Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

Just to be clear - if I order $5 of LED's from China, I now have to pay at minimum $37.71 instead of $5?


Ordering from Denmark, a medium or larger retailer in China would collect the Danish VAT (25%) and send that to the Danish tax authority. They'd mark the package with a transaction id for this, and it would go through EU customs without any further charges. (Presumably they still scan it for guns etc, and make random checks that these packages are labelled correctly.)

Goods ordered without using this system would be charged the 25% plus a handling fee, which is about $20 here.

However, the EU gave the logistics companies and retailers over a year to get these systems in place. The USA is taking a different approach.


Yes




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: