Soo annoying. Best/Cheapest way to ship new items overseas?

[CherryBlossom]

I need to ship about 28 lbs worth of clothing to Germany because my cousin will be studying abroad. All the clothes were bought on sale on various dates but my mom cut the tags off the bottom so you can't see the price. So all the items LOOK NEW. So now I feel like she's going to have to pay a HUGE tax once it arrives there. What's the best way to avoid? who should I ship the items with and what's the best way I can go about paying for it so she does not have to pay for it on her end once it arrives... she's totally broke and living off of funds her own family and my family gave her :/ ugh. I am so over by this process and want to wash my hands of it. Already called UPS and they are unhelpful and confusing.

can you all tell I'm annoyed ?

P.S - she does not care when the items arrive, I just don't want to pay hundreds of dollars.

 

[MichelleCarmen]

Re: Soo annoying. Best/Cheapest way to ship new items overse

Is there a flat-rate overseas USPS box that can be used? What I would do is go to a thrift store and buy some obviously used clothes and mix them in with the new! lol Make sure they're the same sizes and technically, if your cousin wanted to wear them, she could! Then on the customs form put used clothes. (just let your call/email your cousin to let her know the used-clothes plan...lol!)

 

[Pandora II]

Re: Soo annoying. Best/Cheapest way to ship new items overse

My understanding is that you have to have owned items for 6 months in order to not have to pay import taxes on items entering the EU. It might be worth splitting into smaller packages to try and keep each package under the value you need to pay duty on. For example in the UK you don't pay VAT or duty on gifts worth up to £40 - which is about $60. So if you were sending $250 of clothes it would be worth splitting it into 4 packages - this is tax avoidance rather than tax evasion and so totally legal. But it would depend on postage costs.

For example, a $250 package would incur a cost of around $50 over here - so if it costs you more than that to send 4 packages it might be worth sending your cousin a donation towards the duty payments instead.