Serious advice needed Customs Duty HELP !

[leenott]

I am in need of some serious advice as a ship is arriving today which has about 600kg (1300 lbs) of USED household goods- for which I am supposed to pay $3,000 duty. It isn't worth that, so I said leave it on the boat and send it back to Australia.
The original assessment was something over $5,000, then went down to $3,600, then $3,000.
I upset it even more when I said send it home. They tell me there is an OBLIGATION by the receiving agent to receive the goods, it has to go into a store, where it will be checked, next week.
THIS is scarey, as we were never told we needed to list everything, so what we have been assessed on is what we remember after 4 months ! Whayt will it be when they see what we forgot ??
We were under the assumption that we could bring in household items duty free, which is totally wrong. They have EVERYTHING they even charged duty on PERSONAL photographs !
PLEASE, can anyone help??
I only have $5000, and I am going to be screwed big time by this. My husband has gone home to earn money as were running out of money, so I am alone here in Sosua with my dogs.
WHAT in hell am I going to do ?????!!
Beverley N

 

[Hillbilly]

Find a good Customs Agent? Do you have residence? If so there have to be some breaks.
Sorry for you...

HB

 

[leenott]

Have Banker Trust, they have an agent, and this is where we are now. I bought a house, but from what I am learning you get NO breaks.
The REALLY scarey thing is used means NOTHING. If something cost $200, 20 years ago, they assess it at around the same value. This is screwing BIG time.

 

[Hillbilly]

Do you have residence visa??? That is a major issue!!

HB

 

[yanandu]

If you have cedula/residence one container is duty free. Including car with some conditions.
Yanandy

 

[AlterEgo]

Do you have residence visa??? That is a major issue!!

HB

True - and isn't there a time limit of about 6 months after receiving residency to claim the exemption?? It seems I remember one of the posters here saying he wasn't aware of that and it cost him big time...

AE

 

[william webster]

Within 6 months of residency...... even the temporal residency which is valid for 1 year then you can convert to permanent residency.

House ownership doesn't qualify for any importation..... residency does.

I agree w/ HB--- get a customs agent.

Which port of entry?

WW

 

[william webster]

If you have cedula/residence one container is duty free. Including car with some conditions.
Yanandy

1 container per resident.... therefore husband/wife are entitled to 2 containers.

If I had it to do again, I would file for 1 residency initially and then do the second later ..... to space out the containers.

WW

 

[DMV123]

This is a clear example to everyone - get the information - double and triple check the accuracy - BEFORE you do things that can come back to bite you in the ass.

DR1 is full of great information.

To the OP you need a good agent! sounds like you are on the hook for this. An agent can help you drive the price down.

 

[AlterEgo]

1 container per resident.... therefore husband/wife are entitled to 2 containers.

If I had it to do again, I would file for 1 residency initially and then do the second later ..... to space out the containers.

WW

Good advice, and exactly what we plan to do. My husband is entitled to one car/one container as a returning Dominican. We'll wait some time, maybe a couple of years, before I file for my residency/cedula and bring a 2nd car/container.

In the meantime, boxes and tanques...:ermm: At least as long as they don't start charging taxes on their contents!

AE

 

[william webster]

Don't forget..... you need to have owned the car for 1 year prior to importation.

They look at that..... which means you cannot buy a car "off lease" and import it until 1 year after the "Offlease" purchase.

Another little wrinkle...:glasses:

WW

 

[Expat-in-Cabarete]

Are you sure one container per residency? When my husband got his residency, right after he arrived, we brought one container but they asked for my passport in customs, included my name in the paperwork, and made me sign. I'm getting my residency now (4 years later). I''ll ask my lawyer, but having signed those papers with my husband, I'll doubt I'll be entitled to a second container. It'll be nice though.

 

[AlterEgo]

Are you sure one container per residency? When my husband got his residency, right after he arrived, we brought one container but they asked for my passport in customs, included my name in the paperwork, and made me sign. I'm getting my residency now (4 years later). I''ll ask my lawyer, but having signed those papers with my husband, I'll doubt I'll be entitled to a second container. It'll be nice though.

Hmmm.... good to know that. I'll stay at home when he goes to do the paperwork in customs. Even thought we've been married 34+ years, we never bothered to change his cedula, it still says 'soltero', so they don't know I exist yet.

AE

 

[william webster]

Are you sure one container per residency? When my husband got his residency, right after he arrived, we brought one container but they asked for my passport in customs, included my name in the paperwork, and made me sign. I'm getting my residency now (4 years later). I''ll ask my lawyer, but having signed those papers with my husband, I'll doubt I'll be entitled to a second container. It'll be nice though.

I'm not a lawyer, but it is reputed to be per person, per residency.

We should check before we lead people astray.

Usually , there are enough know-it-alls hanging around here to straighten us out:glasses:

WW

 

[AlterEgo]

I'm not a lawyer, but it is reputed to be per person, per residency.

We should check before we lead people astray.

Usually , there are enough know-it-alls hanging around here to straighten us out:glasses:

WW

LOL, you got that right!!! Where are they when we need them????

AE

 

[william webster]

LOL, you got that right!!! Where are they when we need them????

AE

Right.... the auto transmission and pap smear threads are swarmed with overinformation!!:chinese:

WW

 

[bri777]

Thanks to a lot of people on here ,I have learned one thing for sure!
Dont ship anything ,sell everything you have and buy when you get there,

NO couch of mine is worth double just to get it there lol
The only thing I bring is myself,my monies,clothes and my dogs ......and decent
cookware all in my suitcase except the dogs lol
Thanks to HB, DMV and all the wonderful people on here
Manu