South African Shein and Temu customers have been struggling to estimate how much they can expect to pay in import taxes on their orders following changes made by the taxman over the past two months.
MyBroadband has analysed a dozen orders from this period in which the taxes due on purchases from the Chinese e-commerce giants varied greatly despite packages often having the same or similar values and items.
It enabled Shein and Temu to charge their customers a flat duty of about 20% of their order’s value, including clothing items normally taxed at 45% plus 15% VAT. Sars also said it planned to apply new import taxes according to guidelines set by the World Customs Organisation from 1 November 2024.Meanwhile, South African customers of Shein and Temu have complained about excessive and confusing taxes on their orders since the addition of VAT in September 2024.
Of the three orders valued under R500, two did not include clothing items and had effective tax rates of 33.89% and 39.56%, respectively.That suggested that the higher 45% tax on clothing items applied to this order, despite Sars previously stating it had not yet implemented the 45% tax on packages containing clothing valued under R500.
The table below summarises the value and tax details of 12 Shein and Temu orders placed in September and October 2024, ordered by effective tax rate.
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