Duty | Tax | Customs for International shopping {VAT refund}

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Yeah -- so if you buy at the airport and leave from the EU at the same airport (I.E., arrive at Heathrow, shop, and then leave for the United States), then you do not pay tax.

If you buy at Heathrow and CONTINUE traveling through the EU (I.E., arrive at Heathrow, continue to London and leave through Heathrow home) then you WILL pay the VAT tax, and when you leave, you will apply for the refund.

Either way, you'll get the benefit of a "tax-free" purchase - just depends on how you are traveling. PLEASE someone let me know if I'm wrong about this; my sister just did it and I believe this was the process.

I find caviar leather to be a lot more "worry free" than lambskin, but I think that both are ultimately durable.
 
Yeah -- so if you buy at the airport and leave from the EU at the same airport (I.E., arrive at Heathrow, shop, and then leave for the United States), then you do not pay tax.

If you buy at Heathrow and CONTINUE traveling through the EU (I.E., arrive at Heathrow, continue to London and leave through Heathrow home) then you WILL pay the VAT tax, and when you leave, you will apply for the refund.

Either way, you'll get the benefit of a "tax-free" purchase - just depends on how you are traveling. PLEASE someone let me know if I'm wrong about this; my sister just did it and I believe this was the process.

I find caviar leather to be a lot more "worry free" than lambskin, but I think that both are ultimately durable.

Almost!!

If you buy at Heathrow and CONTINUE traveling through the EU (I.E. leave through Heathrow to go to France) then you WILL pay the full price which includes VAT tax. When you leave the EU, you will need to get your VAT refund forms stamped at your last EU port of call.
 
Hi, I got my WOC at the CDG airport this summer. I paid 1513 instead of 1740, because I travelled from Paris to Montreal. The VAT of 12% will only apply if you leave the EU. If you travelled from Heathrow to another European city, you won't get much refund.
Also, the prices are listed on the items' price tags, which means that the refund is directly applied when you pay for the bag. You won't have to claim it back once you paid for your item.
At CDG the stock was really great for WOCs. They had many combos (chevron in silver, boy, chevron in coral, reissue WOC, quilted WOC in navy blue etc). However, if you're looking for a classic combo (e.g. quilted WOC in black caviar or lambskin with ghw or shw), it may be more complicated. I was lucky to score a black caviar WOC ghw. I arrived around 11am at CDG and they had 2 of them. On that day they received a few WOCs, and sold at least 4 classic WOCs during the morning hours. If you're less specific about the colour and hw combo of your WOC, you will definitely find a WOC! good luck, and please reveal!
 
Now I finally understand the VAT. I am stumped by the US customs/duty. I know that the most items(bags, I think) are duty free if they are under $800. But I know that I'll spend at least $10,000 on LV, Hermes, Chanel, Cartier, and a while bunch of things since it's my first time out of US. So to my basic understanding if it's over $800, I'll have to pay for duty in the US. So in a ways, it's like me getting the VAT refund, then spend it on duty in US when I return. Is this correct?
 
The US customs tax is negligible. I declared a bit more than $11,000 on purses and paid around $500. Some customs agents will even wave you through rather than deal with the hassle. Keep in mind you can deduct the amount of your vat refund from the amount you declare. Also, customs tax rates vary for leather goods (purses) vs. jewelry, etc. Based on my experience, it seems like if you can keep the amount you declare under $10,000, they are more likely to wave you through.
 
Now I finally understand the VAT. I am stumped by the US customs/duty. I know that the most items(bags, I think) are duty free if they are under $800. But I know that I'll spend at least $10,000 on LV, Hermes, Chanel, Cartier, and a while bunch of things since it's my first time out of US. So to my basic understanding if it's over $800, I'll have to pay for duty in the US. So in a ways, it's like me getting the VAT refund, then spend it on duty in US when I return. Is this correct?

For clarification - it's the total of the goods you bring in, being over $800. Not per item being over $800. You must technically declare all goods purchased overseas. Have fun shopping in EU! The Chanel selection is so much better over there.
 
The US customs tax is negligible. I declared a bit more than $11,000 on purses and paid around $500. Some customs agents will even wave you through rather than deal with the hassle. Keep in mind you can deduct the amount of your vat refund from the amount you declare. Also, customs tax rates vary for leather goods (purses) vs. jewelry, etc. Based on my experience, it seems like if you can keep the amount you declare under $10,000, they are more likely to wave you through.

Wow I didn't know duty could be negotiable... Could the amount of duty paid in US be higher than the VAT refund? I am just afraid that I won't have enough with me or in my account to pay for duty if the VAT refund is lower than expected.... and I don't think they would take a credit card. TIA
 
For clarification - it's the total of the goods you bring in, being over $800. Not per item being over $800. You must technically declare all goods purchased overseas. Have fun shopping in EU! The Chanel selection is so much better over there.

Yes I understand that the if total over $800, I would have to pay duty. I wished it was $800 per item tho. My wallet will be happier. And thank you for replying!
 
Wow I didn't know duty could be negotiable... Could the amount of duty paid in US be higher than the VAT refund? I am just afraid that I won't have enough with me or in my account to pay for duty if the VAT refund is lower than expected.... and I don't think they would take a credit card. TIA

What I mean is US customs tax negligible (as in not a lot), but you can always try to negotiate! :p The amount you may have to pay in US customs tax will be far less than your VAT refunds. They take credit cards in Atlanta, so I imagine they would take them at all airport customs areas. Have fun shopping!
 
What I mean is US customs tax negligible (as in not a lot), but you can always try to negotiate! :p The amount you may have to pay in US customs tax will be far less than your VAT refunds. They take credit cards in Atlanta, so I imagine they would take them at all airport customs areas. Have fun shopping!

Whewww that's better. I was so scared in reading about 35% tax, I was da heck. Thank you for your help. I feel more at ease now ! And I can shop away!
 
Whewww that's better. I was so scared in reading about 35% tax, I was da heck. Thank you for your help. I feel more at ease now ! And I can shop away!

No, it's more like 6 or 6.5% for handbags. I flew CDG to LAX recently, and the customs agent only asked if I came from Paris. Then he waved me through. Even though I did select that I had over 800 in imports on the Global Entry computer, he didn't ask about my items. I guess they had other priorities that day.
 
I purchased a Chanel bag in London and flew into LAX a few weeks ago. I forget the actual math the agent did but she was really nice and wanted to help me out bc she thought I spent too much due to the conversion and that I should have bought the bag in France. I ended up paying a little less than $300 (by credit card) for a bag that costs about $5500 after the VAT is deducted. Hope that helps!
 
My understanding of the US Customs Tax on leather goods/handbags is as follows: i) the first $800 for singles/$1600 four couples is exempt, ii) the next $1,000 is taxed at a lower rate of 3%, and iii) anything above that is taxed at the full rate of 6.5%. So if a couple brings back leather handbags valued at $10,000 (this amount should not include VAT refunds), US customs tax would be: $1,600 is exempt, $1k @ 3% = $30, $7,400 @ 6.5% = $481, Total US Customs Tax = $511. HTH!
 
My understanding of the US Customs Tax on leather goods/handbags is as follows: i) the first $800 for singles/$1600 four couples is exempt, ii) the next $1,000 is taxed at a lower rate of 3%, and iii) anything above that is taxed at the full rate of 6.5%. So if a couple brings back leather handbags valued at $10,000 (this amount should not include VAT refunds), US customs tax would be: $1,600 is exempt, $1k @ 3% = $30, $7,400 @ 6.5% = $481, Total US Customs Tax = $511. HTH!

This definitely helps! The calculation is very clear thank you!
 
If a couple comes back, the first $1,600 ($800 x 2 people) is exempt, the next $2,000 ($1,000 x 2 people) is at 3% so $60, the amount over that is at 6%, not 6.5%, (unless they raised the percentage recently).
 
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