[CTJUG Forum] Re: Custom duty on books

[Dr Heinz M. Kabutz]

Actually, you were quite lucky.  A friend sent me a parcel with some baby clothes to celebrate the birth of our latest addition, and the duty / vat / screw-you-tax that I had to pay was more than the gift cost him :( Kind regards Heinz -- Dr Heinz M. Kabutz (PhD CompSci - University of Cape Town) Sun Java Champion Author of "The Java(tm) Specialists' Newsletter" http://www.javaspecialists.co.za Tel: +27 (83) 340-5633 Skype: kabutz Dr Heinz M. Kabutz wrote: They typically charge you 14% VAT when you bring the book into the country.  Duty would only apply if you bring in 4-5 parcels a year. Kind regards Heinz -- Dr Heinz M. Kabutz (PhD CompSci - University of Cape Town) Sun Java Champion Author of "The Java(tm) Specialists' Newsletter" http://www.javaspecialists.co.za Tel: +27 (83) 340-5633 Skype: kabutz Johan Steyn wrote: Jeff, I used to order books from Amazon from South Africa quite often, and occasionally I had to pay custom duty at the Post Office. I don't know what their criteria was - perhaps if the value of the parcel exceeded a certain amount? It seemed more like they were randomly choosing parcels and slapping custom duty on them - most of the time parcels went through without any hitch. Perhaps someone from customs can tell us? I doubt any of them read ctJUG emails :) I feel your pain, Jeff - It was very frustrating having to order books online and paying a much larger chunk of you income on books than should be necessary because of exchange rates and shipping costs, only to have customs slap on additional charges. AFAIC there should not be any duty on books - especially not on educational/academic/technical books. Johan. On 10/6/06, Jeff Mutonho <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: I recently bought a java book from Amazon.Now the book is at the post office , but apparently I have to pay R45 to collect it.Is this normal? I've bought books before from Manning and was never asked to pay anything extra at the post office. -- Jeff  Mutonho GoogleTalk : ejbengine Skype        : ejbengine Registered Linux user number 366042 --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "CTJUG Forum" group. To post to this group, send email to CTJUG-Forum@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/CTJUG-Forum For the ctjug home page see http://www.ctjug.org.za -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---