Shopping best done from US websites?

[mint]

I see the euro rate is 1.23 but US dollar rate is 1.60.  No contest then when it comes to shopping for Christmas?

Has anyone bought anything from the US, for example, Amazon.com and can you say whether and how much in the way of taxes you had to pay?  Can you give a percentage so that I can do a meaningful comparison?

I think I'd best save the euros which we have left in the bank to pay the mutuelle sub which will land on the doormat just before or just after 1 January[:(]

[Jazzer]

I regularly buy off ebay US, but nothing above £50. To date I have not paid any taxes.

[Russethouse]

The problems I have had with US shopping are more to do with the web sites accepting a foreign address and sometimesa cc number.

You should look carefully at delivery dates too.

On the plus side this is a big shopping weekend in the USA and there are lots of offers.......

[Théière]

[quote user="Jazzer"]I regularly buy off ebay US, but nothing above £50. To date I have not paid any taxes.[/quote]

Last US purchase £170 (equiv) and paid €40 oh and as RH said long delivery time.

Next purchase is going to a friends house in the US and then sent on as the postage from the shops site was $143 when friend can send on for $71

[ebaynut]

Next purchase is going to a friends house in the US and then sent on as the postage from the shops site was $143 when friend can send on for $71

---

And of course as your friend is not selling this item to you,  can quite legitimately mark the parcel as a $50 or below gift and then there is no duty to pay.

[mint]

Thanks, guys (as we're talking American)[:)]

So fifty is the magic figure but is it 50 pounds, euros or dollars?

Oh, for a friend in the US.....!

[ebaynut]

SW17,

There must be a government website in France where you can check the limits before duty is charged.

There is in the UK and I could give the figures for this, but as you are in France this wont help with the rules there.

The sender in the US would need to mark the value in $ and this would be converted by the customs in the receiving country using an up to the minute exchange rate.

And yes, a friend in the US is very good to have :-)

[Hereford]

I often buy fabric from the US (delivery to France) for more than $100, sometimes up to $200 but have never paid any duty.  On the site I use the additional overseas postage is only $15 regardless of quantity bought.

However a friend buying from the same site had her parcel held up in Paris and had to pay duty. We suspect that this may be because her son (at the same address) has a TVA registration.  The amount of duty was high (don't recall amount) but we are pretty sure that her French neighbour who translated the price into euros was arithmetically challenged on exchange rate.  Friend speaks little French and accepted what her neighbour wrote. 

It must be possible to find out the rate of duty if need be?

Mrs H

[Russethouse]

[quote user="Théière"]

[quote user="Jazzer"]I regularly buy off ebay US, but nothing above £50. To date I have not paid any taxes.[/quote]

Last US purchase £170 (equiv) and paid €40 oh and as RH said long delivery time.

Next purchase is going to a friends house in the US and then sent on as the postage from the shops site was $143 when friend can send on for $71

[/quote]

Frankly unless I was ordering for a gift to stay in The US I'd be a little nervous about time at this stage......a parcel I sent to Boston took 2 weeks and that was at the beginning of November. If you really want it for Christmas I think this weekend is key.....