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[partainsr]

Can someone please give me some advice on this please.

A woman from Sweden bought a belt from me. I don't not have my items listed to sell internationally but she contacted me ahead of time and asked if she could buy it so I told her no problem and gave her a shipping price. She bought it but did not pay until after I filed an unpaid item dispute (8 or 9 days later). Then she sends me this email:

"Hello,

I have payed you now.
When you send it to me, please write on the "green slip" that it is a gift in the customs declaration, since this is a
gift for my daughter birthday and it´s
value is 5 US-dollar. "

note: the selling price on the belt was $5.99

Does this email sound strange? I'm not sure. I have never shipped anything internationally so I'm not sure what to make of it. I don't know if this might be some kind of scam or what.

Thanks!

[gulfy13]

Alot of countries don't charge "duty" taxes on items that are marked gift. She is probably afraid that if it's not marked gift that she will have to pay a tax on the item..

Alot of people mark their packages as gifts to get around having to pay the taxes on it...It's not unusual at all. I myself never mark it as a gift.

If you have ever done much business with importing goods from china, you will notice that they mark almost everything as a gift. I don't know how they get away with it since they do it so often, but it seems to work as I have never paid any duty on the many items I have imported from china and some of the packages were fairly large..

Most countries normally have a set value that you can import "duty free". It's usually a couple of hundred dollars. Anything over that amount and you are suppose to pay tax on the estimated value of the item or package contents. But normally it's not a very large tax. Certainly not worth trying to falsely declare and get into trouble over...I would just mark the item at it's true value. I doubt since it's only 5.99, that it will be taxable...

[partainsr]

Thank you very much gulfy. I will take your advice.