New Australian Customs Laws.

[DownUnder LLG]

So today I get a letter from Australia International Post, it informs me I have a collection but must submit a formal Declaration form, pay duty and application fees etc. Now this is not something I have had before so I was a little confused. I jump in the car and head down there and present my letter to the guy behind the counter, he goes away and comes back with a package.
He asks me if I have an invoice for the goods, I say that I believe this was a gift as I have not made any purchases. So I go back to the beginning and explain that I am a member of a chat cigar forum on the net and that we often exchange cigars to one another. I told him that I do have a purchase pending but that has not been released yet as they are waiting for CC approval. He eventually showed the package to me and I was able to identify that it was from SvilleKid, on there letter it said the sender was Soullek or someone and this was what confused me, someone miss read the sender details.
Anyway the reason for the action was they thought it was a commercial package, but he was happy to release it to me on the basis of what I told him.

Now as far as Customs guys go this guy was really good at explaining things, dealt with others b4 for work stuff who were real bastages, take there job very serious. He told me that there were new laws effective 12th Oct 05 regarding receiving packages from overseas. We can now only receive 250grams of tobacco products in a 3 month period and that they keep a register so they can track it. He did say however if it came through the Sydney or Melbourne airport that it would have gone straight through, so now I thinking, how to I get my packages to come through Sydney or Melbourne. After the quota is used up, you pay duty on the cigars, plus a $50 processing fee, plus GST on the shipping charge (believe it or not). Which means that to do all this you would need an invoice for the goods or something.

Some tips.
Until now, honesty was the best policy when it came to declaring what you were sending, now I think a bit of BS may be the order of the day.
If you do send something to a BOTL down under, there are 3 of us now that I can think of, try not to make it look commercial; i.e. don't include matches from a vendor, use plain plastic baggies not ones with vendor stuff on them.
Declare it as a gift.
I know this is a pain but I'm not sure how else to get around it. Of course this may have been an isolated incident, one picked out of many, I don't know.
If you need any other details PM me.

[ComicBookFreak]

Thank you very much for the info.


CBF

WOW!!!

I sure hope I was not the cause of you having to pay (actually money) for a bombing. Seems they must not read the custom forms I have to fill out to send overseas (check box that says the package IS a gift.) I guess the governments of the world must think stogie smokers are subversive SOBs. Either that, or they just want to grab tax money any way they can. I'm sure these new regs MUST be from a national security justification. Just no way they could be related to money!!!

So much for me being honest on custom forms. Next time, it might just be some type of "child's toy" you get. Just don't forget to look inside the "toy" for a surprise.

[c2000]

Originally Posted by SvilleKid

WOW!!!

I sure hope I was not the cause of you having to pay (actually money) for a bombing. Seems they must not read the custom forms I have to fill out to send overseas (check box that says the package IS a gift.) I guess the governments of the world must think stogie smokers are subversive SOBs. Either that, or they just want to grab tax money any way they can. I'm sure these new regs MUST be from a national security justification. Just no way they could be related to money!!!

So much for me being honest on custom forms. Next time, it might just be some type of "child's toy" you get. Just don't forget to look inside the "toy" for a surprise.

Honesty is not always the best policy..Christ you would think you were sending a small nuclear device..

Jerry in Minnesota.

[SeanGAR]

When I send anything to my family in Canada it is usually marked "books and shirt" and declared value is well below the maximum for a gift (35 bucks I think).

If they find tobacco in a package they go to your house beat you with a stick before they hose you for duties, federal and provincial taxes. And they make up some ridiculous value for the cigars so they can get you good and YOU need to prove their valuation is wrong.

[DownUnder LLG]

Originally Posted by SvilleKid

WOW!!!

I sure hope I was not the cause of you having to pay (actually money) for a bombing. Seems they must not read the custom forms I have to fill out to send overseas (check box that says the package IS a gift.) I guess the governments of the world must think stogie smokers are subversive SOBs. Either that, or they just want to grab tax money any way they can. I'm sure these new regs MUST be from a national security justification. Just no way they could be related to money!!!

So much for me being honest on custom forms. Next time, it might just be some type of "child's toy" you get. Just don't forget to look inside the "toy" for a surprise.

Nah mate, didn't pay a cent. I was able to sweet talk the guy into giving me what was mine, due to the generosity of a great gorilla.
It's all about "Little Johnny Howler" AKA John Howard, our priminister wanting more that he should fuggin get. It's always about the money.

[Jeff]

Originally Posted by DownUnder LLG

It's all about "Little Johnny Howler" AKA John Howard, our priminister wanting more that he should fuggin get. It's always about the money.

Sounds like a little greedy slug to me. Didn't this come up for a vote or anything?

[tazziedevil]

Originally Posted by DownUnder LLG

So today I get a letter from Australia International Post, it informs me I have a collection but must submit a formal Declaration form, pay duty and application fees etc. Now this is not something I have had before so I was a little confused. I jump in the car and head down there and present my letter to the guy behind the counter, he goes away and comes back with a package.
He asks me if I have an invoice for the goods, I say that I believe this was a gift as I have not made any purchases. So I go back to the beginning and explain that I am a member of a chat cigar forum on the net and that we often exchange cigars to one another. I told him that I do have a purchase pending but that has not been released yet as they are waiting for CC approval. He eventually showed the package to me and I was able to identify that it was from SvilleKid, on there letter it said the sender was Soullek or someone and this was what confused me, someone miss read the sender details.
Anyway the reason for the action was they thought it was a commercial package, but he was happy to release it to me on the basis of what I told him.

Now as far as Customs guys go this guy was really good at explaining things, dealt with others b4 for work stuff who were real bastages, take there job very serious. He told me that there were new laws effective 12th Oct 05 regarding receiving packages from overseas. We can now only receive 250grams of tobacco products in a 3 month period and that they keep a register so they can track it. He did say however if it came through the Sydney or Melbourne airport that it would have gone straight through, so now I thinking, how to I get my packages to come through Sydney or Melbourne. After the quota is used up, you pay duty on the cigars, plus a $50 processing fee, plus GST on the shipping charge (believe it or not). Which means that to do all this you would need an invoice for the goods or something.

Some tips.
Until now, honesty was the best policy when it came to declaring what you were sending, now I think a bit of BS may be the order of the day.
If you do send something to a BOTL down under, there are 3 of us now that I can think of, try not to make it look commercial; i.e. don't include matches from a vendor, use plain plastic baggies not ones with vendor stuff on them.
Declare it as a gift.
I know this is a pain but I'm not sure how else to get around it. Of course this may have been an isolated incident, one picked out of many, I don't know.
If you need any other details PM me.

I've been hassled quite a few times by customs getting cigars through, except I can't go to the post office, it goes to Melbourne post office not the tasmanian. Try to convince these guys over the phone! sheesh!

Paul

[mosesbotbol]

You'll have to use every friend and relative's address in a 3 month cycle.

[ToranoFan]

When they open your package they calculate a outragous price for the cigars, add shipping add GST tax, add duties... then hand rApe you lol, its very sad like another BOTL said cigars here cost 2-2.5 times what they do in the states, so getting them imported saves you money, but if they open the package your ass is grass.

Its quite sad really going back a fair while ago, just to give you an idea, the vendor i bought from was asked to put a declared value on the package. There was a temporary worker there and not the normal guy. So the vendor wrote what he thought was a small number on the package $100 US.

Because of that number when the package arrived i got a customs notice and had to pay $252 AUS which is about $201 US just to receive my package. Bottom line learn the laws and learn the tax situation. They hit hard over here 10% tax on wine ... and a big tax on the weight of the tobacco ie $283 per kilogram. It sucks