Thread: Dr. Laura, I have a moral dilemma

I bet its that amazing Lakeside you have up. Thats a real Beauty!

As said before, value for insurance purposes. You say its only worth 25, but you insure it for 100? that may not fly!
And I would not ship anything worth more than 50 bucks without some sort of coverage.

VAT is about 20% so that may be the difference between sale and no sale.

The thing is that if you don't declare the correct value you're exposing yourself to certain liability. Is it fraud - I would say it is. But the way the world operates, in the business world the decision to commit fraud or not is a result of a cost/benefit analysis - how likely are you to get caught, how likely it is to be then penalized for it.
If you have moral objections, then you are automatically at disadvantage with respect to just everybody else who is running business the way businesses are run.
If the customs decide that they need documentation for the value of the razor - what will you or your buyer provide?

I wouldn't suggest you use for 'value' what 'you have in it', it's pretty well established that the value is the price you sold the item for. Clearly you are parting with it for the selling price, not for 'what you have in it' and that's what the buyer is paying as well - that's exactly what the regulators want you to declare.

It doesn't matter if you like the laws or you don't - they are what they are and breaking them has consequences, not breaking them has as well. Only you can decide what are your priorities.

Some time ago a friend of mine abroad needed a very specialized photographic equipment but the US company wouldn't deal with international shipping. So I agreed to receive it for him and then reship it over to him. I also bought it at a 30% discount, there was a receipt included at all. When it arrived to him it got flagged by customs and he had to go claim it. They opened it, looked at it and asked how much did it cost, he told them, showed the included receipt, but they said the receipt is just a computer print out and doesn't have a 'wet stamp' so it's not official. So he had to show them the price list of the website and they said that they will use the full price and not take into account that 30% discount at all. then they also added the shipping costs that I paid to the full MSRP and charged him VAT on that sum.
He said that the custom officers were laughing at him that he has been trying to do everything correctly, and I had declared the proper value. They most likely wanted to see a package with 1/10th of the price declared and hit him for a bribe to let it through (sadly that's how things are done in some countries).
At the end of the day he paid a few hundred more dollars than he should've had to, but that's just cost of doing business - he really needed the equipment for a contract he was doing for on of the most luxury hotel complexes at the country and the project couldn't happen without it. Playing any customs games was absolutely not appropriate because any risk was simply not worth it.

I have no moral dilemma screwing those who's job it is to screw me. They're out there right now getting paid with my tax dollars to dream up new ways to go even further into my pockets.

p.s I'm not telling you you should break the law.

If I ship anything of value international, I get insurance on it.
Putting a lower amount on the customs form means I can't collect the full value on an insurance claim.

If I sell international I don't play games. It goes for the full value and claiming gift is the oldest trick in the book and as a former Customs guy it doesn't fool anyone. it's more like a flashing neon sign saying look at me. I've seen enough cases where guys refuse shipments because of duty and losses that couldn't be claimed because of value issues. I set out everything very clearly and refuse refunds cause they won't pay customs fees.

As to the poster who says "I have no moral dilemma screwing those who's job it is to screw me. They're out there right now getting paid with my tax dollars to dream up new ways to go even further into my pockets".

These people are enforcing laws made by YOUR representatives. If you are unhappy be unhappy at your Senators and Representatives who wrote the laws not the guy doing his job.