French customs & VAT on shipped items

[southgate]

Any idea how likely it is for a small parcel, being sent from Switzerland, by a courier on road, to be stopped by French customs on entering France?

Just trying to budget if I'll have to pay VAT on top of purchase price from seller in Switzerland.

[ModernAndy]

I reckon they'd be pretty wise to items coming from Switzerland into the EU. Is there perhaps a value threshold before VAT is charged? For example, Norwegians can order 350NOK worth of stuff from the EU before tax is charged on parcels.

[TheEnd]

Well, I've looked at a couple of road crossings on the borders, and it seems like checkpoints are fairly common.

I would imagine the courier would take the easy route and declare anything he is carrying.

[southgate]

Thanks for the replies.

Value is definitely enough to attract attention. Would be a 'normal' courier firm, i.e. UPS, DHL etc. Can't see hundreds of large courier vans a week being stopped and searched from top to bottom, with an itemised list created by customs. My guess would be they work from a list of item value / insured value to generate a VAT and duty bill, therefore your bill (if you get one) would be from the value you declared?

[Super Slo Mo]

It should be the same as any import from outside of the EU. Your VAT bill will probably be based upon the value declared on the waybill or whatever other paperwork is travelling with the parcel, but it's fairly common for random items to be checked.

So, you might get away with it, you might not.

[davepoth]

southgate said:

Thanks for the replies.

Value is definitely enough to attract attention. Would be a 'normal' courier firm, i.e. UPS, DHL etc. Can't see hundreds of large courier vans a week being stopped and searched from top to bottom, with an itemised list created by customs. My guess would be they work from a list of item value / insured value to generate a VAT and duty bill, therefore your bill (if you get one) would be from the value you declared?

Yes, that's how it works. As it's crossing a customs border it'll need an invoice to declare a value, and the duty and VAT will be worked out based on that. A courier company won't accept it without an invoice.

[nyt]

Flights to Switzerland are cheap - is it worth just picking it up yourself?

Or perhaps the vendor could post the parcel in France?

[Batfink]

The courier will be the ones who bill you so theres nothing to worry about at the French border..

[Nickyboy]

Super Slo Mo said:

It should be the same as any import from outside of the EU. Your VAT bill will probably be based upon the value declared on the waybill or whatever other paperwork is travelling with the parcel, but it's fairly common for random items to be checked.

So, you might get away with it, you might not.

This is how it's done, no parcels get close to the customs people unless they decide to do random screening to check goods tally with declared items. It's all down to what i declared on the customs invoice when the parcel is shipped from Switzerland.