Do I need to pay taxes for Amazon’s overseas direct mail? What are the modes?

If you shop through an overseas purchasing platform, it will be more or less related to tariffs, because you have to go through customs, so Amazon overseas shopping is a simple example. When purchasing goods, many friends want to know whether they have to pay taxes. So, do you have to pay taxes for Amazon’s overseas direct mail?

Do I need to pay tax for Amazon’s overseas direct shipping?

You have to pay taxes when shopping on Amazon.com. There are currently four tax calculation models for Amazon's overseas shopping: personal tax model, value-added tax model, mixed tax rate model, and separate tax calculation model. The first three are the same as Amazon.com. Since overseas shopping is now connected to Amazon in three countries, the tax calculation methods in different countries may be different, so there is the last model.

The tariffs for overseas shopping items are collected by Chinese Customs in accordance with relevant documents and regulations. If you have prepaid the tariffs (such as products shipped directly by Amazon in the United States) or used the tax-inclusive channel of the forwarding company, you don’t have to worry about the tariffs because you have already paid some extra fees in advance.

If you are taxed, someone will contact you, either by email, phone, text message, registered mail, etc. You just wait at home and do what the notice requires. The general ways to pay taxes are: recharge to the forwarding company, have the forwarding company pay on your behalf, EMS door-to-door delivery to collect taxes on your behalf; go to the post office to pay taxes and pick up the goods; go to the customs to pay taxes and pick up the goods, etc.

What are the modes?

1. Travel tax model. Before the new tax policy was implemented for overseas shopping, this tax collection method was used. Friends who often shop overseas must be very clear about it. Tax rate: There are currently three levels of travel tax rates (15%, 30% and 60%), corresponding to different types of goods, and the travel tax rate for most of the goods purchased by Amazon overseas is 30% (for tax reform, you can read our previous article "A Guide to Buying after Tax Reform").

2. Value-added tax model. At present, domestic cross-border e-commerce is all in this model, that is, a constant tariff of 11.9%. (17%+0)*70%=11.9%, of which 17% is value-added tax and 0 is consumption tax. If there is consumption tax, it needs to be added. Tax rate: The tax rate of products calculated according to the value-added tax model is currently 11.9% (some products such as cosmetics are subject to consumption tax).

3. Mixed taxation model. In simple terms, your order includes goods that are subject to the postal and luggage tax model and goods that are subject to the value-added tax model. Tax rate: There is no fixed tax rate, the value-added tax and the postal and luggage tax are combined.

Amazon's operation is to prioritize the postal tax mode, so you can use a data cable that is applicable to the postal tax mode to complete the order to achieve the purpose of tax exemption. However, in actual testing, this is not the case for overseas purchases. They are all calculated separately and taxes need to be paid in advance.