Parcels being returned by German Customs 'Deficient CN22'

Tommo2448

in_my_wellies said:

Tommo2448 said:

in_my_wellies said:

martindow said:

in_my_wellies said:

Spoonie_Turtle said:

in_my_wellies said:

I've sent a Christmas parcel and a birthday present to a friend in Germany, to the same address, every year since 1982.
I send the first from the PO where the assistant completed all the forms, etc. Because it was sent back I tried online postage but that was also sent back. 
I gave both parcels to my son and he posted them from Italy with no problem

Italy is within the EU so presumably did not need customs information, or am I mistaken?

Yes, Italy is in the EU, it seems to be a UK problem

There are lots of fields on a CN22 and if it is not fully completed, signed and dated there is a possibility of parcels being rejected.  I suspect that it is a potential problem when sending from outside the EU generally rather than specifically UK.  When we were in the EU no customs declaration at all was needed, now we are outside ...

VA

Yes, that's the one I completed. Very simple or so I thought. I completed all the boxes, as did the PO assistant when I posted it there the first time
Name. Address. Book. (recipe book, I wrote the title too) One. 800g. £12.99. no VAT. Signed 
Accepted at the local PO where they checked it
Fortunately I shall be visiting in person this year so no need to post. 

Hmm.  Did you tick one of the 'Contents' boxes on the CN22, either your paper one or online ?  From your earlier comment, Xmas or birthday, it would have been 'Gift', which should have gone through OK. If none were ticked, the Germans may have suspected it was a 'sale of goods' and thus pinged it back for no VAT paid.   Did the PO assistant ask you what the contents category was ?   All very tiresome, I know !  

I definitely wrote 'Gift' at the PO as she asked me, and 'Book' but I maybe didn't on the online form so that could be it. Thanks

Still shouldn't have been sent back the first time though...sigh.

superbigal

I suspect they simply do not accept that packages are "gifts" or "repairs" or warranty returns etc.
I regularly value those type of things at 1 Euro to avoid Import VAT for the customer.  
The one problem with low valuation is when occasionally you do want the market value but only for insurance purposes.

Spoonie_Turtle

superbigal said:

I suspect they simply do not accept that packages are "gifts" or "repairs" or warranty returns etc.
I regularly value those type of things at 1 Euro to avoid Import VAT for the customer.  
The one problem with low valuation is when occasionally you do want the market value but only for insurance purposes.

They definitely do, because that's what the one I sent was.  But I valued mine correctly because anything else is fraud - they have a threshold below which gifts are VAT exempt.

martindow

in_my_wellies said:

Yes, that's the one I completed. Very simple or so I thought. I completed all the boxes, as did the PO assistant when I posted it there the first time
Name. Address. Book. (recipe book, I wrote the title too) One. 800g. £12.99. no VAT. Signed 
Accepted at the local PO where they checked it
Fortunately I shall be visiting in person this year so no need to post. 

Maybe stating No VAT caused the problem if they took umbrage at telling them not to charge VAT!  Strictly speaking VAT is chargeable on books both here and in Germany.  Although in the UK the rate is 0%, in Germany their reduced rate is 7%.

misterthrifty

Another problem I have had with the CN22 is that I receive the parcel back the day after I post it as RM find it easier to deliver to my address on the CN22 slip rather than the overseas address on the large printed label I have put on the parcel!

noitsnotme

I sent a lot of orders to Germany last year and a few so far this year with none returned.  The CN22s are completed by the order software I use and are submitted electronically to Royal Mail who in turn I believe submit them electronically to Deutsche Post.  Everything required is submitted on the CN22 including commodity codes for all items, countries of origin and my EORI number. 

I don’t know if they’ve all been successful due to ensuring everything is filled out correctly on the CN22 or whether it’s because of the electronic submission, or both.

Deutsche Post are incredibly slow to process them though.  The tracking often shows them being processed through customs for weeks.  By far the slowest of all the EU countries I ship to.