Shipments from the USA

In case of questions re these parcels please contact directly the United States Postal Service.

With effect of 01.01.2002 the United States Postal Service (USPS) has assigned the delivery of the services Air Parcel and EMS (express Mail service) in Europe to General Logistics Systems (GLS) via the European Interface in Frankfurt/M. The general customs office in Gießen (Germany) examines the package shipments, immediately after import and first inspection within the European Union.

The postage charged in the USA, covers only the transportation costs. Duties, taxes as well as a clearing charge (if this is deemed necessary) are not included in the reight charge of the sender and must be paid by the receiver. The sender is made aware of this by United States Postal Service. The main Customs Office in Germany carries out the issuing of customs papers and the declaration of a shipment, before forwarding the shipment to he country of destination. The declaration of a shipment is based on the value of the content. The sender has to indicate the commodity value as correctly as possible. Import duty-requiring goods are differentiated between non-commercial goods (pdf) (private sender - private receiver) commercial goods (pdf) (the sender, the receiver or both are of commercial type).

Category Low Value non commercial (value up to 45.- Euro), commercial (value up to 22.- Euro) Low Value shipments will be delivered without any charges within the standard operating time of 24 hours (starting at the arrival in Ireland)

Category Medium Value non commercial (value from 45.- Euro to 350.-Euro)
For Medium Value shipments the import duties will be calculated at a more favourable 13,5 %. This provides a saving for the customer, as in the case of a normal customs clearance an import value added tax would be charged on the goods and customs value. The customs office in Germany charges the favourable import duties and the clearance fee. General Logistics Systems Germany in turn charges via General Logistics Systems Ireland the mentioned import duties plus the clearing charges including a service charge of 9,5 Euro per package to the recipient.

Category High Value non commercial (value over 350.- Euro), commercial (value over 22.- Euro)
For shipments of a higher value General Logistics Systems Ireland informs the recipient about the arrival of the parcel. As soon as the recipient contacts General Logistics Ireland (via the website, mail or telephone call) General Logistics Ireland carries out the registration of the shipment with the Irish customs authorities. The import duties are calculated according to the import sales tax and to the customs tariff (www.revenue.ie) plus a service charge of 9,5 Euro per package.

The sender must consider certain guidelines (pdf) when declaring shipment types.

Click here (pdf) to view a letter from the USPS.
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