Important Changes to New Zealand Customs
New Zealand customs are currently paying a lot more attention and checking value declarations on shipments and the respective charges, should goods be under-declared. There is now a mandatory NZ $200 or 20% fine, and if customs believe it was gross carelessness, which would be very hard to argue against, then it will be higher. In addition to the risk of incurring a fine for mis-declaring goods, shipments will be held until the situation is resolved, resulting in a delay.
Please see the excerpt below which is taken directly from the NZ customs website:
Changes to the administrative penalties system, legislative changes under the Customs and Excise Amendment Act 2012 took effect from 6 April 2012, extending the administrative penalties system.
a.. The system has been extended to cover export entries as well as import entries.
b.. The maximum penalty has increased from $10,000 to $50,000.
c.. The fixed penalty for errors not affecting duty or GST has increased from $50 to $200.
d.. There is no longer a fixed penalty for errors or omissions affecting GST only.
e.. Where an error or omission has resulted in duty or GST not being paid or declared, the penalty will be $200 or 20% of the duty unpaid or undeclared, whichever is the greater.
f.. Where an error or omission in respect of an amount of duty or GST payable is the result of gross carelessness or was made knowingly, higher percentage penalties will apply.
g.. There is no longer an exemption from penalty for errors on entries covering goods with a value for duty of less than $1,000.
h.. The provision for issuing a pre-penalty notice before issuing a penalty has been removed.
i.. Recipients of penalties can ask Customs to review the issue of the penalty. (They can still appeal to the Customs Appeal Authority)
As you can see from the content of this directive, they are clearly trying to stamp out value mis-declarations which they could view as a deliberate attempt to avoid import duty and GST (tax).
If you have any questions, please contact our customer services department on +44 (0)844 8793229.