Customs And Import Tax

Customs is a government agency responsible for regulating shipments entering a country or region. All shipments being sent to and from a country or region must clear customs first. It’s always the buyer’s responsibility to clear customs and pay the relevant custom duties.

OKACC doesn’t add taxes, VAT, or other hidden charges. You pay us what you see on the order screen, i.e. goods subtotal + shipping cost.In most countries, however, you have to pay taxes or duties on imported goods. Sometimes goods under a certain value, or in certain categories, do not incur taxes.

​The rules are different in every country. Unfortunately, there is no way for our sales to know the rules, regulations, customs, traditions, practices, loopholes, schemes, systems, paperwork, codes, laws, or rulings of every single country. Therefore, we cannot, and will not, offer advice about taxes in your country. As the buyer, it is your responsibility to find out that information before you order.​

If you have to pay import taxes and/or additional duties and sales taxes, then you would have to pay that to the courier upon receipt of the package(s). We can’t calculate this for you and there is no way to pre-pay it. If you are drop-shipping or sending a gift item to someone, please make sure they are aware of the possibility of having to pay taxes when receiving the goods.

Please find out as much as you can about your import taxes in your own country before completing your order. If you find out information about the import tax situation in your country, and you believe there are ways to minimize the taxes you have to pay (or eliminate the taxes altogether), just tell our sales staff what you need by putting instructions (regarding labeling, packing, declarations, invoices, etc.) in the comments field during checkout. Our sales staff are more than happy to follow your instructions.

All imported merchandise is subject to Customs clearance in every country. When you buy from OKACC, the merchandise is sent from China. Therefore you are importing, and you are the importer responsible for the merchandise when the merchandise passes through Customs in your destination country. According to our general terms and conditions, you may order anything you like from OKACC and we will fulfill your order, but it remains totally your responsibility to find out in advance if the products are permissible to import into your destination country, and if so what clearance requirements, taxes, policies, etc apply in that country. OKACC cannot and will not offer advice or pre-shipment information on Customs issues in any regard.

From over 10 years of shipping thousands of orders, we can confirm that in over 99.9% of shipments from OKACC there is no issue whatsoever with Customs clearance. Furthermore in the majority of the rare cases subject to a delay in Customs, the merchandise is released and delivered successfully. This is because the clearance via normal shipping methods (couriers or post) is handled professionally by the shipping company, and OKACC is an experienced provider of correct shipping documentation and compliant products and packaging.

You need to be aware that, since any order, you make on OKACC will pass through your country’s Customs, the Customs have the right to hold and inspect your merchandise according to their policies.

Every country’s Customs have different policies, and these policies can vary substantially, for example…

…from port to port

…from day to day or from one Custom’s staff member to another

…depending on the volume of packages requiring clearance on any particular day

…depending on the security levels and political climate of the moment

…depending on the package shipment method

…depending on the package origin

…depending on the package, weight, shape, packing, size, profile, x-ray results, etc

…depending on the package contents

…depending on the declared or assessed valuation of the package contents

…depending on the paperwork accompanying the shipment

…depending on random inspection timetables or scheduled batch checks for particular criteria

As the importer, you bear sole responsibility for the clearance of the merchandise any issues that may arise from an inspection or hold. Typically, the consignee of the shipped packets is taken as the importer in any problem case.

If you are dropshipping, it is important to note that the consignee of the merchandise is your customer, and therefore they will be liable for any assessed import duties, sales taxes, or issues arising from Customs inspection.

In most countries, depending on the category of merchandise imported and the quantity or value, the shipment will be assessed for duties and /or sales tax. That is your responsibility as the importer and you can find detailed notes from OKACC here.

——————————————————————————–

In The Case Of A Customs Hold

OKACC will contact you to discuss the issue openly.

You will typically be required to communicate directly with your country’s Customs or contact them via your courier company.

If additional documents are required, OKACC will do its utmost to provide the documents to you and support the merchandise clearance.

Your country’s Customs can hold merchandise pending a decision for as long as they like.

The final decision about assessing, valuing, taxing, releasing/refusing, seizing the merchandise is entirely down to Customs. In some cases, no reasons are provided, and in many countries, the importer has no right of appeal. In most countries, the Customs are hard to communicate with and lack basic public information or accessible staff contact.

In the vast majority of cases, the merchandise is released after a delay ranging from 1 day to 6 months… the reason for the delay is usually unknown, and the length of the delay is unfortunately beyond anyone’s control.

If the merchandise is refused entry, it will either be destroyed with no compensation or turned back so the courier ships them back to OKACC.

Under these terms and conditions, which you are agreeing to at the time you place your order, you are acknowledging you understand your basic responsibilities as an importer and the resultant liabilities should any exception occur.

——————————————————————————–

Examples of situations where OKACC will compensate you

If internationally recognized documents such as CE / FCC / Sisvel could not be supplied fast enough by OKACC, and Customs refused entry to the merchandise.

If you made a valid request for customization of the shipping paperwork, and we agreed to follow your instructions but failed to do so.

If we made any other serious error on the paperwork accompanying the merchandise.

If the merchandise was delayed or impounded by China Exit Customs rather than your own country’s Customs.

If a Customs inquiry reveals a valid IPR issue with the products. OKACC never knowingly markets/sells counterfeit products or any products/packaging infringing intellectual property of any parties.

Examples of situations where you are not entitled to compensation

If you refused to accept the merchandise.

If the merchandise could not clear due to import restrictions that are specific to your own country, e.g. FDA approval of products (USA), country-specific certification, restricted categories of merchandise, quotas, so-called anti-dumping enforcement, etc.

If you refused to accept applicable taxes or other charges associated with the import procedure.

If you refused to pay additional charges or fines resulting from Customs’ re-assessment of the classification or value of the merchandise.

If you were unable to accept the merchandise due to laws in your country such as a lack of an import license.

If Customs refused entry to your merchandise because you failed to provide paperwork or other information in a timely manner, OR provided incorrect paperwork or information.

If Customs refused entry to your merchandise but they did not provide a reason, OR we were unable to confirm sufficient detail of the supposed reason.

If Customs refused entry to your merchandise due to a supposed IPR issue, but in our opinion this is unsubstantiated.

If Customs are still holding the merchandise after a period of at least 6 weeks and after our best efforts we have no further detail about the reason for the hold or any probable resolution to the case.

If clearance failed due to lack of licenses/documents/certificates which are specific to your country and OKACC deems it beyond the reasonable scope of our Shipping Team to provide these documents in the absence of any pre-shipment communication from you.

If Customs refused entry to your merchandise or levied increased taxes, charges, or fines associated with the classification or declared value of the merchandise on the shipping paperwork. We always inform you in advance about the declaration of your merchandise, and in the cases of larger shipments you have to agree to the declaration value explicitly, so this is deemed to be totally your responsibility.

If we previously warned you about a possible increased risk of delivery exceptions due to our experience of shipping to your country, for whatever reason, you explicitly agreed to go ahead with the order.

Compensation

“Compensation” refers to full or partial refund/credit of the amount you paid for the merchandise and /or shipping (depending on the situation). OKACC will absolutely not offer any further compensation or accept any liability in any other regard.

We reserve the sole right to evaluate the reason for a Customs exception. We will do this openly based on our communications with the Courier, your country’s Customs, and any evidence you have provided us of your own communications with the Courier and Customs.

If the merchandise is returned to China, but we deem that you were liable for the failed delivery, not us, we may be able to compensate partially, based on any remaining credit after return delivery fees, China import taxes, and restocking fees.

If the merchandise is impounded, held indefinitely, destroyed, or confiscated by Customs, and according to the policy above this is not OKACC’s responsibility (including where the actual reason for the exception was never clarified), you will not receive compensation of any kind.