Is it legal for an American to mail a new computer to Norway or Sweden?

[ChaosLord]

I need to know:

1) Is it legal?

2) If it is legal is there a horrible tax/bribe that must be paid to customs?

Apparently new computers in the USA cost 1/4 what they cost in Scandinavia.  So I bought a puter for my friend but I dunno if it is safe to mail it to him. :-?

[Elektro]

Why wouldnt it be legal?

Your friend will have to pay import taxes plus VAT though.

[DaBest]

I don't know of any reason WHY NOT...... I am sure that EBay people are doing it. Just check with the post office or the courier you are gonna be using. I remember sending a CDRom from Canada to the States and I had to do a declaration about some king of material in the CDRom. That was it. Also , it was declared as a GIFT.

[ChaosLord]

Elektro wrote:
Why wouldnt it be legal?

Because loads of stuff is illegal in the tyrannical European Empire.

Anyway, if it was legal to go around shipping products to Europe then everything in Europe would be the same price as in USA.  But in fact everything costs LOTS more in Europe.

Your friend will have to pay import taxes plus VAT though.

AHA!!!  And how much is this "import tax"?

How much is the VAT on a new computer?

[amigakit]

It is not illegal at all.

However, Norwegian customs are very meticulous and take a while to process parcels.  Being a parcel from the USA, there will be a customs charged levied.

[Piru]

@ChaosLord

Apparently new computers in the USA cost 1/4 what they cost in Scandinavia

I don't know where you're getting these prices from, but I can't agree. At least I find the prices to be pretty much equal.

In fact I recently bought two 400GB Seagate HDDs from Denmark, 174,36 eur per drive.

[ChaosLord]

amigakit wrote:
It is not illegal at all.

It is illegal until someone pays the tax/bribe/offering/levy/charge/sacrifice to the king.

If it was not illegal at all then it would be like the USA and there would be 0 tax on the computer.

However, Norwegian customs are very meticulous and take a while to process parcels.  Being a parcel from the USA, there will be a customs charged levied.

How much is the "customs charged levy"?

I mean are we talking $5.00 or $100.00 or $200.00 or

[itix]

Sometimes you have to pay customs, sometimes not. When Peg1
mobo arrived from Norway to here Finland they asked couple of
questions about it in custom. I said it was a gift and I had to pay
nothing. They examined the board a little but let it go.

When importing obviously expensive stuff you have to pay customs.

[amigakit]

The customs charge is usually the VAT on the item + an administration charge.

In the UK, couriers charge this admin charge to collect the VAT and it varies widely.

[doctorq]

@ChaosLord

I take it you have never bought anything from elsewhere than the US? If you buy items from a company in Europe, you will have to pay customs as well.

[Framiga]

or send it as "used items" between private.

i.e from here (Italy) to Switzerland, i've payed a lot. (through the Commercial custom)

I'll NEVER do again.

[Piru]

@doctorq

If you buy items from a company in Europe, you will have to pay customs as well.

Not inside EU though. Inside EU you only pay the tax of the country you buy from (included in the price of the product).

Other cases include the normal import tax/customs mess.

In USA you can "cheat" by buying from another state (tax free) and end up paying no tax at all. There are some plans to fix this loophole though.

[ChaosLord]

Piru wrote:

In USA you can "cheat" by buying from another state (tax free) and end up paying no tax at all. There are some plans to.

That isn't cheating and it isn't a loophole.  The constitution was written that way on purpose.  And it has been upheld by the courts in every case for over 200 years.  And we all pay 0% tax.  For example I bought around $50,000 worth of brand new Amiga computers in my lifetime and paid 0% tax on it.  Why did I pay 0% tax?  Because it's the law.

[doctorq]

@Piru

Not inside EU though.

I know; in my opinion the only good thing about being a member of the European Union :-D

@ChaosLord

VAT and customs aren't the same thing. Your friend in Sweden or whereever he was could just as well buy the computer online, instead of you doing it. Your friend will pay the exact same amount of VAT as you will end up paying.

The only thing he has to convince the online shop about is to send the computer as a gift, but I'm guessing none will accept to send the items as a gift. If they do, your friend will end up paying the same amount as if he had you to send it over to you.

[ChaosLord]

Piru wrote:

In fact I recently bought two 400GB Seagate HDDs from Denmark, 174,36 eur per drive.

I haven't priced 400GB drives.

All I know is I bought a new 80GB drive a couple of days ago for $5.00 at the local store.  My brother got one also.

2 weeks ago they had a 300GB Seagate drive for $90.00 at the same store.