Wanted to check in on the deals one last time before the deadline. Now there are 0 taxes? How come? Someone has to pay them, either at customs or at checkout. Should we expect to pay them at customs along with toll? Webpage price as it stands is a rather good deal. With the extra layers of whatever charges on top , is not, though.
Good reviews before the deadline would also have increased tolerance for a higher price.
Was a bug in there store.
I’m looking at the price here:
https://backer.pimaxvr.com/shop/product/backer-upgrade-plan-c-364
Taxes are listed as USD 0. But there should be taxes > 0 there, right?
Thanks for share with these issues, I think someone made a mistake, how can this happened , we will look into and fix it. Thanks again.
Something that is not too clear for me, and is central to my decision to purchase or not, if i order the pimax 8kx i will have to pay the customs fees ?
With contry do you live in?
The “custom taxes” put upon the price (including shipping fee) in Europe when importing goods from non-EU regions is in fact the VAT. The VAT varies mostly between 19-25% between countries. In Germany its 19 and Sweden 25.
The VAT is in fact put on top of the price on most - if not all - products you buy in Europe. But if you buy something from outside of EU, its separately added on the price. And its supposed to be added in the Pimax store checkout, which it accidentally didn’t in this case.
The difference compared to, lets say Oculus store, is that the VAT is automatically added to the sale price within EU, and not seperated from the price. Same as in any local or physical store in EU, VAT is always included in the price displayed.
An Oculus Quest costs 399 USD in US, while it costs 449 Euro in EU. This makes it roughly a 26% higher price i EU (just above 100 USD more) that covers the average VAT and extra fees that someone has to pay of course, and in this case you, as a customer.
Valve charges approximately 21/22% more from EU customers compared to US customers, which covers the average VAT in most EU countries.
Pimax is in no way unique by doing this.
And now you may be thinking:
Yes. The simple answer is:
Pimax had to pay it. Just to make us, including backers, happy and make it fair for EU customers (as the rest of the world dont pay VAT upon importing).
As far as I understand it, Pimax lost in average 23% on each order in EU. And as you may understand, this is not a good way to keep a sustainable business in the long run.
So yes, VAT has to be paid by the customer, just like on basically any other store (Oculus, HTC, Valve) etc. No matter if you ship it through an EU hub (companies dont pay VAT between eachother). So the end-customer always has to pay the VAT. Which is me and you.
We can only blame the European Union for this nonsense. Or ourselves for still living here… 
You should add that if the customer bought an item from the Pimax store and the taxes weren’t added at the checkout AND the item(s) are shipped from outside EU or US, the customer will have to pay the taxes at some point.
Depending on how sharp the custom officers are, I’d say it’s a 90% probability that the customer will have to pay.
Correct me if I’m wrong @sweviver
And a follow up question: is there warehouses in the UK, EU, US?
Thats correct, unless your package manages to slip through the system, which rarely happens nowadays.
In US yes, in EU we are working on it, as Brexit is coming and UK warehouse might not be an option anymore.
Remember that if VAT has been paid in advance, no custom charges needs to be paid on arrival, as the package is declared. Unless you live in a weird country, which is having its own rules for whatever reason.
Depend on which website you are ordering from, I will provide you the link which you are not going to pay for the customs fee if you are interested. Thanks.emphasized text
US, SAN JOSE CA and Florida have the warehouse
@sweviver already gives a good answer, he is right, we are loose money, but we are still trying to do our best. Customers are living in the USA, no need to pay for the customer fee. Pimax already paid it, and I believe this fee will not be an issue for you to decide whether buy or not because it is not so high for the individual, and also, we have no other choice, as this is pay to the federal government.
@Amy
It is still a little bit confusing:
If U.S. customer orders from the Pimax website, the price of the item is same than in E.U. customer orders, but the U.S. customer will have his item shipped from Florida or California, so he does not have to pay the taxes while the E.U. customers parcel is shipped from China, so he HAS to pay the taxes?
Am I correct?
I am sorry, maybe I am misleading you. I believe the custom fee is not because the location where the parcel shipped from is due to both the country’s tax policy and Pimax company’s policy, also there have other factors they need considerate for the custom fee. I think I may not clear to answer your question, but I will communicate with China colleagues to get more information, sorry about the misleading
Okay, we will figure this out eventually
As far I understand, the prices on the website are without the taxes for everyone.
Any US forum member, please correct any inaccuracies here, but if I have this more or less right, things should be something like this:
For goods bought by a person within an EU country, from a seller in another EU country, VAT is paid in the country the seller is based in.
For goods imported to a EU country from a seller outside EU, VAT is paid in the buyer’s country of residence.
Buyers in the US pay sales tax three-ways, to their state, county, and city of residence, all of which set the rates for their share individually - some take none, some take some, which is from what I understand why US prices are always listed pre tax, and calculated at checkout.
…and there is such a thing as import duties - some people even wave those around as weapons of economic warfare.
Speaking of weird country, Norway is not a member of EU but is part of the three EEA EFTA States (Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway) and governed by the same basic EU rules.
The 25% VAT is added on top of the price and shipping fee. Usually by a forwarding agent, but not uncommon by the buyer before delivery with TVINN. (TVINN is Norwegian Customs electronic system for exchanging customs declarations)
Norwegian Customs does not reimburse VAT paid in other countries.
Customs clearance for goods to Norway
Usually a forwarding agent can get customs clearance for goods on your behalf. A forwarding agent is a person or company that can provide transport, customs clearance, and the like on behalf of others. The forwarding agent declares the goods electronically by submitting information to Norwegian Customs’ customs clearance system, TVINN.
The declaration from the forwarding agent and response from Norwegian Customs are both electronic. Neither the importer nor the forwarding agent needs to meet physically with Norwegian Customs to declare the goods.
Even if you use a forwarding agent, you the importer are responsible for ensuring that the import and customs clearance are carried out in accordance with the regulations.
You can link up to TVINN yourself instead of using a forwarding agent.
Private - Norwegian Customs
Just adding…
Pre-ordered the Pimax 8kX last night: no taxes and shipping was almost nothing ($60?) Ordered a cable and pre-ordered the hand module and Vision kit: $10 shipping, no taxes. I can’t even ship to the next state over for that cheap!!!
No taxes on anything. Houston, we may have a problem! This should be interestink!