Commerical invoice for international shipping
Hi Telltale-Team!
I would appreciate if you could be very careful with the commercial invoice you enclose for international orders.
In Germany, for example, the recipient needs to pay 19% import taxes if the declared value including shipping costs exceeds $30. - Especially during the "50% off" and "free shipping for orders of $50 and more" sale, it can make a huge difference how you declare the goods that get physically shipped abroad.
Example: Somebody orders "Tales of Monkey Island" (including the free DVD), a "Sam & Max" T-Shirt, and the new "Back to the Future" game. - Including the 50% discount on the first two items, that would result in $51.90 and thereby qualify the order for free shipping. (*hooray*)
If you declare $17.48 (50% to "ToMI"), $9.48 (50% of the T-Shirt) and no shipping costs on the commercial invoice for the goods physically shipped, which is actually what the customer has paid for the content of the box, that would be $26.96 overall, so a customer in Germany would not have to pay any taxes at all! - However, if on the commercial invoice...
Therefore please, please, please think twice about what you declare in the commercial invoice.
On the other hand, when I ordered my "free" DVDs for some older games last year, I also had to drive to the customs office, as you declared their value as $1 each, and the customs officer considered such a low value to be implausible for a computer game...
I would appreciate if you could be very careful with the commercial invoice you enclose for international orders.
In Germany, for example, the recipient needs to pay 19% import taxes if the declared value including shipping costs exceeds $30. - Especially during the "50% off" and "free shipping for orders of $50 and more" sale, it can make a huge difference how you declare the goods that get physically shipped abroad.
Example: Somebody orders "Tales of Monkey Island" (including the free DVD), a "Sam & Max" T-Shirt, and the new "Back to the Future" game. - Including the 50% discount on the first two items, that would result in $51.90 and thereby qualify the order for free shipping. (*hooray*)
If you declare $17.48 (50% to "ToMI"), $9.48 (50% of the T-Shirt) and no shipping costs on the commercial invoice for the goods physically shipped, which is actually what the customer has paid for the content of the box, that would be $26.96 overall, so a customer in Germany would not have to pay any taxes at all! - However, if on the commercial invoice...
- the 50% discount is not subtracted from the price of the items, or
- there are shipping costs mentioned somewhere, or
- the costs for "Back to the Future" are also given in the document, or
- the free "Puzzle Agent" game is mentioned with a $9.95 value,
Therefore please, please, please think twice about what you declare in the commercial invoice.
On the other hand, when I ordered my "free" DVDs for some older games last year, I also had to drive to the customs office, as you declared their value as $1 each, and the customs officer considered such a low value to be implausible for a computer game...
This discussion has been closed.
Comments
just ordered a few games (including back to the future) with a total cost of 65$
including the 50% off.
There's another thread about this here too: http://www.telltalegames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20695
I'm going to be posting some actual customs declarations there in about an hours.