1.Big expensive items bought via a commercial enterprise are normally shipped to you via courier..and these always go through customs. The customs office will normally contact you via the supplied email address or phone number you gave when purchasing..
2.Items bought off of ebay private sellers, often are sent using the cheapest postage available, and since many people in the uk do not realize that Tenerife is outside of europe for tax reasons do not correctly declare any value. Without a value and sent via royal mail cheapo service, the customs do not often bother to investigate to get the tax..It is assumed to be private mail i suppose and not commercial in nature. But on one occasion they rang me up and asked for a copy of a PayPal invoice when they were not sure.( rare) Tax is charged on the whole amount, postage and packing which seems like theft to me but that's how its done everywhere. If on arrival you are not in, the postie will leave you a note saying collect the next day from local post office. Most if not all parcels of any value are sign on delivery anyway.
3. Never Buy from the mainland...seems daft but a bolt bought in a Madrid online store will have very expensive post, and as the spanish know its going to the canaries the customs nab it every time...very annoying when you buy a component for 15 euros and pay 20 euros post cause you want in now, Customs will apply igic at 5% plus something like 12 euros for the customs paper work. If on the other hand you buy the same bolt from the US, you will find that for values under 30 odd dollars, i think , no one bothers.
4.Amazon , again if its the odd CD under 30 dollars or so , no tax is collected-
I recently renewed my wardrobe with some very questionable Polo shirts off of Aliexpress in china. ( Don´t ask) Since you pay a total of say 15 dollars a shirt its too low for customs to nab. All 6 shirts arrived after 4 weeks, no tax was due on any .
Chinese sellers will sell you anything and are quite willing to falsify the customs paperwork. only ever declaring the value at 10 dollars so those go sailing through without problems.
Only thing i have bought recently from the mainland was a tyre for a scooter. 129 euros here....34 euros in Valencia, knowing full well that customs would add on igic and admin fee but sometimes its worth it other times not so..
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