Tax buying online good (Ebay, Amazon DE, FR, UK, US, etc.)

[deank1995]

So, I has just moved to Finland 3 months ago, and now want to build my own computer. I found out that the price for computer hardware in Giganti or Prisma is too expensive for me to handle, so I went online and search for cheap pieces on Amazon and Ebay.

As for Amazon.com (US), The price was cheap but the delivery cost x3 this price, so I choose .de and .co.uk. However, I was then afraid of the tax and VAT I have to pay delivery them across the borders.

Ebay made me more terrified, because some of the goods was very cheap, but the customer tracking service or something push the price up like tripled. Some people tell me to choose the ones which don't offer this service, and the same problem arise, I don't know about Finnish taxing.

Does anybody have any information on this subject? All help will be very appreciated. Thanks in advance

[Pursuivant]

I suggest you wait for geography classes in school when they teach you of EU to avoid further confusion on borders.

"All the stuff comes from China" is true, also in eBay, so even the seller is on there they are necessarily not in UK or DE - so you need to watch out for that if you want to avoid getting snagged by customs. And also counterfit memories and such stuff...

Comparing with the online stores in Finland - it all comes from the same warehouse in Germany anyways - you might get some benefit off German online shops, the postal charges are also quite good.

[deank1995]

Tks for the quick reply.
Another question: If I buy the good from China, what is the minimum price that is taxed? And what the tax percent? I think I have seen on some government pages that electronics won't get taxed, just VATed.

[Upphew]

Tks for the quick reply.
Another question: If I buy the good from China, what is the minimum price that is taxed? And what the tax percent? I think I have seen on some government pages that electronics won't get taxed, just VATed.

You go Gigantti and Prisma skip verkkokauppa.com jimms.fi etc (see more under kaupat at http://hintaseuranta.fi/osasto/tietotekniikka/1494838 ) and start to order things straight from the China?

[Jukka Aho]

Does anybody have any information on this subject? All help will be very appreciated. Thanks in advance :D

The Finnish Customs has made this handy guide just for you:

• Online Shopping — Guide for Private Persons

In short, buying from within the European Union Customs Union (Germany, France, UK, etc.) is easy and effortless: what you actually pay to the merchant will be the final price — there is no import duty, and the VAT is included in the price you paid.

Buying outside the Customs Union area (China, US, etc.) will subject you to the Finnish VAT and possible import duty on top of what you paid to the merchant. There are lower limits to these but they’re fairly low especially for VAT-free purchases. Refer to the booklet linked above.

[riku2]

I suggest you wait for geography classes in school when they teach you of EU to avoid further confusion on borders.

But I suspect the geography classes will lump the channel islands in with the UK and so make them appear as part of the EU when in reality they are outside the EU tax zone (and technically not part of the UK either although most finns would not even know the difference between UK and GB, let alone this tax issue of the channel islands).

To reply to the OP:

amazon uk and de: if the seller is amazon then the products are shipped from the EU and so tax is never due (not matter the value). They might arrive from the UK or Germany regardless of who you order from (i've had things ordered from amazon.uk actually shipped from their warehouse in germany). amazon UK does free delivery to finland (over about 20 pounds), amazon DE always charges. DE does things with european plugs and adapters and sometimes different products (eg my blu-ray hard disk recorder with satellite tuner is sold only on amazon.de, not amazon.uk).
If the amazon seller is someone else (still retailing through amazon pages) then it might be shipped from elsewhere (even china) so there might be some issue with high value items, where they ship from is somewhat hidden on amazon pages and you might not even know the stuff is shipped from far away places. tax might be due.

ebay: normally amazon is cheapest for mid-high value items (eg > 50 pounds) but ebay can be cheaper for things like usb memory, cables etc. You should assume you'll be taxed if they are worth over about 15e but sometimes they will get through untaxed (esp if small, eg a couple of usb memory sticks).

[kharnynb]

If you live in Greater Helsinki, Tampere or oulu. You'll be better off to just go to Verkkokauppa instead.

It's much nicer to have someone in person to shout at when there is something broken ;D

[deank1995]

Thank you all for replys
Actually, I'm living in Rovaniemi, which is... well, a little bit remote .
But then, I think I'll be ordering on Amazon and Ebay, thank you guys so much.