supplements, pay to buy pay to recieve?

[tonganstallion]

brought supplements off bodybuilding.com on tuesday and came to a grand total of $312 nz currency got a phone call today from ups or usp or something like that talking about GST so asked my mum what they could have been on about and she said i might have to pay GST to recieve my goods, how much would i be looking at?

[trainlikeafreak]

i've had this problem from the same crowd when importing world cup jerseys in 2010. got pinged $120 i think or something like that. i think my order was a similar price to yours maybe a bit more but not much more

[FellowshipOfTheRon]

yeah it depends on how much you spend

i thought the limit was at around $400 but i guess its been lowered now to $300 or so.....

in any case, when you import something, if it is below a certain $ limit then you don't have to pay extra but if it's above that limit then you'll have to pay up extra 15% GST and I think there's an extra 5% for something + ~$20 as well. sometimes cheaper to just split a big order up into 2.

when they call you, they should be able to tell you/email the exact amount owing

[Ninja]

You need to pay GST of 15% plus import dutys on all imported goods, except where the total of the GST and import dutys comes to less than $60 they waive it.

On your $312 order the GST payable would be $46.80, plus an import duty of 20 or 30 dollars easily goes over $60, so that is why you gave been asked to pay it.

The law is there to protect new zealand businesses from getting undercut too much by overseas online shopping.

Sucks i know but next time what you can do is split your order into 2 orders and send them 1 week apart

Hope this helps

[hhhh1]

looks like youre going to have to pay it if you want your stuff...i thought the cutoff was more like $400 but think in another thread someone said otherwise, that it was lower.

what stuff did you buy?

[Gasp]

There is not specific cut-off as such because some products only have gst and others have duty plus gst.

Heres the good and bad bit. If you keep your charges to below $60 there is a legal regulation that means its not collected.

If it goes over $60 then you pay whats applicable plus a $38:07 electronic clearance fee plus anything that UPS and Fedex etc put on top for their facilitation.

In short;

if it comes to $59 then you pay nothing.

If it comes to $60 or more then you pay at least $98:07

Do you sums lads and watch that exchange rate!!

[karm015]

emailed customs last year. this is their reply:

Thank you for your enquiry.

Whether supplements and the like are permitted into NZ is a matter for the Ministry Of Health.

I have forwarded your email to them for their reply.

In general terms supplements attract a rate of duty of 5% which is applied to the cost of the goods.

Plus GST of 15% which is applied to the cost of the goods and to the cost of the insurance and freight and on any duty that is payable.

All figures converted into NZ$.

If the total duty and GST payable per shipment is less than $60 then no customs charges wil be payable.

If the total duty and GST payable per shipment is $60 or more then we will collect those charges and you will also incur a Import Entry Transaction and Bio-security fee totalling $38.07.

[name removed]

for Manager Client Services

Auckland City Trade & Marine

10 Nov 2011 USD 419.24

BODYBUILDING.COMat 0.7819* $536.15

the quoted transaction incurred duty/tax/etc cost of $157.29, you can do the math from there

[tonganstallion]

aw man shit as, the thought of GST wasnt even in my head when i ordered the stuff, i brought CON-CRET creatine, optimum gold standard 100% whey 10lbs, MP COMBAT POWDER, Scivation Xtend, Scivation novem but with this being said i was actually buying jack3d untill i was in my final steps of buying these products and a sign had come up telling me they could not ship jack3d into new zealand which puzzled me abit becuase one of my mates has this product..was abit dissapointed in that too, but if i have to pay i have to pay.