Chile Forum

I've purchased a bunch of electronics in the US that were shipped to a friend there. Things such as a hard drive, xbox 360 and games, skype phone... How likely is it that customs will charge me IVA and customs fees? Should my friend split the goods in several smaller parcels and ship them separately? Should he open the original boxes and remove the invoices to make it looked used? Or say the goods are a gift? I'm told the total value should be under $1,500 so that at least it's not necessary to use a customs broker. Any tips appreciated if the IVA liability can be dodged.

In my experience It is just a matter of "suerte", sometimes they collect taxes (around 25% value) sometimes not.

I received recently one box with 120 GB an externar hard disk, 2 GB pendrive, a laptop battery and 2 GB rom laptop memory and not paid taxes (they was all out of box labeled as "computer parts")

Then another box with a Lenovo 3000 V100 insured at US$ 400.- and I had to pay US$ 90.- taxes (19% IVA+6% import tax). It is matter of chance, any "new" in a box item probably will pay taxes. I recommend split in 2 or 3 packages with goods out of box, gifts are not tax exempt but all is up the custom official criteria

Big heavy boxes = nosy taxman. Smaller boxes labeled "old underwear" = bored taxman.