Hello to the North Country. This is Terry King from ArduinoInfo.Info WIKI and YourDuino.com
I just had a bad experience shipping a few Arduino parts to Denmark via DHL. There was $50 in Fees and VAT for a $40 order!
Can you please suggest best ways to ship parts into Scandinavia from China?? What methods do you use and how can you avoid these horrible fees??
Trackable packages handled by UPS, DHL etc. are usually subject to horrible handling fees at the customs.
The fee usually consists of VAT (Moms) and a handling fee applied by the courier that takes the package through the customs. The handling fee is often ridiculos.
Regular letters seems to come through ok every time without taxes or fees. At least to Sweden.
How about shipments that come in through the postal service, like HongKongPostRegistered?
What about Ebay shipments through ChinaPost?
Thanks!
I regularly recieve letters from eBay sellers, both through Honkong Post and through China Post and they have never been subject to any taxes or extra fees.
As you probably know, they are always marked as "gift" with some bogus value.
Hi Terry,
The danish rules for custom and VAT are:
If you buy for less than 80 DKK (14 USD) it is free of VAT and Custom fee
If you by for less than 1150 DKK (205 USD) it is free of custom fee, but you pay VAT which is 25%
If you buy for more you pay both VAT and custom fee
On top of this the Danish Post Office are billing you 160 DKK (29 USD) for doing the paperwork.
So an advice is: buy small pckets, worth less than 14 USD
As you probably know, they are always marked as "gift" with some bogus value.
I don't think Danish Customs pay much attention to that 
Erni:
I don't think Danish Customs pay much attention to that
I know that everyone knows that the "gift" label is bull but have you ever bought anything from eBay marked as "gift" and had the Danish customs open the package, estimate it's real value and charge you for it?
My experience with the Swedish customs is that they don't give a damn about letters. Guess they just x-ray and screen for drugs.
Maybe the Danish customs work differently.
I think they work in much the same way here in Denmark.
They probably think that small parcels and letters are not worth much, while packages are more suspicious.
The two times I have paid customs and VAT, it was relatively large and heavy packages.
And then they demanded to see the invoice/Paypal receipt
I think they also take samples too, but I do not know
On top of this the Danish Post Office are billing you 160 DKK (29 USD) for doing the paperwork.
then they demanded to see the invoice/Paypal receipt
Wow.. this is NOT helping to promote development and education in Denmark.
They should make at least < $100 US No Charge..
Hi All
This is my first email here..
The danish post/customs do check even the smalest letters 
today i have one picked for control..this is no 4 they have taken out
and it is only 10$ worth and below 80 kroner(12.50$) they get NOTHING for their work Hi Hi Hi
Claus
I only have experience with Icelandic customs, they seem to go out of their way to make life difficult for you and they have the right to estimate the price of contents and tax it accordingly. There you also have to pay customs and VAT on gifts.
I would try to get local source for all parts. It would work out cheaper in the end, and faster. Farnell and RS Components are good sources. On packages from within the EU you should not have to pay customs and VAT, (I might be wrong about that).