I want to export digital video camera cassettes to my home country.Can I buy a 1000 cassettes,put it in a DHL box and send it to my home adress in my home country.Is it as simpe as that or will I have some problems with customs.It’s the first time i’m doing something like this,but it sound easy and it’s alot of profit.
If customs have a problem(what kind of problem=Any problem)how much will I have to pay on taxes and shit.
I sure hope I’ll get some good news from the expacts here.
THANKS.
Your home country=?
Are you talking about “brand” DV cassettes (Sony, TDK, Maxell, etc.)? The TM owner in your home country can sue you and have the products apprehended and destroyed by customs if you don’t have a license (from him).
Rassie’s from Suid Afrika.
Proud to be South African.
Yes.Im talking about DV cassettes.Can I tell customs that it is for personal use.There must be a way.
You can tell them anything you want, but there’s no guarantee that they’ll believe you.
Your best bet is to call SA Customs and talk to them. They will probably have all sorts of helpful brochures to tell you what’s legal, what isn’t, and what taxes you’ll have to pay. If they’re like most bureaucrats, they’d rather make your life miserable through paperwork than through arrests and forcible sodomy.
You probably can…but this is really a question for a South African forum on customs.
Trying to convince customs that anything more than 10 tapes is for “personal use” is going to be quite a stretch in any country. It’ll probably be easier if you already have stuff on them (so they aren’t new) and if you have someone on the receiving end who can “grease the wheels”.
It will all depend on the customs regulations of your home country but common sense tells me that 1000 tapes don’t qualify as ‘personal use’ …
Mr Rassie,
Why don
Agree with Drambuie about the one-off stuff. What’s the point messing around with small quantities of small-margin stuff? The profits hardly seem worth the time and effort involved.
Track every hour you put into this, convert that time into the money you would earn if you were doing some other paid work, add it to your required profit on the goods you want to ship, and ask yourself if it’s still a worthwhile venture.
For recordable media, there is also a form you need to fill out and sign to export from Taiwan. Because of piracy, all recordable media needs a declaration that you or the recipient own or have licensed the copyright of any content on the media. For blank media, I’ve been told sometimes that it is required and other times that it is not, so I just always include it. You can obtain the form from your shipper and I’ve only ever seen the Chinese version. If someone can obtain the English version, please let me know.
Your biggest headache will be importing it to the receiving country. You will need to contact the customs department in South Africa and find out what forms and duties are required. Depending on the country and the item, you may not have to pay duty at all. You can just pack it up and send it and find out later, but it’s better off if you know ahead of time what is required. If something arrives without the right forms, it can take forever to get it out of customs later.
Also as others have noted, be very careful about labeling laws. As mentioned, trademark owners license goods on country and regional basis, so a “Sony” tape in Taiwan may not be legal to export to another country because Sony legally controls which products are sold where. If you are exporting a generic brand or your own brand, then you will need to worry about origination labeling, i.e. make sure it says “Made In Taiwan”, and any other labeling laws required by the receiving country, which may include requiring the label to be in multiple languages, etc. Again, the Customs department in the country will be able to tell you these things.
My advice would be to find out if you can create your own OEM brand with a local manufacturer. In this way you will be the owner of a “brand” and will not have any problems with the reps. in the area. There is usually a kind of deposit and minimum order to create your own brand however which takes some investment. My company has experience sending products South Africa and it is not that difficult. My company currently exports SD cards and Digital cameras to SA quite successfully but we have specific buyers with registered companies in SA. Perhaps what would be advisable to locate a company or set up a company yourself in SA then import the goods your self.
If you need help locating a manufacturer for these kinds of goods let me know maybe we can work together.
Jon@bjtm.com