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It used to be that 1 out of 10 items was charged. Unfortunately the money grabbing government has upped the amount of parcels they check and charge (to meet quotas), meaning not only do more get charged on, but it also delays parcels as more of them are being processed.

I'd now say that 7 out of 10 parcels are checked.

Gift only works if the item is 38 or less, as this is the Gift allowance. Anything above, even marked gift is taxable.

But be clever with your description of the item. Most chargeable items will be hit by 17.5% VAT and the Postal carrier is allowed to charge for collecting the tax (between 4-$16.50). But it's import taxes which are added on top of VAT that can be the killer, and it's this part which can be influenced by the description.

Under no circumatance let a sender mark a item as 'costume' or 'costume part' as this get's hit with one of th highest import duties as it get lumped as clothing. Better to use halloween/festival item or prop, or just describe it properly (eg 'Star Wars Stormtrooper armor'). An EBay seller did this to me recently, and because he described it as 'Batman costume part' I got charged 49.29 on a 90 item!!!! Over 50% tax!!!!!!



One thing of note, if your item is screen used and has a proper certificate from the studio it is tax exempt (don't even have to pay VAT).

Also if you have a mate who works in a gallery or museum. If they have the item delivered to the museum or gallery saying it's for display (even for just a week), it's tax exempt (don't even have to pay VAT).

Oh and if the item can be proved to be over 50 years old it's tax exempt as it's classified as an antique(don't even have to pay VAT).