Hi,
I am from germany. I got my books yesterday at the customs dept.
They told me that I have to pay taxes when the value of the package is over 23€. It doesn't matter if it's a gift or something commercial.

The attached paper says that the value of the package is 30$ which would be fine. But the customs officer opened the package, what they always do and then he noted that the invoice is much higher than 30$.

I told him that this is just an advertisement gift and that this are probably very old prices from the time when the books appeared years ago and that even the amazon prices are much lower nowadays than on that invoice.
He smiled and I didn't have to pay taxes.
But with another customs officer I probably often have to pay taxes.

So couldn't you just write 30$ on the invoice also? Or abandon the invoice?

Didnt the invoice you speak of show a price of zero?

We have modified the procedure to not include the invoice/packing slip.

the invoice says
sale $0
total $0
paid $0

but the price is listed with $24.95 - $29.95 each.
And it doesn't matter how much I paid. To calculate the taxes they only use the value of the books.

The good news was you didnt pay taxes. The form stated gift, the packing slip stated zero. Did you ask the magic question? "Are educational books duty free?"

no they aren't. you have to pay 7% on all books. But for me everything is fine. I already have my book and I didn't pay any taxes. I just made the suggestion of abandon this invoice when you send the books to germany to prevent that other people have to pay.
and of course, I dont wanna pay for the next great 2+2 books

Thanks for excluding the invoice in future packages. bye

I seem to have good news in Sweden, the shipment spent 59 seconds (at most) in the black hole which implies it is very likely that there will be no customs duty:


Your item cleared customs at 10:38 AM on February 18, 2010. Information, if available, is updated periodically throughout the day. Please check again later.

Detailed Results:

Out of Foreign Customs, February 18, 2010, 10:38 am
Arrived Abroad, February 18, 2010, 10:38 am, SWEDEN
International Dispatch, February 15, 2010, 11:52 pm, ISC LOS ANGELES CA (USPS)