Happy to share our almost 100% second-hand refurnishing last time we moved to a new bigger home, few years ago:
We found everything on Tutti and Ricardo FOR FREE: cupboards, wardrobes, table, chairs, desks, night tables, beds etc. Something like 20 pieces of furniture (excluding chairs) from Ikea to vintage (and quality) stuff. From almost new to good condition.
A lot of time invested, though: looking for the stuff, being very reactive, organizing the pick-up, dismantling the furniture, cleaning, sometimes repainting or repairing, reassembling.
Costs: fuel, a paint pot and some delicatessen as gift for the nicest pieces of furniture. Since we started we could not believe the quality of some stuff that is given away for litteraly zero franc. Some pieces would have been thrown away otherwise!
The offer is so big that everything was set within a month.
What did not suit us was given back on Tutti or donated on the street with a “gratis” panel
Good job! I spent around 800 francs furnishing and equipping our home. But I was a bit particular about the style I was going for, which included some antiques, ethnic stuff, etc. Also I don’t have time to do much repair work an had to collect everything in one day. But from what I’ve seen, you could beautifully furnish a home at no cost if you have a bit more patience.
having a job with crazy hours where sometimes I work from 7 - 18, sometimes from 16 - 2 am and everything in between with 10 - 12 hour shifts exlusively.
This makes picking up the stuff and running around looking at various strollers so much harder. But I’m not the only person in that situation… It just makes buying new in a store simpler.
Which one did you buy? One thing that bugs me too is that so many for example Joolz strollers online are not correctly labeled (also I simply don’t trust people to tell the truth when they want to get rid of things). There’s so many Joolz Day 1, 2, quadro, 3,… on Tutti which are all similarly priced.
Sorry to re-awaken this thread but I have a question related to this.
So I’ve never went to customs before today. Funnily enough also baby stuff Can someone tell me if I made a mistake…
Went and picked up the stuff in the Grenzpaket shop
Went shopping and stocking up the pantry, all in all it was about 800.- Euro (baby stuff + shopping)
Went to the border and inside the german customs, the lady asked me some questions and gave me the stamp on all the forms
I went about my way…
but… while I was driving I was like “Wait, shouldn’t I have paid something?”. I mean I was expecting to pay the 7+% on all of it, but nobody told me anything and to be honest I didn’t ask either since the little one was very fussy while we were there and we just wanted to drive so he can sleep.
Should I have went to the swiss customs to pay VAT? Did I mess up? I have the stamp on the baby stuff and can send it in and I have the stamp on the DM-receipt. Did the lady mess up by not charging me?
Even if I did mess up and get nothing back it was still cheaper but I’d be a little pissed at myself :
Should I pay it now using Quickzoll to get my money back?
That’s the mandatory part. Even if Swiss customs aren’t around, you have to declare (using their declaration boxes at the border or their online app). Whereas you do not have to go to German customs at all (it’s just in your interest to get their export stamp for VAT refund). You don’t pay German customs when importing into Switzerland.
Their German counterparts may have tipped the Swiss off, so there’s a chance they‘ll still catch you.
Huh?
QuickZoll doesn’t give you money back - it just takes money from you, if any.
German Customs doesn‘t charge you, since you leave their country. She gave you the stamp to certify the export.
For the Swiss side it depends how many people you were.
Just you and the baby:
Should have declared it at Swiss customs and pay VAT.
You, the baby and at least someone else:
You‘re fine, 300 CHF per person per day are free of charge (unless it‘s meat, alcohol, tobaco)
Now to get German VAT back, it depends what kind of form they gave you at the German shop. Either you have to go back to get the VAT or you can go to a bigger train station to get it back.
We did the same pram shopping in Paris.
The shop gave us a VAT form to scan at the French border when we arrived in Switzerland.
The custom officer ask to see the good and receipt then we scanned the form.
VAT minus 4% margin from Global Blue arranging the refund are credited back to the payment card you use at the shop. They do not detail the cost in the form but I calculated that on a 16% eligible VAT only 12% was refunded on the form.
Of course this refund methodology is more convenient, quicker and easier but costly.
By luck, I discovered that non-franchise shops offer you full cashback credit available for 12 months at next visit without any fees (e.g. Aigle footwear).
If the Swiss border control are in, they will ask to check the goods as well and charge you but luckily our pram was on discount so under the 600 chf so we didn’t stop and declare ourselves (our mistake).
Once an officer wanted to charge my wife Swiss vat because she brought the equivalent of 380 chf of cosmetic but luckily he let her go with just a reminder.
It was maybe not worth it to fill the paperwork.
Example of brands that offer VAT detax form over 175 euros of purchase :
The min amount to claim back VAT in France is now 100 and no longer 175 euros.
The Franchise at the Swiss border is 300 CHF per person and per item, so if one item is over 300 CHF you have to pay the VAT in full on that item. In your post you mention 600 chf.
There is a convenient way to combine refunds across several stores thereby lifting the 100 euro requirement per store through an app called Zapptax. You just need to ask for a VAT bill at the store, so that works pretty much anywhere even if they never hear of VAT refunds. However because of processing times it only makes sense if you stay for more than a day in France. To top it up since you can combine everything onto one bill, processing fees charged by the refund company are lower than those of Global Blue and the like.
Ouais our mistake then. We didn’t stop to declare it as we thought we didn’t need too.
I have tried Zapptax on iPhone but did not manage to make it work.
Do you know if the 100 euros threshold limit was changed for 2023 ?
It seemed to be still 175 euros for us beginning of 2022.
No problem at all with getting back German VAT. Your export has been documented - and Germany doesn’t require an import stamp for VAT refund. You could even have payed Swiss import tax through the QuickZoll app without getting a stamp.
Not sure if I’d call it a margin (rather than a commission), but if anything, I’d say that’s 25%.
I just noticed you replied to my earlier post above.
For VAT refund from Germany, you have to get the German export stamp, of course (though I vaguely remember that, vice versa, proof of foreign import could be acceptable in Switzerland for refund of Swiss VAT).
I was just referring to the Swiss side of things - with „not stopping“ at the border, I meant at Swiss customs. I still remember when I wrote that post. That day, I crossed the border at a point where German and Swiss customs are physically separated by several kilometers, so that was why I phrased it that way.
It changed in 2021, however it could be that some providers still apply the 175 threshold because of the minimum fee they apply on individual forms. You should give Zapptax another try that really works well, you just need to take a picture of the bill and they produce the form for you at the end, nothing to send by post or wait in line at a booth to get the refund: Once it’s scanned they wire you the money. They also have an in app chat and are quite fast to answer if you have questions.
As for declarations at Swiss Customs, just need to be careful if you have huge items. Typical people that get checked are the ones holding lots of branded things on them ^^.
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Can someone tell me if I made a mistake…
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