either be you yourself.....if you live near Barajas Airport in Madrid and can get there without hassle.....or a commercial broker or for ordinary people Correos. For this service the tack on two other fees, one for the expenses of Correos doing this for you and the other, much larger amount, for some kind of fee for the Administrative document itself. At any rate that is what its name implies although to me, it just means screw 'Em For All We Can.
Here I have pasted the online explanation of what is involved in buying something from outside of the EU for a citizen or resident in Spain. For those not literate in Spanish I've posted the translation too. Read it and pity me and all of us here in Spain, including many British, Irish and Aussie expatricks too.
Nuestro producto se ha encarecido aproximadamente unos 148.5 euros que supone aproximadamente el 30% de su precio.
How much above its price can a purchase (from outside Spain) cost?
Here is an example calculation for a product purchased in the United States at a cost, including shipping, of €500. With Duty of 2.5% you'll pay 12.5 euros + VAT of 21% bringing the total to €105. Your cost for the product to get into Spain has now increased to €617.50. To this, add the 6 euros of Spanish postage costs plus another 25 euros for the Administrative Documentation Fee. Now your expenditure has risen to €648.50. That purchase of yours has increased by €148.50 or approximately 30% over what it cost you to buy and ship.
Now you know why we in Spain aren't buy sax stuff in the USA anymore.
Well jump forward to Internet World with everything in the buearocracy computerized and done online, the EU's rules governing how certain aspects of the economic life of the country are run and the rules governing them, and the desire of the Government to get as much cash as they can out of the enormous amount of importation due to online sales, and you can understand why bringing a sax in for your own personal use is now treated no differently than doing it for resale. The way they cracked down on the enormously gaping hole in the importation of products of this type was by first localizing all the Customs arrivals to a giant center in Madrid and closing all the old-fashioned offices in cities like Barcelona. Even if someone outside the EU sends a package to me in Barcelona, it has to first go to and through Customs in Madrid before being sent on to me here. So right away if it is dutiable it takes longer to get to me.
On top of all this the fees and taxes are what I consider exorbitant given that I am not a business selling the things I buy from the US in order to make a profit. Maybe that is their reasoning because if I were, at least I would be paying sales tax and income tax and as a private user of the product I am not. Basically they consider that they are protecting their market for those things (whether they exist here or not) by making you pay the same taxes and fees to at least acquire them that a business here would. On top of that they charge you VAT on the cost of the shipping from that non-EU country to here!!! Think about that a moment. There is no way I can have anyother shipper than USPS or UPS send a sax to me but never mind that, Spain considers that since it wasn't a Spanish shipper to whom I would have paid tax they'll charge me anyway. I guess the illogical logic is that a Spanish Company should have been used to bring it to Spain.
So when the package gets to customs they send me a bunch of papers in the snail mail with the amount I have to pay at any bank into their account. Once that is done the package is free to be removed from customs and here is where they figured out a way to screw us some more. See, back in the old days when I had paid the duty and taxes to the bank, the package would be given back to the Postal Service -- Correos de España -- who would deliver it to my door as the continuation of the shipping I had paid USPS for. It was just the same as someone sending me a letter that USPS would deliver to Barcelona and Correos would then deliver to my mailbox. No more. Now, in order to get your package out of Customs you need to have a Customs Broker to remove it physically and send it on to you. That can either be you yourself.....if you live near Barajas Airport in Madrid and can get there without hassle.....or a commercial broker or for ordinary people Correos. For this service the tack on two other fees, one for the expenses of Correos doing this for you and the other, much larger amount, for some kind of fee for the Administrative document itself. At any rate that is what its name implies although to me, it just means screw 'Em For All We Can.
Here I have pasted the online explanation of what is involved in buying something from outside of the EU for a citizen or resident in Spain. For those not literate in Spanish I've posted the translation too. Read it and pity me and all of us here in Spain, including many British, Irish and Aussie expatricks too.
¿Cuánto se puede llegar a encarecer una compra?
Hagamos un pequeño cálculo. Si compramos en Estados Unidos un producto de 500 euros que nos envían a casa. Con unos aranceles al 2.5% deberíamos pagar 12.5 euros y debemos añadir un IVA del 21% que asciende a 105 euros. Nuestro gasto ya ha alcanzado los 617.5 euros. A esto sumamos los 6 euros de gastos de correos más unos 25 de DUA (31 euros) por lo que nuestro gasto alcanza los 648.5 euros.Nuestro producto se ha encarecido aproximadamente unos 148.5 euros que supone aproximadamente el 30% de su precio.
How much above its price can a purchase (from outside Spain) cost?
Here is an example calculation for a product purchased in the United States at a cost, including shipping, of €500. With Duty of 2.5% you'll pay 12.5 euros + VAT of 21% bringing the total to €105. Your cost for the product to get into Spain has now increased to €617.50. To this, add the 6 euros of Spanish postage costs plus another 25 euros for the Administrative Documentation Fee. Now your expenditure has risen to €648.50. That purchase of yours has increased by €148.50 or approximately 30% over what it cost you to buy and ship.
Now you know why we in Spain aren't buy sax stuff in the USA anymore.