A finance expert has told RTE's Claire Byrne what people should be watching out for to avoid extra charges on their online Christmas shopping.
Charlie Weston, personal finance editor with the Irish Independent, said that people must be aware of what sites they are buying from due to the new tax and customs rules that came into effect in July.
Speaking on Claire Byrne Live, he said: "With Black Friday coming up and Christmas shopping online and people encouraged to work from home, there's going to be a lot of online buying, but it's the first time since the internet was invented that… Britain is outside the European Union."
He added: "The rules changed in the summer. In July, there was a whole raft of compliance and tax and custom changes which come into effect, which affect people buying from Britain."
Mr Weston said the new rules are leading to parcels being returned to sender, being delayed 'for ages' and people having to pay enormous amounts of tax and customs duties. Which he said, "makes the bargain redundant."
He added: "The other thing is there's handling charges now being imposed by An Post of €3.50 for receiving something. So it's become immensely complicated, even if your receiving a package from an aunt in England, they have to go through a whole rigmarole now than they ever had to do before, and that's catching people out."
Since July 1st, imports from countries outside the European Union have had VAT imposed on the total price. So a VAT rate of 23% is now payable on all goods entering the EU.
Mr Weston also warned people about customs charges.
He said: "It could also be customs charges. If the value of the goods is over €150, customs charges apply as well. You're talking here around 12%, maybe.
"Some of the retailers that people would have bought from coming into this country… they're not adding those in when you go to check out."
He added: "If it's a decent website, it should say 'delivered duty paid'. That's the key.
"People are getting confused as well. They think it's an Irish website because it's got .ie on it, or it's charging you in euros. That's not necessarily the case that it's an Irish website. Anyone can register a website with .ie."
Mr Weston advised people to complete the following checks before making an online purchase.
He said: "So you need to check does it have on it delivered duty paid, is it registered in Ireland if it's saying it's a .ie or if it's somewhere else in the EU your fine.
"Look at the terms and conditions. Look at the about us and look at reviews of the website. If it looks very cheap, it probably is."
