receiving packages from other countries

akdemik wrote:

Hello, i am going to stay in Hungary for 1-2 months and i want to know if it is possible to receive packages from FedEx - USA while i stay there?  i dont have a hungarian ID , how can i pick up/receive the package? Will i encounter any difficulties?

Hungary is not on the moon. Of course you can get your packages here. However, Fedex is not well represented here. UPS and DHL are however all over the place and there's also the Post Office. Couriers can be really expensive.

You don't need any ID (passport would do) to receive a package at any address. You would be advised to put a local contact on the package (i.e. c/o - care of) because your name would not be on the bell for an apartment.

If you receive dutiable goods, you'll have to pay customs fees , import duties and VAT (27%!!!) which are generally collected by the delivery company (i.e. post office, DHL, UPS etc). What it  will cost depend on what you are receiving. Customs will catch illegal things like money, drugs, negotiable instruments, weaponry etc. The question of what is illegal depends on what it is. There's no overall commmon EU system for importing things like medicines. For example, quantities of prescription medicines can be personally imported into the UK via the postal system if they are for personal use (quantity allowed is generally 3 months). This is also the case in the USA (personal imports allowed).  However, in Hungary, medicines cannot (I believe) be imported personally via the postal or courier system. 

If you are receiving things like "peanut butter", be aware that many of those sorts of things are freely available and not worth the hassle of importing.

i was thinking to buy a jewlery from usa and they ship by fedex only. Is there any way to avoid the import tax and VAT?

Not really without stretching the truth and besides, that would be illegal.

You could get them to call them commercial samples of no value on their customs forms but they might not do that if it wasn't true. I doubt you'd get insurance though (Post Office would do that). If Customs open the package, then you could end up having to pay anyway. In some countries, it's hit and miss if you get caught for duties/VAT. One package can get it one day and another the same 2 days later would get through without problems.

The only other way (depending on the goods value) is to go there personally. You can import a certain amount of goods without paying but you have to do it physically in person. The value is quite low, don't remember exactly, not more than a few hundred dollars.

An alternative is to buy stuff anywhere inter-EU without duties. VAT you would still need to pay at the local rate. However, for practical purposes they'd probably just charge you local VAT where you purchased it rather than the destination (Hungary) rate because it's nothing but hassle for them. It depends who you buy from and how switched on to the rules they are.