International Shipping and declared value vs insured value 0

[CournalCrunch]

Hi all, been reading some previous threads on here regarding this topic.

Situation is this - looking at purchasing a key from Australia. I have the option to either ship to the US-California or the UK (preferably the UK). The shipping will have insurance up to the purchase amount, but I am slightly confused on how this effects the declared value. Given this is what the package will have a customs tax (or 20% VAT) applied to it. Is it usually one to one? So if you insure for $10k then expect to pay $2k in VAT?

In my reading it seems this is an unavoidable cost of doing business internationally but if anyone has any workarounds would love to hear it.

[Complex306]

Maybe look into a courier service? Honestly for 2k I'd just buy a ticket to Australia and take the book back as a carry-on. If I'm going to drop a couple grand I might as well get a brief vacation out of it. If traditional mail is your only feasible route then yes I'd imagine the insured and declared values would have to match. In the unfortunate event the book is damaged the shipper would dispute the insured value based on the declaration, and customs could drop the hammer on you for undervaluing your item in order to dodge VAT.