Have you ever had to pay taxes from items you bought from another country? I'm lucky enough to live in a place where customs isn't strict at all. I bought a tablet PC and it arrived straight to my house. But now that apparently customs are getting a lot more strict from government regulations, I'm not sure if it will be the same!
I think paying Tax and Customs depends on a couple of things. 1 - How the sender marked the item: If the item is marked as a gift or sample, you pay nothing. If the value is listed below $25 you also pay nothing. 2- How the sender sends it: Companies like Fed Ex UPS, will always collect the customs, where as domestic post companies, like USPS and Canada post are more lax about it. As long as the sender knows that they are doing, usually you will not have anything to pay.
That is true, but the first one is just a method to dodge taxes by actually lying about the original value (most of the times). As sad as it sounds, it's true. Most customs around the world are already aware of that, though. Almost every seller now (except the ones in the US where everything's a lot more strict) marks everything as a gift. Local customs still check the package's weight despite that. And they can make you pay even if it's marked as a gift. I've never used UPS or FedEx. While you can get an item in more or less a week no matter where you are, they make you pay a WHOLE lot in taxes and for their service.
