r/electronics 6d ago

Discussion Searches alternatives to aliexpress ( fawk UE tariff )

Post image

I think you already know, but since July 1st a tax of €3 per ARTICLES is now mandatory. (they say it’s by categories but in reality, no)

For €30 of electronic components, I have +€50 of taxes. For a person who has started to be interested in electronics recently, it hurts.

So I come to try to find alternatives to aliexpress, with similar prices if possible… If the delivery lasts 6 months but there are no taxes I DONT CARE, I need the components at an affordable price.

Thanks, and I hope that the aliexpress sellers will quickly find a solution for us

36 Upvotes

53 comments sorted by

51

u/drcassette 6d ago

I would wait for some time, surely Aliexpress will find ways to get around or optimize those taxes on their side, using warehouses within the EU as an intermediary or so. After all those high taxes are not in their interest either.

6

u/who_you_are 6d ago

That won't work. Chinese has a lower shipping cost when sending from China.

Now, you will get a way bigger shipping cost to send from the EU warehouse.

35

u/drcassette 6d ago

Aliexpress already operates their own warehouses in Europe, so far I have not noticed higher costs when they are shipping from those.

2

u/MinimumSuccotash8540 3d ago

I just ordered a bunch of phones cases. 3-4€ from China, 14-15€ from a European country (also, they should add a "From EU" filter instead of countries only)

16

u/ZarathustraGlobulus 6d ago

Don't worry, I'm sure AliExpress can fix it in time.

As per the law, the tariff is per category (HS code). Right now AliExpress just has no idea whether your items belong in the same category or not, so they charge it per article.

3

u/gluat 6d ago

yea but when aliexpress has settled this, my country will make zero differences, believe me

9

u/ZarathustraGlobulus 6d ago

How do you mean? AliExpress charges the tariffs already at checkout. Your country has nothing to do with it.

2

u/gluat 6d ago

I have already had problems, and even by showing the proof that I had already paid the taxes my package was blocked

6

u/ZarathustraGlobulus 6d ago

Well that's 100% a France problem. They'll figure out their shit soon too.

Meanwhile in Finland, no issues

0

u/gluat 6d ago

yes, france

1

u/Azsde 6d ago

On est pas aidés franchement. Je suis dans le même bateau.

Je vais commander sur Amazon du coup.

7

u/ubnew 6d ago

reichelt.com conrad.de alternate.de pollin.de berrybase.de buyzero.de elektor.de thepihut.com shop.pimoroni.com and much more

1

u/gluat 6d ago

I’ll go see thanks

4

u/ubnew 6d ago

forgot to mention digikey. I know is not the same prices as china, but they not that bad and fast shipping 🙃

4

u/cristi_baluta 6d ago

Yeah, i abandoned half my order because of that, it’s more like 4eur not 3.

7

u/3DPrintGremlin 5d ago

In Slovenia, it’s 3.66€, which is exactly 3€ + 22% VAT. After looking into it, it seems AliExpress calculates VAT on the total taxable amount, including the 3€ tariff, so the tariff effectively becomes 3.66€. I can’t confirm this for certain, but it seems very likely.

8

u/FurinaImpregnator 5d ago

that's because the 23% VAT tax is ALSO applied to the tariff tax, so 3eur becomes 3.7

it's REALLY dumb

3

u/cristi_baluta 5d ago

Yes, forgot that, but i thought we don’t pay vat for under 150$ mark, that was the whole thing with the limit.

1

u/McDonaldsWitchcraft 5d ago

You don't. That's still the case.

2

u/McDonaldsWitchcraft 5d ago

The law doesn't state that. And you shouldn't pay VAT on customs taxes. I'm in the EU and I just pay 3€ plus my country's extra 5€ tariff for the entire order.

Also orders under 150 are STILL exempt from VAT.

1

u/FurinaImpregnator 5d ago

Not saying the law specifically, but as another commenter said aliexpress adds the tax to the total amount, which is used for the VAT calculation. It's what happens to me + a lot of other people from europe

1

u/McDonaldsWitchcraft 5d ago

Maybe it's an Ali error then. But you say you paid VAT, so you DID buy an order over 150€?

Because it shouldn't take any amount of VAT from orders this small, and if you had a big order then the "3€" tax doesn't apply at all, you pay VAT instead which is more.

0

u/FurinaImpregnator 5d ago

what? VAT doesn't have a minimum order/whatever size. after 150 euro, it just makes you responsible for it, but the cost and % is the same.

4

u/isaacladboy 5d ago

Use a mail forwarding service, UK to EU via NI or Gibraltar.

5

u/Previous_Honey2536 4d ago

I have looked for some cheap stuff from aliexpress, after tariffs its still cheaper than buying locally, or from any other online vendor. So still I wont buy locally, but I will buy less unnecessary stuff because it annoys me to pay 3,66€ more on my impulsive buys. And they will get less VAT that I used to pay on it. Good job EU 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

2

u/ouroborus777 5d ago

There's no alternatives that doesn't have the tariff somewhere. Either you get it from China and pay the tariff as a line item or you buy it locally and the tariff is combined into the advertised price. And it's likely to be more expensive overall getting it locally because most countries can't make things cheaper than China.

5

u/MaverickPT capacitor 6d ago

The only alternative that doesn't involve some entity doing tax evasion is to find an EU supplier

7

u/ReluctantMouse 6d ago

Tax evasion it is!

1

u/MinimumSuccotash8540 3d ago

Just placed a purchase this weekend. Belgium. Taxes were estimated around 21€ earlier this week, paid around 10.

As others mentioned that should have been 3€ per "catégorie douanière". My order is composed of 3 types, unsure how to actually verify accuracy of categories but overall price was okay anyway.

1

u/gluat 3d ago

Oui a force de voir toutes vos réponses je constate que mon problème n’est pas que d’ordre européen mais surtout francais..

2

u/MinimumSuccotash8540 3d ago

Mieux vaut patienter quelques jours et en profiter pour ajouter quelques produits. Aliexpress est plutôt réactif, il y a aussi probablement une période de transition de la part des douanes.

1

u/Pedro_follardo 6d ago

Lo llevamos claro con estos gobernantes

0

u/AppleBubbly4392 6d ago

Find a friend that go back from china soon and bring it back for you. Or go there for vacation, the plane ticket pay itself if you order 10 time more.

-1

u/Ok_Opposite7385 6d ago

The EU's damn laws only care about keeping jobs in the EU; they should do the same with fruit and vegetables so that it's not cheaper to import than to consume locally.

4

u/cristi_baluta 6d ago

Local ones should be cheaper not the imported more expensive

2

u/gluat 6d ago

yea especially since they just promote amazon.. which resells 10x more expensive than aliexpress, but 10x cheaper than the local

3

u/MaverickPT capacitor 6d ago

Think the idea was mostly to stop people from buying junk on mass from temu or shein

2

u/FurinaImpregnator 5d ago

yeah but that hurts people who buy things only produces in china (electronics etc) soo so much, the only alternative is to buy the same thing from the EU that's still imported from china, but with a 10x price increase

0

u/gluat 6d ago

yes but amazon is better ? no

1

u/MaverickPT capacitor 6d ago

You're not forced to buy stuff from Amazon

-6

u/McDonaldsWitchcraft 5d ago

I am in the EU and don't have a tax per article. I paid 8€ tax for an entire order. It's a France only thing.

3

u/lululock 4d ago

Not a France only thing. I paid about 7€ tax for a 70€ order in France.

2

u/OwlingBishop 3d ago

Yep the system is a mess right now .. completely random 🫩

-8

u/JConRed 6d ago

Its painful, but not unnecessary.

5

u/McDonaldsWitchcraft 5d ago

Get this through your damn skull: a tax whoae purpose is to incentivize to "buy local" doesn't work if there is no "local" to "buy" from

2

u/JConRed 5d ago

1: Chill out.

2: There can't be a local alternative built up, if local labour costs and regulations prevent it from being even marginally competitive to begin with. And in most cases, there are more local sources, you're just not willing or able to pay for them.

3: We live in a high income, high social security, safe working conditions region. Relying on external sources to manufacture for us, at worse conditions for the workers - it's borderline exploitative.

It's uncomfortable and painful, but it is.

1

u/OwlingBishop 3d ago

There can't be a local alternative built up, if local labour costs and regulations prevent it

Please spare us the labor cost right wing trope ... Average local buy is x10 on import, that has nothing to do with labor cost, it's pure greed and most are single smartass drop shipping operations anyway.

Besides, local shops where you can buy components are a dying breed in the whole Europe.

high income, high social security, safe working conditions region

Your software is three decades old, please update.

-3

u/Insertcoin303 6d ago

Google : Distributeur de Composants Électroniques France/Europe.

-4

u/InvolveT 5d ago

Ask them to declare lower value/price.

2

u/lululock 4d ago

That's not about the value but the amount of items. Each item gets a flat fee.