Import tax in Norway

私が出品した LP を落札した Norway 在住のレコードコレクターの方が教えてくれました．

> > please write value ($20 USD) on custom slip. Thanks for doing this.
> > All the best
>
> And yes, I will write 20.00 USD on custom slip.
> By the way, other buyers from North Europe also said so.
> I don't know the reason why everybody says the same thing,
> so would you please let me know the reason?
> Are there some "extra tax" for items over 20.00 USD or something?

The $20 USD issue: Yes, you are correct, it has something to do with taxes. In Norway (this may differ) the government have decided that all imported stuff which are taxable (almost everything except books) and exceeds a certain limit (ca $30 USD) have to be taxed with a penalty fee of a varying degree. If you wrote value like $50 USD , 24 % of the whole amount plus a taxation fee (this is fixed= always $20 USD) must be paid before the parcel is handed out. As you will see, this is a very expensive way of buying records. Of course there's a moral aspect to it, is it OK to "cheat" the government of it's rightful taxes? I think yes, because the way we deal here is not meant for commercial reasons, it's to expand our collections, our private collections. The tax is there in the first place to protect our nation's interests, which is understandable, but in the case of record-collecting it's just silly because noone here in our country is trying to sell the same goods, and then there is no competition!!

流石北欧，こんなところでも税率が高いんですね... しかし何故書籍だけ除外されるんやろう?