Retirement and forum shutdown (17 Jan 2022)
Hi,
John Howell who has managed the forum for years is getting on and wishes to retire from the role of managing it.
Over the years, he has managed the forum through good days and bad days and he has always been fair.
He has managed to bring his passion for fish keeping to the forum and keep it going for so long.
I wish to thank John for his hard work in keeping the forum going.
With John wishing to "retire" from the role of managing the forum and the forum receiving very little traffic, I think we must agree that forum has come to a natural conclusion and it's time to put it to rest.
I am proposing that the forum be made read-only from March 2022 onwards and that no new users or content be created. The website is still registered for several more years, so the content will still be accessible but no new topics or replies will be allowed.
If there is interest from the ITFS or other fish keeping clubs, we may redirect traffic to them or to a Facebook group but will not actively manage it.
I'd like to thank everyone over the years who helped with forum, posted a reply, started a new topic, ask a question and helped a newbie in fish keeping. And thank you to the sponsors who helped us along the away. Hopefully it made the hobby stronger.
I'd especially like to thank John Howell and Valerie Rousseau for all of their contributions, without them the forum would have never been has successful.
Thank you
Darragh Sherwin
customs
...got an email from the supplier saying that the item has been seized by irish customs and was unable to tell me if they would release it...
Hi, I import regularly from Asia; Thailand and China. I would suspect that the supplier either decided against selling you the item for some reason or they were out of stock.
First of all, customs wouldn't email the supplier and tell them they had confiscated it. Customs would contact you, either by letter or email telling you they had confiscated it and why. You would also be given an option on how it could be released or if it was not going to be released they would say why and give you an option for appeal.
For personal packages, the system seems to have changed recently with An Post taking on the roll of collecting Customs Duty and VAT on behalf of Customs and Excise. They now send you an email or letter asking for a copy of your invoice to prove what you paid is the same as written on the declaration form.
It's worth noting when purchasing outside of the EU, especially Asia, that items up to €150.00 (If memory serves correctly, it might be €125.00) are free of Import Duty but still liable to 23% VAT, while goods exceeding that figure are subject to Import Duty which I think is about 13% plus 23% VAT. The postage you paid is added to the cost of the item then Import duty is added to that total, then the VAT is added to the final total.
The result can be a more expensive item than you could have bought locally so you really need to do your homework first.
My last purchase was from China. I bought a new unlocked smart phone with a 5.5" screen, android 4.5 (?) and dual SIM (you can put two sims in from different suppliers, handy if you go abroad a lot
) for €51.00. It was Import duty free, €12.72 VAT and An Post next day delivery for €7.00 so €19.72 was payable to the postman when he delivered. In this case, buying such a smart-phone was well worth it, especially as it knocks the socks of iPhone and Samsung. An equal quality unlocked new iPhone would probably set me back around €400 plus.Hope this helps anyone thinking of buying in future from China. I would add that most of the Chinese companies are honest and sell very high quality goods, after all, it wouldn't be in their interest to sell inferior items.
Bill
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