Homage Forum

Hi all,

I have realized the following post shipment deviations from Ukraine to EU (e.g. Germany)

I realized that items ordered from Ukraine which were shipped via UkrPoshta, instead of being picked up in Kyiv first and then shipped to the EU as in the past, now some of the shipments take another shipping route in the meantime.

New route:
Shipping location - shipment to Kyiv - shipping to Latvia !! (maybe by truck) - shipping to Germany

Now as you can realize parcel arrives to the EU for the first time in Latvia. Could that mean no customs clearance in Germany (also in other EU countries) anymore…?!?

And all of us know who is located in Kyiv.
Maybe @Belkin has further pieces of information.

FYI: this new „triangle“ shipping route isn’t always the case.

As soon as I receive my ordered items, I‘ll keep you informed.

It could be a help from „Universal Postal Union“ supporting the Ukraine Post.

I found this on the internet;
„Universal Postal Union calls for donations to support postal services in Ukraine….
The Posts of neighbouring countries – including Latvia, Poland and Slovakia – have helped ensure the continuance of international postal exchanges with Ukraine by collecting postal items….”

Let’s see… I‘ll be back

Hi,
Thank you for information.
If your concern is about Custom fees, I’m not sure this will change:
EU tax ruling has changed in summer 2021: VAT is due to recipient country.
so I’m afraid that DE post will still have you paying taxes…
I hope you’ll soon receive your order and will let us know.

I've checked some of my recent shippings to Germany from Kyiv - only one of them had visited Latvia prior to be further shipped to Germany. I think there are few logistic options from Ukraine to the EU depending on circumstances. In any case, I really doubt the route may have any influence on a possible customs check.

Hi D.
Thanks for your feedback.

Fizzzz wrote:Hi,
Thank you for information.
If your concern is about Custom fees, I’m not sure this will change:
EU tax ruling has changed in summer 2021: VAT is due to recipient country.
so I’m afraid that DE post will still have you paying taxes…
I hope you’ll soon receive your order and will let us know.

Yep, I know these new e-commerce rules in the EU (2021).

Regarding the customs fees, that would be ok to me, too. Although if you receive goods in value let’s say 20€, you have to pay 19% taxes (that’s 3.8€) and 6€ to DHL for collecting the taxes

By the way, it was a nice hope but as you can see in the meantime, the item has been presented at customs etc.. it was a nice hope.



I just thought that this would help me avoid torture at customs whether the shipment will be subject to inspection in the country of entry.

Why?
Let me tell you a story that happened at the customs office to me:

I bought a vintage dial (Ukraine) and had to pick it up at the customs office.

Customs office about 25 km one way, (in the morning rush hour, not funny at all) and even though I was the only one there (07:30), I had to wait 15 minutes, ... breakfast break? ..., and then another 30 minutes of answering questions etc. and then another 25 km back home.

At the beginning I had to answer what was inside etc... and many other questions that I have now forgotten... then I was supposed to open the package and show him what was inside.

Since it was a vintage dial, the customs officer told me "don't touch it, stay here". I thought "what the heck" .... The officer brought a Geiger counter and checked everything.

Then he asked where exactly the dial came from. I said "you can see the address"... he went to his computer and started Google Maps and searched and searched (no idea what he was trying to find)... had to answer many more questions.

Then I had to prove that it only costs 20€.
I started PayPal,... no connection in the building... I had to go outside and open PayPal and go back to the office. He asked how much of the 20€ was postage. I said no idea... I had to pay 20€ in total, if you want please take the total amount as the purchase price etc...

He then filled out a 3 page form and I ended up paying 3.80€ import tax... and at the end he told me to keep the paperwork and payment receipt for 10 years!


What a crappy story!

Customs VAT : I understand what you mean ☹

Same thing in FR, except that VAT is 20% and postal service collect tax fee : 8EUR or only 3EUR if you can pay online,
but you can’t pay online when they don’t send you an email before delivery…
Once I had to pay 8EUR tax collection fee for 1EUR VAT!
The fee seems quite logical to pay the postman time, but online … ☹
Fedex and other couriers have you paying 20-25EUR for the same fee.

It may be worse in the future since they are planning to add import taxes for all parcels (currently exempted under 150EUR),
to try to reduce orders from Temu, Aliexpress…

On tracking, you can note that parcel is inspected by German customs, so not at EU entry point.

I’m not surprised by your visit at Customs office … I guess it’s even worth in FR.

I had to go to customs office once, guess what?
The officer was wearing a Marina Militare!
which is considered as a counterfeit in FR since “Marina Militare “ is a TM of Panerai.
(FR has probably the strictest law against counterfeits)