Customs & Duties buying from overseas?

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saflyfish

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Id like to start buying more from direct overseas retail suppliers for my personal use eg Bass Pro Shops etc
Im aware that different categories of products incur different customs and duties making their way to your door.

Is there a website (or other way) that can give me reasonably accurate customs & duties charges before i buy the product and pay shipping from the store?

I dont want for the item to reach SA and then have to pay high customs & duties making the total cost of the item "not worth the cost".

Please point me in the right direction...
 
Just accept that you will be reamed and take it from there.
 
saflyfish said:
Id like to start buying more from direct overseas retail suppliers for my personal use eg Bass Pro Shops etc
Im aware that different categories of products incur different customs and duties making their way to your door.

Is there a website (or other way) that can give me reasonably accurate customs & duties charges before i buy the product and pay shipping from the store?

I dont want for the item to reach SA and then have to pay high customs & duties making the total cost of the item "not worth the cost".

Please point me in the right direction...
Click to expand...
Here we go. Good luck.


Or you can just ask you favourite AI model.
 
Problem is whoever is handling the logistics will do as they please and add massive clearance fees. Whatever the import duties are, it will never be that. The rest you can get from SARS website. So I guess it's more a case of finding a good logistics partner. Perhaps something like Aramex Global Shopper.
 
www.aramexglobalshopper.com

Aramex Global Shopper

Aramex Global Shopper is an international shipping service that allows you to shop from the US, the UK, China, Turkey, UAE, India, Hong Kong, Germany, Italy, Spain, France, South Africa and Singapore and then we deliver it to you at rates you would simply love. That means more online shopping...
www.aramexglobalshopper.com www.aramexglobalshopper.com
 
saflyfish said:
Id like to start buying more from direct overseas retail suppliers for my personal use eg Bass Pro Shops etc
Im aware that different categories of products incur different customs and duties making their way to your door.

Is there a website (or other way) that can give me reasonably accurate customs & duties charges before i buy the product and pay shipping from the store?

I dont want for the item to reach SA and then have to pay high customs & duties making the total cost of the item "not worth the cost".

Please point me in the right direction...
Click to expand...

A good quick way to estimating customs charges is to use Amazon.com, uk, de, fr or jp and find a similar item of similar value which ships to SA and then add it to your cart and check out. Before you have to submit payment information, you will be presented with the "import charges" and that's the total duty and VAT which you'd have to pay Amazon to have them pay SARS on your behalf.


CleanShot 2025-12-23 at 18.44.04@2x.png

on this item:

So R744 on a R4500 fishing rod item

Bear in mind that you would also have to add the courier disbursement fee of R150 odd if shipping directly and not via Amazon but that's flat rated

CleanShot 2025-12-23 at 18.44.28@2x.png
 
Mirai said:
A good quick way to estimating customs charges is to use Amazon.com, uk, de, fr or jp and find a similar item of similar value which ships to SA and then add it to your cart and check out. Before you have to submit payment information, you will be presented with the "import charges" and that's the total duty and VAT which you'd have to pay Amazon to have them pay SARS on your behalf.


View attachment 1873115

on this item:

So R744 on a R4500 fishing rod item

Bear in mind that you would also have to add the courier disbursement fee of R150 odd if shipping directly and not via Amazon but that's flat rated

View attachment 1873116
Click to expand...
Good suggestion thanks for posting this...
 
saflyfish said:
Good suggestion thanks for posting this...
Click to expand...

Most of the shipping companies will also have customs calculators but your local friendly AI is also a very good option for specific items.

Just always remember the VAT is 15% of 110% of the value without shipping, not a straight 15%.

But if you can just buy it straight from Amazon.com rather do that than anything directly.

Even if they won’t ship here directly you can still buy from them and using something like MyUS.
 
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