Customs & Duties

About the Tax.
Import Duty and Sales Tax Charged By Your Country:
• Some countries charge tax on certain imported products, at certain quantity/value levels. Some countries do not. You are responsible for finding out the situation in your own country.

• Whatever you order from Jave, we will send you. We won't enforce any rules so it's up to you to make sure that what you are buying is OK to import in your country.

• Many countries charge two kinds of tax when you import anything from overseas. These are (1) Sales Tax (VAT); (2) Import Duty. Usually these taxes are not very high, and the tax is calculated according to the value of the goods (+ shipping sometimes). On the other hand, many countries do not charge any tax on certain types of goods, or on small shipments.

Declared Value: Packet Value Affects Tax
• Usually, importing big quantities of goods from overseas is controlled by your country's customs quite strictly, but smaller quantities can be imported more freely. The definition of "big quantity" and "small quantity" (often defined by a value "threshold") varies from country to country.

• The term "ad valorem" in import taxes means that the tax you have to pay is calculated as a percentage of the total value of the goods (+sometimes the shipping too). Obviously there would be an advantage to declare the value of the goods lower in such cases. This is known as "under-declaring" the goods and is not permitted, despite being widespread practice. Any customization you request from us in regard to declaration value on the shipping paperwork is at your own risk.

Declared Contents: Packet Contents Affect Tax
• The category of goods you are importing often has an effect on whether you have to pay tax, or how much.

• Obviously, certain categories of dangerous or restricted goods are illegal to import in most countries. Other, specific restrictions on certain items such as spy cameras and jammers may apply in your country as well - please research that information for your local country.

• The declared contents of a package must be true and accurate for customs purposes. Any customization you request from us regarding declaration of packet contents is at your own risk.

Tax and Air Mail Packets
• Typically, taxes are more often / more strictly applied to courier shipments (UPS, FedEx, DHL) than postal shipments (Air Mail, USPS, EMS). In many countries, for single items, postal shipping is a simple way to reduce or eliminate import taxes.

• However, shipping by air mail is not necessarily a guarantee of avoiding such taxes.

How To Pay Import Taxes ?
• If you have to pay any tax on the goods you receive, the most common way is that the taxes are first paid at customs by the courier (e.g. DHL, FedEx, UPS) and then you simply pay back the courier using cash or your credit card, when they deliver the goods to your door.

• On bigger orders (meaning, for most countries, anything more than one or two cartons) you should consider hiring a professional licensed Customs Broker to assist you with the clearance of your goods when they arrive in your destination

country. This is because tax and contents assessment is applied most strictly to bigger shipments.

Customs clearance issues
All imported goods are subject to Customs clearance in every country. When you buy from Jave, the goods are sent from China. Therefore you are importing, and you are the importer responsible for the goods when the goods pass through Customs in your destination country. According to our general terms and conditions, you may order anything you like from Jave and we will fulfil 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. Jave cannot and will not offer advice or pre-shipment information on Customs issues in any regard.
Every country's Customs has 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 goods 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 goods 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 goods imported and the quantity or value, the shipment will be assessed for dutiesand /or sales tax. That is your responsibility as the importer and you can find detailed notes from Jave here.
In The Case Of A Customs Hold
1. Jave will contact you to discuss the issue openly.
2. You will typically be required to communicate directly with your country's Customs, or contact them via your courier company.
3. If additional documents are required, Jave will do our utmost to provide the documents to you and support the goods clearance.
4. Your country's Customs can hold goods pending a decision for as long as they like.
5. The final decision about assessing, valuing, taxing, releasing/refusing, seizing the goods 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.
6. In the vast majority of cases, the goods are 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 ontrol.
7. If the goods are refused entry, they will either be destroyed with no compensation, or turned back so the courier ships them back to Jave.
Under these terms and conditions, which you are agreeing to at the time you place your order, you are cknowledging you understand your basic responsibilities as an importer and the resultant liabilities should any exception occur.
Examples of situations where Jave will compensate you
• If internationally recognised documents such as CE / FCC / Sisvel could not be supplied fast enough by Jave, and Customs refused entry to the goods.
• 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 goods.
• If the goods were 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. Jave 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 goods.
• If the goods 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 goods, 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 goods.
• If you were unable to accept the goods due to laws in your country such as a lack of an import licence.
• If Customs refused entry to your goods 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 goods 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 goods due to a supposed IPR issue, but in our opinion this is unsubstantiated.
• If Customs are still holding the goods 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 licences / documents / certificates which are specific to your country and Jave 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 goods or levied increased taxes, charges, or fines associated with the classification or declared value of the goods on the shipping paperwork. We always inform you in advance about the declaration of your goods, 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, but you explicitly agreed to go ahead with the order.
Compensation
• "Compensation" refers to full or partial refund of the amount you paid for the goods and /or shipping (depending on the situation). Jave 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 goods are 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 goods are impounded, held indefinitely, destroyed, or confiscated by Customs, and according to the policy above this is not Jave's responsibility (including where the actual reason for the exception was never clarified), you will not receive compensation of any kind.