@i*m-still-here wrote:
I can tell you one thing the GSP has done:
It's created a two-tiered system where the American government decides how taxes on imports are collected for their own citizens, while Americans (via the GSP) dictate how taxes are collected for everyone else.
In addition to inflated shipping costs, this is the other main issue at the heart of most of the GSP complaints.
Agreed. My complaint with the programme isn't that the taxes or duty are being collected, but how they are being collected with a very one-sided approach without any accountability whatsoever. Where a US organization is dictating how non-American law is to be executed only empowered through contractual agreements and through those agreements to be "held harmless" from any issues that arrise from incorrect executions of that law.
PBI and eBay may have lawyers but lawyers too can be wrong, the terms of agreements drawn up by lawyers are nullified (in whole and in part) by court rooms every day.
Notice how the GSP explicitly avoids using terms like "tax" or "duty" as neither eBay and PBI are authorized by law to act as customs agents. Neither organization are authorized to determine and levy tax and duty before a package is analyzed by an agent of the destination government, they are only able to collect an "Insurance fee" to use against the package, if that fee doesn't satisfy the destination government, said government is fully capable of telling PBI "That's not good enough." and charging the importer anyways.
Further, most likely the reason eBay isn't able to supply a full breakdown invoice despite the outcries of international consumers is that if they start using terms like "tax" or "duty" that they will incite governmental intervention similar to the German government's investigation of the operation of the GSP. To placate foreign governments and avoid these investigations, PBI and eBay use the term "Import Charges" which since it isn't covered by any law and said organizations are able to define the rate to any amount they wish much like insurance premiums and calculate it in any way they see fit.
The above two paragraphs are why the GSP includes the following statement in the GSP Buyer Terms:
Exclusions. You alone are responsible for any customs duties, taxes, surcharges, fines, penalties, or other charges which may be imposed on you by customs or tax officials after a GSP Item has successfully cleared customs and been delivered to (or made available for pickup at) the delivery address specified by you.
This prevents a consumer (whom had their government's customs agency determine that what PBI is doing isn't enough or failed to fill out the paperwork properly) from having recourse if the 'insurance' didn't pan out and to essentially disarm a consumer from demanding refund of the funds remitted to PBI.
This is very realistically how the GSP can be construed as fraud (and thus why the German government seems to be investigating it) because it is operating under the premise that it provides security against paying anything further after checkout is complete, yet still has the above noted clause in play, preventing civil suits via breach of contract from playing out if the insurance they collect isn't sufficient for the importer's government.
On the element of "tax", this is most likely why PBI will not remit tax numbers because they are collecting an insurance service fee, not tax or duty, thus aren't accountable for holding a tax number for GSP expenses.
So in review:
- eBay/PBI refuse to itemize and fully expose tax/duty in listings because it'd make them legally accountable to governments to hold tax numbers and so forth.
- eBay/PBI use an insurance system rather than a duty/tax payment system, thus are capable of setting the rates as they see fit without recourse.
- A consumer who paid PBI but still got charged full by customs may have great difficulty seeking refund if the insurance doesn't pan out because there's no record that tax or duty was pre-paid that the consumer holds.
- Lawyers use terms to get around certain legalities, exploiting loopholes and such.
- The GSP term "Import Charges" is a loophole exploit.
- Tax and duty should be collected, but not by a foreign entity whom has no binding to the country the tax/duty is being remitted to.
This is why the GSP's operation needs investigation now more than ever not just in Canada or Germany, but all countries where the GSP is operated in, because there is money leaving those nations' economies en-route to the US without any promise that the funds will be returned to their economies to be used to pay tax or duty.
For all we know, all the import charges collected by PBI on items under $20 en-route to Canada or $1000 in Australia could be funnelled into PBI's profits if customs doesn't ask for money upon determination.
c!~~_7.JPG "kalvin@ebay.com"){kind=avatar}
