Freight costs.

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mechanical horse
Posts: 106
Joined: Mon Jan 11, 2016 9:51 am
Location: Mt Mellum.Sunshine Coast QLD

Freight costs.

Post by mechanical horse »

Hey All,
I am in the process of bringing in from Scotland a heap of body panels for my Haflinger, to start heading towards finishing off this rather long restoration of mine. Have just received a phone call stating that I owe TNT Customs in Sydney around $600 to get these bits into the country. Has anyone in Australia who has imported items from Haflinger Technik in Scotland, to Australia, been subjected to these costs. I have previously got bits from this company which I never had to pay anything on to get them in.
Regards Rick.
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AustHaflinger
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Joined: Sun Jan 06, 2013 1:27 am
Location: Canberra Australia

Re: Freight costs.

Post by AustHaflinger »

All shipping costs are high from the Europe and the US - my experience with Haflinger Technik have been good and their costs reasonable - normally you pay the supplier the costs of shipping before they ship - did you get a quote.

I suspect the items you purchased cost more than $1000AUD so you will then have to pay GST and import duties and admin fees on the goods and shipping.

As I said you normally pay for shipping when you pay for the goods so I suspect you have been hit by our own taxes and import charges and not shipping. When you import from overseas always try to get purchase price for one shipment under $1000AUD and then you pay nothing on import duties - if necessary break the goods up to two separate shipments under $1000AUD with separate invoices.

Garry
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mechanical horse
Posts: 106
Joined: Mon Jan 11, 2016 9:51 am
Location: Mt Mellum.Sunshine Coast QLD

Re: Freight costs.

Post by mechanical horse »

Hey Gary,
Thanks for the reply which explains it all. I have got other items from Dale on a number of occasions, plus lots of motor cycle bits from all over the world and have never paid either customs duties or GST,,,, because they have never been purchases over $1000. This purchase I am asking about is for the front foot well plus nearly all of the panels for the top of the platform, which for the parts was roughly $3700 and the freight roughly $1230. I don't have a problem with the cost of the parts or the freight, in fact I thought they were moderately priced, but my querry was the cost of customs duty and the GST component.
Your suggestion about keeping an order under $1000 is interesting, but in this case it would have been 4 separate orders and then I suppose 4 separate freight cost and I wonder if the total freight cost would have been higher than what I paid.
As usual Haflinger Technik and the staff there did a great job supplying the bits in the first place and then getting them organized to be freighted here. I haven't actually got the bits yet as they are in the system somewhere in Sydney, but I will pay what is necessary tomorrow and then wait for my late Xmas present.
Thanks again,
Regards Rick.
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AustHaflinger
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Location: Canberra Australia

Re: Freight costs.

Post by AustHaflinger »

Hi Rick - for some reason I missed your post.

So with the cost of goods and shipping being about $5000 you will have a GST bill of $500 (noting you should have paid UK VAT so there is actually a bit of a saving there).

Then there is import duties on the total cost including GST (yes a tax on a tax) - import duties vary but lets say 4% = $220

Then there is normally an admin fee of around $200.

So by my calculations your total bill should be around $920, so if you were only charged $600 that is good.

Try an get each shipment below $1000 goods only - yes shipping might go up but will normally be less than our duties.

Remember if the goods are under $1000 (excluding shipping) there are no duties but if over $1000 (excluding shipping) then duties apply to the cost of goods, shipping and anything they can get you for.

How do I know - bought some wheels from the UK - at the time of purchase came to $950 plus $400 shipping so under the $1000 limit. However when the wheels arrived in Aust 5 weeks later the exchange rate had changed and the wheels were now worth $1050 - as the tax is based on landed price I had to pay taxes on the new price, the new price of shipping and the admin fees. Later when I bought a disk brake kit for my Landrover 101 - I did two shipments - the first being the disks by themselves and the second was the calipers etc = all good so taxes and delivered direct to my door.

Cheers

garry
Haflinger 700AP (73)
Range Rover Sport TDV6 (07)
Landrover FC 101 (77)
Landrover Series 1 SWB Station Wagon (57)
Landrover Series 1 SWB (57)
Jaguar E-type Roadster V12 (71)
Jaguar XJ12C (76)
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