| Importing & Customs
Goods imported into NZ are subject to Customs Charges: Duty and GST. If the amount of the Customs Charge is less than $50 NZD it is waived. The duty on books, audio cassette tapes, CDs, DVDs and vinyl is nil but for recorded video tapes it is 6.5%.
For books, CDs and DVDs all you need to worry about is GST. For those items GST is calculated on the value of the goods plus international freight and/or insurance charges. What this means is that if Customs determines that the value of the goods including shipping/insurance when they enter NZ is less than $400 NZD (~$275.56 USD) then they don't charge you anything.
However if they work out the value is say $408 NZD then you'd have to pay $51 NZD plus an import entry transaction fee of $22. The shipping company in NZ will contact you to let you know how much you have to pay (and they might add a transaction fee too).
One thing to be mindful of is that Customs takes the USD values supplied by the sender and uses those to work out the NZD value at the time the goods are imported. Between the time you order and pay for the goods and when they arrive in NZ the currency might weaken against the USD which could push you over the $400 NZD limit. To guard against that happening it would be advisable to allow for a 10% drop in the value of the NZD, i.e., limit yourself to spending say $360 NZD (~$248.00 USD) including shipping.
Note also that Customs does not base it calculations on the current market exchange rate at the time a package is imported, but determines the exchange rate in advance for 2 week periods and publishes these on their web site under Customs Rates of Exchange.
For the full details please visit the The New Zealand Customs Service web site where duty information on goods commonly imported by private individuals is listed.
For the complete list of Rates of Duty (Tariff Rates) look at the information in The Working Tariff Document of New Zealand. Some relevant pages include:
Or visit your local Customs Service office.
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