Customs Clearance for Wheels Coming from Europe???

[dom123]

Hi all,

This morning i got a bit of a rude shock when i figured i would need a customs broker to customs clear my wheels which are coming from Lithuania through DHL. Bloody lucky my dad is a customs broker and that he'll save me from paying what would usually cost $400-$600.

Does anyone have experience in bringing wheels from europe or anywhere else for that matter? have you had to customs clear your wheels? which freight company have you used and for how much???

Any replies appreciated to help me understand this and i guess stop others from falling into the same situation, would be awesome!

Thank you
Dom

[ozgti]

I'm fairly certain all things from EU need to be cleared. We ship heaps from the US and it has to be cleared as well (But that's a pallet over $30k. If it's under $1k supposedly you can clear customs without fees, but it kind of depends on the customs agent looking at your stuff/

[n3mi]

I'm fairly certain all things from EU need to be cleared. We ship heaps from the US and it has to be cleared as well (But that's a pallet over $30k. If it's under $1k supposedly you can clear customs without fees, but it kind of depends on the customs agent looking at your stuff/

yep iv heard as well, it all depends on size and cost.. dont think they would bother with rims?!

[dom123]

yeah see i thought anything under 1k would be able to go straight through its different when u got whole pallets etc... But when i got quotes for the freight some quoted an amount straight to your door ( whereas i opted to pick it up from dhl) in that case do they clear it for you or something?

BTW ozgti let me know if you need a good customs broker lol bit of spruking!

[gareth_oau]

From what Ive heard, its important that you nominate "door-to-door" delivery.

ie, with door to door, the freight charges already include customs clearance etc etc and then domestic delivery to your house etc.

If the value exceeeds the A$1,000 threshold, then you will need to pay duty and GST, and in my experience, a shipping agent will already be appointed by the freight company and they will notify you of the extra duty/GST payable by you before releasing the goods, and the additional cost of the broker is typically about $50-$80

[Greg Roles]

DHL will be in touch via e-mail with the GST and customs bill before it gets delivered to you, plus their ( cheap ) brokerage fee Gareth alludes to above. You'll be up for the 10% GST, but duty is a very odd thing, and some things attract the extra %, some things don't and it's not always a strict 10% they publish. They calculate duty as applicable first, then put 10% on the whole lot including the duty. Awesome huh? Oddly it often comes out to less than you'd expect, and from memory a recent $1700 order via Toll was an extra $230 or so.

It always comes down to the total value, not the item or size. If you can prove the item or something similar is not avilable here in Australia you can avoid the duty, but there's no avoiding the GST over $1k ordered. It's that confusing not even the people at the various Airports totally nderstand it, and you need to ring Customs in the ACT to get the total story, and they are usually very, very good!

[dom123]

ive spoken with my dad a customs broker with over 35 years experience in running his own business, as it turns out I wont be up for any duty (as proven in the invoice the cost of the wheels is well under $1000), i may have to pay handling fees etc to dhl but pretty much nothing else. My dad is doing the clearance hence that will cost nothing also.

well now i know never to not opt for 'door to door'. Hopefully ill have those bad boys tommorow.

Thanks for the help guys! Happy to hear more knowledge/opinions on the matter as im sure this would help many people in regards to all kinds of shipments.