Help! Customs Duty

[orly_andico]

hi all

I have a toy that's held at SPC for customs duty.

apparently if there is no accompanying invoice, you have to physically show up with an invoice and pay the duty.

the last time I bought something (from William Optics) there was an invoice so I paid the duty to the delivery person.

I've asked Peter (Available Astro Gears) to send me an invoice but if he doesn't do so by tomorrow early morning, the #$%$#@ post office will close and I will be deprived of my toy for the weekend.

does Customs really want that invoice? (I asked Peter to declare full value because I had it insured.. apparently that insurance was a waste of money)

[acc]

The exporter should have known that its a requirement to have an invoice attached on the shipping box. In any case, if there's a sticker from the originating post office or courier that indicates the insured value, you can tell the customs officer that you do not have an invoice and would like to declare the insured value as the value of your goods. At least that's what I need when one shipment arrived with the invoice missing.

[andeelym]

You can also say that it is a gift from someone overseas and insist that you do not know the value of the item. Otherwise you can get the merchant to under-invoice you, meaning asking him to invoice you below 400SGD (inclusive of shipping) so that you do not need to pay GST.

[orly_andico]

The package is already here, and it is not under-invoiced, because I wanted shipping insurance..

Anyway I will go to SPC tomorrow and see if I can get them to accept the insured value as invoice value, since it seems Peter isn't coming through with an invoice tonight.

Oh, and it's raining again. So not too urgent..

[kaomoo]

why not try with printed copy of the email? or payment receipt?

[orly_andico]

excellent idea! I'm off to SPC tomorrow clutching my receipt in hand.. (while my wife has her hair done, a tortuous 3-hour procedure)

[kaomoo]

got your toy??

[orly_andico]

no.. customs closes by 1:30 p.m. on Saturday.

well i can work on my autoguiding tonight (PHD wouldn't calibrate before), since there actually are stars!

[kaomoo]

no.. customs closes by 1:30 p.m. on Saturday.

well i can work on my autoguiding tonight (PHD wouldn't calibrate before), since there actually are stars!

i got home at 830pm. after working the whole day. too tired to drag the scope out tonight...

[orly_andico]

still fighting PHD calibration. i am fortunate in that M71 and M57 are actually within the visible angle of my balcony.

the ridiculous thing is, the meade DSI Pro i am using as a guide camera has a number of hot pixels. it's embarrassing that sometimes PHD locks on to these hot pixels and thinks they are stars.