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Rant about bad experience buying from DigiKey to Europe

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SilverSolder:

--- Quote from: benj38 on June 19, 2020, 07:34:43 am ---
[...]  1. As I said in OP, VAT is usually waved for packages of low value coming into Austria [...]


--- End quote ---

I thought only personal gifts were exempt from VAT?  (and usually quite small amounts of money, the specific amount varies by country).

tooki:

--- Quote from: benj38 on June 19, 2020, 07:34:43 am ---
--- Quote from: Siwastaja on June 19, 2020, 06:33:18 am ---So to recap, you ordered things for 53.37 EUR, expected to be billed 10.71 EUR of VAT, but instead were billed for 14.33 EUR, which is 3.62 EUR more than you expected, or 6.8% of the initial total price of your order.

--- End quote ---

No.
1. As I said in OP, VAT is usually waved for packages of low value coming into Austria, depending on your luck, and the invoice clearly stated VAT was not due. I also said in the OP that "It is not a big order, so it does not hurt much". In short, I was wrongly charged 14.33, which is over 26% of the order value.

--- End quote ---
According to your own original post, the confirmation email said "Duty and customs paid by Digi-Key, VAT due at time of delivery". That’s clearly not saying “VAT is not due”, it’s saying the exact opposite.

And to be clear, that exact wording is shown on the website during the checkout process, before actually placing the order:

So it’s pretty clear that VAT is not covered by Digi-Key, and that it will be due on delivery.

As for the amount, the shipping is a plausible explanation. Another is that the item in question perhaps is taxed at a higher rate than normal stuff? I dunno what EU VAT rules are like.

As for the exemption, I suspect silversolder is correct. Also the question of whether the €20 exemption means €20 of VAT due, or on €20 worth of merchandise.

wraper:

--- Quote from: tooki on June 19, 2020, 03:17:34 pm ---As for the exemption, I suspect silversolder is correct. Also the question of whether the €20 exemption means €20 of VAT due, or on €20 worth of merchandise.

--- End quote ---
EUR 22 worth of goods excluding shipping cost. If this value is exceeded, then VAT is applied to both goods and shipping cost.

SilverSolder:

To qualify for the "gift" exemption,  sender has to flag it as a gift in the customs document.   Not likely that an electronic component vendor will do that!

janoc:

--- Quote from: Siwastaja on June 19, 2020, 11:51:42 am ---
--- Quote from: janoc on June 19, 2020, 07:48:42 am ---If this is the same as they do here in France (where shopping at Digikey is the same pain), that "government fee" is most likely not "government" at all but it is the UPS flat fee for them filling the customs paperwork (even when none is required) on import for you. At least here in France they itemized it on the bill like that and didn't hide behind any "government fees" last time.

UPS loves to charge this, here in France it is more like 20 euro.

--- End quote ---

No, do not mix things up, this clearly isn't the case. It wouldn't be just 3.62EUR, and with the standard Digikey "Duty and customs paid by Digi-Key, VAT due at time of delivery" delivery, that 20EUR or similar cost should not happen and would be an actual mistake. I have never seen it with Digikey; with others not specifying DDP, this does happen.

Though, I order from Digikey supplying an EU business VAT number, so I don't have to pay anything at delivery time.

--- End quote ---

That's because you are mixing it up. VAT would never be billed as "government fee" plus the OPs invoice clearly states it is not VAT that is being collected.

That is most likely the UPS charging the paperwork filling/brokerage fee and nothing to do with VAT.

That you didn't have to pay anything means little - as I have said multiple times whenever this sort of thing with Digikey came up (just search the forum, the OP is by far not the only person complaining about this), it depends a lot on which country you are in. When I lived in Denmark, I have been routinely ordering stuff from Digikey with no issues. Once I moved to France, I have got a nasty surprise in the form of these extra fees slapped on every order. So that you don't pay anything in Finland says absolutely nothing about the situation in Austria or France where the customs regulations and laws are different. This is not harmonized across EU!

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