Import Tax or Tariff

If your order value (products + shipping) is less than the Postal Import Duty Free Limit PIDFL (right), you are likely to receive your parcel with no problems (unless there is a change to the PIDFL). There is NO need to read this page further.

Some Basics

Your country's Customs Department has set a PIDFL. If a parcel's Declared/Insured value exceeds this PIDFL, your Customs will tax you, even if its marked as gift.

If your country's PIDFL is very low, you should be thinking how to pay less tax, and not how to pay no tax.

Postal rules are that a parcel can only be insured not more than its declared value. eg. If a parcel is declared as 40euros, then, it can be insured up to 40euros. If the parcel is lost or damaged, the delivery company will only pay 40euros.

We have 2 delivery options:

1. EMS (Express Mail) where we can insure at Full value.
2. Air or Economy Mail where we can only insure up to 6,000yen (USD60) only. You risks the remainder amount.

Under Insure

We think it is reasonable risk for you to let us under declare/insure your parcel. You will need to balance how much insurance you want versus how much tax you are willing to pay.

Since we started business, there has not been a lost EMS parcel. For Air Mail, we had 3 lost parcels to Australia until 2007 when it was discovered that postal staff were stealing. Ever since, there has been no problems.

We suggest to under declare/insure at a believable value, and not some ridiculously low value. While it is unlikely your typical customs officer know a pair of good headphones can cost over 200euros, surely he knows that it can't be 20euros! A more reasonable value he may expect is probably about 40-50euros.

If the declared, insured value is too low for the category of item, the customs officer may get suspicious and open to check the contents. He may go further to try to access the market value of the product, and tax you based on that value (has not happened yet).

You will tell us how much to declare/insure it for. You risks the remainder amount.

Declare as Gift

Gift or no gift, if the declared/insured value is more than the PIDFL, it can be taxed. In some countries, declaring as gift may qualify it for a higher PIDFL. We always declare as Gift. So, that can only help, if only in some cases.

Since gifts are usually sent by person to person, we send your parcel in the name of a person, not Bluetin company. We also don't include any receipt in the parcel.

But, for EMS parcels, postal rules requires us to attach a Customs Invoice outside the parcel.

What can you do?

Ask around, especially in forums, for some local experiences. Ask specifically if their parcels were

• sent from a business or person address
• sent to a business or person address
• declared as gift or merchandise
• what was the declared and insured values
• was a receipt included in the parcel, and what was the written value

There is NO way any overseas seller can guarantee you will not be taxed, as this is a matter of your country's customs law. Any seller claiming they can is just saying anything to get your sale, or is taking some risk without telling you such as not insuring the parcel.