What are the taxes applied to packages shipped to Guatemala?

Question

I am a KidsChurch pastor and our youth pulled over $1000 together and bought gifts for a specific village group of children in Guatemala. We used UPS to ship the packages to the Guatemalan Airport & had a Guatemalan contact, that I personally know, that was to pick up the gifts. We knew there would be a tax, however, the amount that the airport gives us keeps changing. The original amount was $500. Our church was in the process of sending the money when our contact sent us an email saying that the airport was now demanding $1000. We contacted the Guatemalan Embassy and are working with them, but they haven't really worked out much yet. These gifts were supposed to get to the kids for Christmas. Now it is almost February and the gifts are STILL at the airport. The demand, as of last week, has gone up to $1600. I completely trust my contact. She works with the village children on a regular basis and is a wonderful honest person. Anyone have any advice? Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

I had worked for an export company, and to be quite sincere with you using UPS, DHL, and other companies door to door service is very expensive.  Why don´t you try to use a broker company that ships your package by airline cargo?

Also if you are going to send the merchandise for charity, it would be good if you write on your papers CHARITY or DONATION FOR POOR PEOPLE.  But you have to be sure that you have papers that prove that the merchandise you are sending is to be sent for charity, because if you write Christmas Presents, uhhhhhhhh I don´t want to imagine wow much they are going to take you off as expenses.

Good luck

Answer 2

All depends of what kind of products you are going to give. the VAT is 12% and that is applied for every product. Then, the dute Tax, acorded to the product, and can be in a range of 0% to 31%. so, if you sent some product in the top tax rate, you will be paid 41% of the price in taxes. And the price, if you did not sent the bill, will be according to a "blue book".