when the us company charges taxes, you can reclaim these at the customs office. Goes something like this:

me: "good afternoon mr. customs man, I payed 10% (for instance) taxes on this us import product and I'd like to reclaim these please"

mr. customs man: "grmpf, mumble, snort little f*ck, can't you see I'm reading my newspaper " while looking at your invoice and customs papers...

me: "excuse me, I didn't understand you?"

mr. customs man takes his calculator and starts hitting the keys like he wants to murder the poor little machine... " invoice value - 10 %, plus 21% plus import taxes makes ehrm, 85% of the invoice value. Pay now, cash, no creditscards alowed!! )

moral: when you have to pay us taxes don't try to reclaim them!

check my pm, dude, I have all sorts of stuff coming from the us, cds, hardware, nekkid eighteenyearolds virgins in big foamy packages.
customs f*ck it up every single time. (pun very much intended)

only the cds can fool customs as they are labelled as gifts, and are actually sent by a very good friend of mine who happens to be a label guru :)

Assuming max import tax/duty is 20%; does it mean everything is Belgium is 20% more?
i.e. an AXP 2600+M cost $99 in the U.S. does it sell for $120 in Belgium or higher?

Wise me up here.;-)

Change my mind .... get myself two virgins instead.

Since there is no virgins here in the U.S. I'd be glad to pay 20% duty to import one.:nana:

AMD Athlon XP 2600+ mobile 2,0 Ghz Barton 266Mhz, 0,13m, 1,45V, 512Kb tray without cooler [AMD-MO26T] Warning: only for suitable notebooks - notebook cpu installation requires experience
€122.00

do note that €122 is about $146!!

I think you're mixing up some things. Indeed, you had to pay VAT (BTW as we call it in Dutch = 21%) but that's "Belgian sales tax". But if I'm correct, with "sales tax", lazyman means "US sales tax".
For example, you go to a Belgian shop and you see something you want to buy. The price of the object is 121 EUR. That's the price with sales tax or BTW included so the real price is actually 100 EUR. But when you go to a shop in the US, most of the times the shown price is without VAT, so pay attention when you are in the VS :D When you seen an object that costs $100, it actually costs $100 + sales tax (for example 10%) = $ 110.
What lazyman means is that I don't have to pay that sales tax because the object isn't sold within the USA!
Please correct me if I'm wrong :D

Thanks! I already "answered" you PM with other questions ;)

Sales tax in Belgium is 21%. Import taxes depend on which type object it is. But it seams that biCker and calantak had to pay approximately 25%. So let's say import + sales taxes are 25%.

But like jmke says, PC-parts costs more then 25% more in Belgium! So overclocking, tweaking, gaming, madshrimping, throwing with screens and keyboards, demolishing motherboards and CPU's, ... are expensive hobies.

Need another example? ;) Somebody in the US bought 2 parts for me on newegg a couple of months ago:
- 2 x 512 Mb Mushkink Level One PC-3500, price: $ 239
- Sapphire Radeon 9800 Pro 128 Mb, price $ 211
So I payed $450,00 or € 376,00. In Belgium, the same parts costed more then € 550!! Luckily I didn't have to pay shipping costs because that person brought the parts to Belgium.

My youngest brother works for Siemens; and goes to Germany once every two months or so for one week. He's been doing this for the last 4 years. Too bad that he's an ***; I shouldn't have pay for his schooling had I known then.

Well, my mother once bought pullovers in the states, after the customs we had an increase of 60% of the price!!!!!!!!!!

Why? Well, the US produces most of their own goods, and they tax heavily european imports. Europe is just reacting to this by doing the same thing.

I need Tygon, and tried using some english shop, but since I have no answers for ages, I'll try american sites.

But, I've got a friend, a US military based in Germany. If I ask the shop to send my order to the base, which is american territory, I won't have excessive shipping costs (normally). Then, my friend can send it through Germany to Belgium (me :D ), without paying customs I think, right?

or wrong?

I think that 'll only work if it can be sent via the military ...


OFFTOPIC this friend of yours, can he get his hands on some genuine american army boots? :grin:
They cost an arm and a leg in the stock americain but it's the best there is :)

Well, I don't know. I'll ask once. But you should give the size though.