Buying from Japan and the fricking pain named "customs"
Okay I wrote this for my 2 dear friends who're puzzled by the way customs work. Once you get used to customs and their bitching habit, buying from oversea will be less a pain (but still pain orz!).
Things below are only applied in Vietnam.
The key factor that make up all the differences is a METHOD OF SHIPPING. This is the most important one.
I've never used air mail or SAL so I can't say much about those things. But there will be significant difference between EMS and FedEX (available in CDJapan if you choose to use it)/DHL (always used by Amazon).
EMS is international mail express. I don't know much about it but I'm pretty sure that it belongs to the Postal Service of each country. When shipping with EMS, the customs duty is calculated like this:
★ Price of goods (JPY) x exchange rate (imposed by government) = FOB price
★ If FOB price < 50USD (actually, they use 1 million VND in my country) => no import duty
★ If FOB price >= 50USD => import duty = FOB x tax rate (%)
★ VAT = (FOB price + import duty) x VAT rate(%)
In my country, if you don't have to pay for import duty, you'll also not pay VAT.
FedEX and DHL are both companies that handle international shipping. So they will be taxed DIFFERENTLY. The customs duty will be calculated like this:
★ [Price of goods (JPY) + Shipping fee (JPY)] x exchange rate (imposed by government) = CIF price
★ If CIF price < 50USD => no import duty
★ If CIF price >= 50USD => import duty = CIF x tax rate (%)
★ VAT = (CIF price + import duty) x VAT rate(%)
ONCE THE CUSTOMS CHARGE YOU IMPORT TAX, THEY WILL SURELY MAKE UP 1934723 OTHER TAXES AND FEES TO MAKE YOU PAY! PLS REMEMBER THIS! Corruption is everywhere so please be careful.
Let's have a simple example. Imagine you're going to buy a DVD:
HMV
- Price: 4300yen
- Shipping fee: 1300yen
- Import tax: 4300yen < 50USD => no tax!
- VAT: 4300yen x 10% = 430yen
- Total: 4300+1300+430= 6030yen
- Actually in my case, if import tax doesn't incur, I don't have to pay for VAT (aka: total: 5600yen). But that may differs from country to country.
AMAZON (or any service that uses FedEX / DHL)
- Price: 4000yen (Amazon always offers cheap price)
- Shipping fee: 1100yen
- Import tax: (4000+1100) x 10% = 510yen
- VAT: (4000+1100+510) x 10% = 561yen
- Other fucking fee like "censorship" "special checking" etc. hahaha
- Total: 4000+1100+510+561 = 6171yen at least (ʘ‿ʘ✿)
In Indonesia, I'm sure that goods under 50USD will be exempted from import duty. I just don't know how they calculate the price (FOB or CIF). It's written HERE in Indonesian but I don't understand anything hahhaha language barrier...
One trick I also use when buying extremely expensive goods is AUCTION JAPAN. This may sound weird but listen!
If I want to buy, for example, BLUE IMPACT Photobook that costs 7200yen, there's no fucking way I can get away from customs duty. Because 7200 yen alone is > 50USD. So the total amount I have to pay is:
-Price: 7200 yen
-Shipping: 1500yen (or more?) by EMS at best, and by DHL at worst
-Import duty: 7200 x 10% = 720yen at best, and (7200+1500) x 10% = 870yen at worst
-VAT: 792yen at best, 957yen at worst
-Total: 10212yen at best, 10527yen + several kinds of fee at worst
But if I managed to buy it at the relatively same price from Auction, I can edit the Invoice and change the price to... 1000yen. That way I won't have to pay any kind of tax. I actually DID this with my Zero Pamphlet hahaha, I changed the price from 8000 yen to 1000 yen and received my package with NO TAX at all.
I don't know if this could work with Indonesian customs tho =_________=. I hope those thing can help!!!
Things below are only applied in Vietnam.
The key factor that make up all the differences is a METHOD OF SHIPPING. This is the most important one.
I've never used air mail or SAL so I can't say much about those things. But there will be significant difference between EMS and FedEX (available in CDJapan if you choose to use it)/DHL (always used by Amazon).
EMS is international mail express. I don't know much about it but I'm pretty sure that it belongs to the Postal Service of each country. When shipping with EMS, the customs duty is calculated like this:
★ Price of goods (JPY) x exchange rate (imposed by government) = FOB price
★ If FOB price < 50USD (actually, they use 1 million VND in my country) => no import duty
★ If FOB price >= 50USD => import duty = FOB x tax rate (%)
★ VAT = (FOB price + import duty) x VAT rate(%)
In my country, if you don't have to pay for import duty, you'll also not pay VAT.
FedEX and DHL are both companies that handle international shipping. So they will be taxed DIFFERENTLY. The customs duty will be calculated like this:
★ [Price of goods (JPY) + Shipping fee (JPY)] x exchange rate (imposed by government) = CIF price
★ If CIF price < 50USD => no import duty
★ If CIF price >= 50USD => import duty = CIF x tax rate (%)
★ VAT = (CIF price + import duty) x VAT rate(%)
ONCE THE CUSTOMS CHARGE YOU IMPORT TAX, THEY WILL SURELY MAKE UP 1934723 OTHER TAXES AND FEES TO MAKE YOU PAY! PLS REMEMBER THIS! Corruption is everywhere so please be careful.
Let's have a simple example. Imagine you're going to buy a DVD:
HMV
- Price: 4300yen
- Shipping fee: 1300yen
- Import tax: 4300yen < 50USD => no tax!
- VAT: 4300yen x 10% = 430yen
- Total: 4300+1300+430= 6030yen
- Actually in my case, if import tax doesn't incur, I don't have to pay for VAT (aka: total: 5600yen). But that may differs from country to country.
AMAZON (or any service that uses FedEX / DHL)
- Price: 4000yen (Amazon always offers cheap price)
- Shipping fee: 1100yen
- Import tax: (4000+1100) x 10% = 510yen
- VAT: (4000+1100+510) x 10% = 561yen
- Other fucking fee like "censorship" "special checking" etc. hahaha
- Total: 4000+1100+510+561 = 6171yen at least (ʘ‿ʘ✿)
In Indonesia, I'm sure that goods under 50USD will be exempted from import duty. I just don't know how they calculate the price (FOB or CIF). It's written HERE in Indonesian but I don't understand anything hahhaha language barrier...
One trick I also use when buying extremely expensive goods is AUCTION JAPAN. This may sound weird but listen!
If I want to buy, for example, BLUE IMPACT Photobook that costs 7200yen, there's no fucking way I can get away from customs duty. Because 7200 yen alone is > 50USD. So the total amount I have to pay is:
-Price: 7200 yen
-Shipping: 1500yen (or more?) by EMS at best, and by DHL at worst
-Import duty: 7200 x 10% = 720yen at best, and (7200+1500) x 10% = 870yen at worst
-VAT: 792yen at best, 957yen at worst
-Total: 10212yen at best, 10527yen + several kinds of fee at worst
But if I managed to buy it at the relatively same price from Auction, I can edit the Invoice and change the price to... 1000yen. That way I won't have to pay any kind of tax. I actually DID this with my Zero Pamphlet hahaha, I changed the price from 8000 yen to 1000 yen and received my package with NO TAX at all.
I don't know if this could work with Indonesian customs tho =_________=. I hope those thing can help!!!