I have ordered books from Amazon three times. On one occasion I was
charged Duty (in Belgium). The duty was quite hefty (about $10.00
dollars on a $35.00
order)

What exactly are the rules for duty charges for Books when ordered in
Belgium?
Is it a hit and miss thing (i.e. The Belgium custom officer will
randomly select Amazon orders at random to add duty unto)

Also why is the duty not quoted in the original Amazon price?

Cheers

Mongolia

Hello and thank you for your question.

Books exported from the US to Belgium (or any other European Union
country) are exempt from customs duty.  The customs officer who
applied a duty charge in your situation either did not take the
trouble to classify the goods correctly, or simply was wrong.

The Taxation and Customs Union Website provides a search engine to
answer questions of this sort.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS - TARIC
http://europa.eu.int/comm/taxation_customs/dds/en/faqtar.htm

Databases
http://europa.eu.int/comm/taxation_customs/dds/en/home.htm

The TARIC Code for books is:
4901   Printed books, brochures, leaflets and similar printed matter,
whether or not in single sheets

Entering 4901990000 into the TARIC Consultation search engine for
United States import/export:
http://europa.eu.int/comm/taxation_customs/dds/cgi-bin/tarchap?Taric=4911101000&Download=0&Periodic=0&ProdLine=80&Lang=EN&SimDate=20030531&Country=US/0400&YesNo=1&Indent=2&Action=1#OK

Produces the response:
"Third country duty rate : 0 %"

What is Amazon's role in this matter?
"You may be subject to import duties and taxes, which are levied once
a shipment reaches your country. Additional charges for customs
clearance must be borne by you; we have no control over these charges
and cannot predict what they may be. Customs policies vary widely from
country to country; you should contact your local customs office for
further information. Additionally, when ordering from Amazon.com, you
are considered the importer of record and must comply with all laws
and regulations of the country in which you are receiving the goods.
Generally, customs forms for international packages will list the
value of your order's contents by product type. For instance, orders
containing CDs, videos, DVDs, and books will generally be listed in a
way similar to the following example:
Books value: $29.55 
CDs value: $9.95
DVD value: $27.95 
Video value: $39.95"
Help > Shipping > Shipping Rates > International Shipping Rates >
Customs
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/browse/-/468632/002-5676971-9360043

So if Amazon has correctly labelled the package you ordered, it was
the customs officer's task to apply the TARIC rates to each component.
 If the package was all "Books" the officer was wrong to assess the
tax.

Search terms used:
eu import duty books "Customs Tariff"


I hope you found this useful.  If you find any portion of my answer
unclear, please request clarification.  I would appreciate it if you
would hold off on rating my answer until I have a chance to reply.

Sincerely,
Google Answers Researcher
Richard-ga

---

Clarification of Answer by richard-ga on 31 May 2003 13:31 PDT

The link for the TARIC search that I provided produces a .6% tariff
because I inadvertantly described the goods as a "commercial catalog"

If you will apply Code 4901990000 you will get the proper answer, 0%
tax.

Thank you for clarifying the situation. Good answer.

 Mongolia

Don't forget though that you will have to pay VAT on the total price
of the import, which is currently 6% in Belgium for books and 21% for
most other things.