Customs duty when buying from Amazon Japan

k00n

Recruit
Oct 27, 2023
4
0
2
Hi

I am planning to buy an e reader from Amazon Japan that’s worth around 50K Japanese Yen. Has anyone bought a similar item worth about the same ? How much did you have to pay in customs duty + others to the shipping company ? Or since it’s shipped by Amazon will they collect this amount in advance while paying for the purchase ?

Thank you
Anoop
 

t3chg33k

Skilled
Jun 3, 2008
1,470
1,988
402
Hi

I am planning to buy an e reader from Amazon Japan that’s worth around 50K Japanese Yen. Has anyone bought a similar item worth about the same ? How much did you have to pay in customs duty + others to the shipping company ? Or since it’s shipped by Amazon will they collect this amount in advance while paying for the purchase ?

Thank you
Anoop
If the seller is shipping globally, then the price inclusive of custom duty will be visible at checkout. Otherwise, you will have to pay the custom duty as per the HSN code.

Unlike the Chinese sellers, the Japanese sellers will strictly not quote a lower price than the purchase price and will instead instruct you to pay all custom duties that are due and are very strict about it. :)
 

anmolbhard004

Patron
Jan 30, 2024
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@t3chg33k NOT NECESSARY
I recenty bought a UDM Pro from dubai ubiquiti store created a undervalued bill and then uploaded it , aramex sns accepted it and now parcel is dispatched from delhi customs to my address.

use sns for all freight forwarder except for usa.
 

t3chg33k

Skilled
Jun 3, 2008
1,470
1,988
402
@t3chg33k NOT NECESSARY
I recenty bought a UDM Pro from dubai ubiquiti store created a undervalued bill and then uploaded it , aramex sns accepted it and now parcel is dispatched from delhi customs to my address.

use sns for all freight forwarder except for usa.
That might be, I am quoting my experience with Japanese sellers on eBay. They strictly refuse to undervalue anything and insist you pay the full custom duty. Others might be more flexible.
 

anmolbhard004

Patron
Jan 30, 2024
194
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yes they wont also no reputed website or anyone except alibaba will do .

I had to change the values on ubiquiti bill myself.
 

nRiTeCh

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Mar 24, 2005
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51nD m3!
www.techenclave.com
If the seller is shipping globally, then the price inclusive of custom duty will be visible at checkout. Otherwise, you will have to pay the custom duty as per the HSN code.

Unlike the Chinese sellers, the Japanese sellers will strictly not quote a lower price than the purchase price and will instead instruct you to pay all custom duties that are due and are very strict about it. :)
Even after pre-paying all custom duties whats the guarantee that once the parcel lands in India our customs won't charge some extra duty or levy xyz custom charges?
This has happened in the past btw.. So the method of paying custom charges in advance may not work always.
 

tech.addict

Skilled
Jun 19, 2005
1,801
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Kolkata
Normally Amazon Global shipping includes customs duty and shipping charges at the time of checkout and that has to be paid at that time only. Earlier they used to refund if the actual customs duty charged is less than what they took from you. But later I did not get any such refund.
 

SirVer

Disciple
Aug 14, 2022
112
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Normally Amazon Global shipping includes customs duty and shipping charges at the time of checkout and that has to be paid at that time only. Earlier they used to refund if the actual customs duty charged is less than what they took from you. But later I did not get any such refund.
On top of that, they used to pay the difference themselves if the amount came to more than they estimated. Don't know if they still do that, but it used to be mentioned on the checkout page for an eligible order, so if it does say anything on the checkout page, they probably don't offer it anymore. Or at least not for that order.
 

TEUser2K1

Skilled
Jul 16, 2007
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Mumbai
Note to OP, may be he's already well aware. Some low cost electronic items from JP only work in Japanese language, can't even update proper firmware to make it work in English, may brick the device.
For eg., lower mid range Canon camera, etc.
 

nRiTeCh

Skilled
Mar 24, 2005
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@nRiTeCh who pays for custom duties before the shipment arrives at customs?
Surprised that you don't know this. Most overseas websites do charge certain amount in the name of duties where mostly the landing country wont charge any customs but in India its a hit or miss as customs come ruining behind that the levied charges are mroe than what is paid during the order etc.
 

Clayfire

Disciple
Nov 16, 2023
34
18
12
Surprised that you don't know this. Most overseas websites do charge certain amount in the name of duties where mostly the landing country wont charge any customs but in India its a hit or miss as customs come ruining behind that the levied charges are mroe than what is paid during the order etc.
Indian customs are absolute ass pains. My brother ordered two things from overseas and both of them cost at least half of their value in customs duties. The customs guys also hold your order back for no reason like with my keyboard that they held back for 2 months after it arrived. There's some other terrible stories about customs if anyone wants to go through them.
 

SirVer

Disciple
Aug 14, 2022
112
89
42
Most overseas websites do charge certain amount in the name of duties where mostly the landing country wont charge any customs
How common is this? I've ordered from overseas quite a bit both in and out of India, and I don't think I've ever been charged customs by the site themselves - in fact, many of them explicitly say in their terms and conditions that they don't pay and are not responsible for the customs that your country may charge. Amazon is the only exception I'm aware of for this (apart from maybe the forwarding services like Aramex).
 
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kalph09

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Dec 10, 2020
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AFAIK, Amazon JP ships to India via DHL. They collect 'Import Fees deposit' which is 1.5x to 2x time cost of the product and Shipping will add another 4x or higher.

A product costing JPY500 will go up to JPY4000 or higher while checking out.

If the fee they collected is in excess, they will refund. You can read about this on their TnC while checking out for a product from cart.