Incoterms on shipping (UPS, DHL etc) with Mouser, Digikey etc

[hcglitte]

Hi,

In Norway UPS will add about 9 USD per item line exceeding 5 lines in your order. This is for customs declaration.
UPS link:
https://www.ups.com/no/en/shipping/zones-and-rates/additional.page
"Formal entries exceeding 5 tariff lines: NOK 78.00 per additional tariff line"

A tariff line is saying something about what kind of part it is and its origin. Hence, 100 item lines from Mouser may very well be 100 unique tariff lines.

I know that DHL has a flat fixed price at approximately 500 NOK for exceeding 11 lines. Anyway, its a huge amount.

These charges are also related to what kind of INCOTERMS the seller uses.
Digikey uses DDP for payment in Euro and NOK, but if you choose to pay in USD, it's Incoterm CPT.

DDP means, to my understanding, that you will not pay such expenses as above.
I am awaiting reply from both digikey and UPS regarding the term DDP and what to expect...

Mouser has Incoterms: FCA which also means, to my understanding that you may end up with a huge bill from UPS...

A Farnell representative in Norway told me (on the phone) that I would never expect such charges from UPS as it is FARNELL who is the customer of UPS etc... So I am fairly confident that I would not expect any extra invoices from UPS when ordering from Farnell.

I also looked at some earlier invoices from Mouser, and there it stated DDP - so they must have changed to FCA recently.

So, if DDP means no Custom charges, digikey would have a huge benefit over Mouser - it seems.

Comment if you have any experiences with the above issues.

[ovnr]

As a frequent Digikey customer in Norway: As long as you pay in NOK or EUR, you will not see any customs fees beyond the VAT. Said bill will plop into your mailbox a couple weeks after the package arrives.

If you do get it shipped CPT - generally due to paying in USD - UPS will send you a massive bill.


Not much experience with Mouser. I ordered from them a number of years ago with no issue (~20 items), but nothing recent.

[ovnr]

Get a reshipper based in US, ship your parts to the reshipper, and let him to ship to your country as a single item.

Which, in this case, means going from free shipping (for orders >$50 on Digikey, anyway) to paying $25+ for the US shipping and re-shipping service, $20-$100 in actual shipping costs, and $20 in customs fees. Plus it takes 2-3 times as long. And you'll still be paying the fucking VAT on top of it all.

[hcglitte]

With Mouser I received a bill from UPS for the 6th line (exceeding 5).
My company is VAT registered. UPS also does me the "service" of calculating the VAT: 160 NOK.
Fortunately you can ask them not to do this. After all, I do have the invoice for the accounting...

I received an answer from digikey, and they said:
"UPS is able collect certain amount. Unfortunately Digikey can not predict these additional costs or is responsible for them. However, please be aware of the following:
 
If you place an order for 5 different items, each with a different customs tariff number, no additional fees should apply.
As soon as you order more than 5 items, each with a different customs tariff number, UPS can charge a fee for all tariff numbers after the 5th part. 5 items with different customs tariff numbers are free. Every additional part with a different customs tariff number can be charged. So it is not about the total amount of the parts, but more about the different customs tariff numbers."

This amazes me, because when you choose the currency they state the following: "Incoterms: DDP (Duty and customs paid by Digi-Key)" .

UPS answered me that the receiver will pay nothing if the shipper sends their package with either:
"F/D Free Domicille" or "SDV Split Duty Vat"
https://www.ups.com/us/en/help-center/billing-payment/international.page

So, according to digikey it seems, DDP is not equal to any of the said UPS options.

I am now waiting for digikey to answer if either of F/D or SDV is actually used for DDP.

[ovnr]

The UPS charge of 160 NOK is actually what they call "utleggsprovisjon" - a lending fee, as they front the cash for the VAT up until you pay the bill.

My last Digikey shipment was in February this year, containing 63 lines with a total cost of 1100 NOK. I paid no customs or duties on it apart from the VAT.


As for the UPS options, they have their own names (of course...). These aren't incoterms.

[hcglitte]

ovnr: OK, that's at least reassuring (63 lines).

In my case they do not collect the VAT since my company is VAT registered and after the new rules as of first
of January 2017 (Norway) the shipping company does not collect the VAT anymore.
In my bill they called the 160 NOK line for "Tilleggshåndtering" in which they explained that it was a service for just calculating the VAT and they
later post me the papers of their calculation(!)

Suddenly I received a new mail from another representative of Digikey who wrote: "Duties and taxes are handled by Digikey when shipping with UPS but you will be charged VAT at the door."

So, I again referred to the other representative who told me that was not the case for the "more than 5 items"... Interesting to see the answer now...

[PartialDischarge]

Mouser still offers DDP in Spain as of today. To offer DDP they have to have some people in your country to pay the taxes to customs for you.
DDP doesnt mean there are no taxes, it means you pay to them and they take care of customs for you

[H.O]

I just placed a Digikey order for shipping to Sweden (personal order, no company).
As have been said before, as long as I place the order in SEK or EUR there is no (should not be) any extra charges or fees, only VAT *.

On the final order page, where you submit your order it says something like: All duty and custom fees will be payed by Digikey, VAT will be due on delivery. Usually UPS calls me up or sends me a text with details on how to pay the VAT using a credit/debit card.

* When calculating the VAT (which is 25% in my case) they include the cost of shipping (160SEK IIRC) even though I did not actually PAY that since the shipping was "free". It bothers me because apparently Digikey already have enough margin in the price of the parts to pay for the shipping, I pay VAT on the parts hence I pay VAT on the shipping twice. So effectively "free" means 40SEK in my case.