importing books, ... a lot !

[maisonnave]

dear all,


we are moving to uruguay in october, and we will bring in our household goods.
there will be around 1500 books (about 30% of them unread) in our container. we don't want to sell them, we just like to read.

do you think the customs might find this 'suspicious', and think they are for selling? am I risking to loose these books, or having to pay a lot of import tax on them?

thank you for your thoughts

kris

[urufish]

If you list them on your manifest as 'book's no one will pay any attention to them.
I've attended several container unloadings. I've never seen the customs person look at anything. That includes brand new, unopened cartons with 50" flat screens in them.
Since customs officials never stay past the 40% mark of a container unloading, put them up front.
The ONLY time I've even seen customs open a box or question anything is when it's a pooled container. That's a container that contains goods from more than one person. Even with those, if they dont see anything weird in the first 50%, they leave.
But if they find something weird in that first 50%, they will go through everything.
Just like the IRS

As for duties, as far as I know, Uruguay does not tax books.

[loei]

I may be wrong but I thought that books were importable tax free anyway.

Patrick.

[maisonnave]

thank you very much urufish !

As for duties, as far as I know, Uruguay does not tax books.

does this means, that once we live in uruguay, and someone from europe sends us a box full of fresh reading-books, we will not have to pay any import duties?
that would be great news !!

do you think there is somewhere a list online, with all the import-free goods for uruguay?

[ritual]

Customs have not interest in books. They can´t be eaten, and who wants to read books anyway?

[urufish]

thank you very much urufish !

As for duties, as far as I know, Uruguay does not tax books.

does this means, that once we live in uruguay, and someone from europe sends us a box full of fresh reading-books, we will not have to pay any import duties?
that would be great news !!

do you think there is somewhere a list online, with all the import-free goods for uruguay?

Other users may know for sure but I'd think you'd get a definitive answer from the folks at miamibox.com.
A lot of us ship books/CD's, etc. via Miamibox. They should know, based on experience, what items duana is interested in and what items don't register on their radar.

[Shirley]

do you think there is somewhere a list online, with all the import-free goods for uruguay?

A (partial?) list is here:
http://www.aduanas.gub.uy/PreguntasFrecuentes.php?Pregunta=EN

Four years ago I shipped 23 boxes of books, papers, photos, CDs, and DVDs from the US to Uruguay. All arrived. There was no intervention by Customs; the boxes were simply delivered to the destination address. I had e-mailed the Uruguayan Consulate in Washington DC (conuruwashi@uruwashi.org), and they had confirmed that all the items I was mailing would be duty free. They quoted the legal reference above and attached a document, and even offered alternative shipping suggestions!

Shirley

[Narcissus]

Books, CDs and DVDs do not pay import taxes, unless they´re a lot

uurrgghh ????