This is a mobile optimized page that loads fast, if you want to load the real page, click this text.

Customs, Duties, Taxes

Mikawa Ossan

いかんわ！
Ten-year veteran Fifteen-year veteran Twenty-year veteran
Joined
17 Sep 2005
Messages
6,017
Reaction score
1,970
I have worn my pair of Bacco Bucci dress shoes most days for the past 5 years. They are simply the best shoes I have ever owned, and I have recently decided to buy another pair.

So I searched on the internet, and I found exactly the pair I wanted for a reasonable price, about US$165. I was so excited, because www.shoes.com ships internationally. Yatta!

So I proceed to the checkout, and they calculated the cost of shipping, which I was fully expecting to take a hit on (Shipping was 5193 yen, in case you're wondering.) The next item in the price rundown made my draw drop.

Customs, Duties, Taxes, Insurance: 8788 yen

?!?!?!?!

That's almost half the price of the shoes!!!

It's making me consider whether I should wait on this one. (Bacco Bucci shoes are worth it, though. I simply cannot praise them enough!)

Why, oh why, are customs, duties, taxes, insurance so expensive? I think I'm going to cry....
 
I sent you a PM...let me know if this helps you.
 
Thanks for the PM!

This makes me think, though. Let's look at a hypothetical situation.

Say I went to America or Italy or someplace and bought the shoes there. When I declare them coming back to Japan, I'm almost 100% certain I wouldn't get hit with a customs fee.
Why is it so drastically different when buying through mail? All I can think of is that it's a way to reduce such purchases.
 
Last edited:
similar to the tarrifs put into place by America in the 1900's to shut off outside trade and to force people to purchase from American businesses!
 
Obviously it's all some kind of conspiracy.
 
Have someone buy it for you in the US and send it to you as a "gift." I think it works? :?
(Not really sure, but works for other goods.)

 
Just to confirm. The retailer is charging you for Japanese import tax? In eleven years of international mail-order shopping I have never once been charged import taxes by the retailer. I've paid import tax plenty of times and it's always been levied by the Japanese customs authorities.

I rather enjoy the `randomness` of the charges. Sometimes I get clobbered, sometimes things sneak through. Shoes alone, though, have never gone unnoticed so I always order them with something else and that helps dodge the taxes about 50% of the time.

--

--
 
Oh that sounds odd to me, but in a way I can believe it.

Slightly different, but I had mailed one of my guitars,hard case and all, to the US when we went back for a while back in '92. Of course there had been no taxes or custom fees at all, I just mailed it.

When coming back to Japan, I had wanted to mail it but the case was oversize from there to here, so I had to mail it as it was. I had had an old friend from elementary school who had run a small mailing & packaging business, so he did it for me.

When the thing got here, I had to pay tax on at the PO. What?? It wasn't new at all, and obviously it was my own. . .but they demanded that I pay import tax on it and I didn't want to argue too much, so some 5~6 thousand yen went to keep those people happy.
 
Clothes have higher tarrifs than say... electronics. Best way is to have them shipped to a family member within the country you're buying from, taken out of the box, and mailed to you as used w/ a low value.

You could of course buy them and bring them w/o declaring them. You think anyone declares their engagement rings purchased abroad?
 
When I have more time later, I'll post a longer reply, but for now...

This is my first excursion to the world of international online-shopping. I'm learning as I go along. I noticed though, that a lot of the retailers that sell the shoes I wanted do not ship overseas. www.shoes.com apparently does it though some third party.

When you check out, they calculate the tariffs, etc. and add it to the price. They say they do this so that you don't have to be worried about being stuck with some customs fee that you weren't expecting. I figured they just did it as a way of reducing complaints from overseas customers.
 
This is what www.shoes.com had to say about its international shipping.
I don't know. It sounds reasonable to me.

The problem in my case with having my family ship something over is that they would never spend the amount necessary for shipping costs. My family is too cheap for that.

It's interesting to hear about everyone else's experiences, though. Up until now, I've never really wanted something that I just couldn't really find in Japan. Well, there was that movie "A Christmas Story" about the kid who wants a Red Rider BB gun, but it was out of stock, so I decided against it in the end. That's my favorite Christmas movie, BTW. It is so hiliarious!
 
Luckily I have the best of both worlds. I live in "Japan", but I work on a military base and have access to the U.S. Postal service! This has been a godsend for us!
 
Clothes - if sent via a courier service such as UPS always seem to have a few thousand yen customs tax. But since I'm very much an Eddie Bauer Tall XXXL size I can't shop anywhere other than online. A $200 order arrived last week (no shoes or leather goods) and the customs charge was 1400 yen - acceptable.

Electronic items - hit and miss. I re-sell ebay items as a sideline and have had to pay tax about 30% of the time.

I'd like to do what "Punch" suggested and get a US friend to mail things on to me but a lot of ebayers are actually making their profits from postage and packing alone these days so savings would be minimal. I'm surprised that the ebay community actually stands for it. In Japan, Yahoo Auctions is strictly actual cost-price when it comes to delivery charges.

--
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

D
Customer service at Chinese restaurants
2 3 4
Replies
98
Views
12K
doudesuka
D
B
Moving to Japan as tourist, upgrading to spouse visa. What to say at customs and tips
2
Replies
25
Views
17K
ArmandV
Japanese eating customs
2
Replies
25
Views
11K
thomas
Self employment tax
Replies
12
Views
9K
Ewok85
A
Resident tax
Replies
21
Views
6K
JerseyBoy
Menu
Log in
Register
Cookies are required to use this site. You must accept them to continue using the site. Learn more…