Mal, I'm from Uruguay, yeah beneath Brazil, Luis Suarez's place, yes.
Some people try and do what you did with the phone but customs do their research and asign a value if they cannot find something similar to what they have. Needless to say, it's completely arbitrary and sometimes unfair. Fortunately, it hasn't happened to me yet, mainly because I have stuff shipped by a private company that goes through all the paperwork for me, all included in their fee.
I now see that I left out a bit of information. That rule applies
only for 5 purchases per person per year. Starting from the sixth purchase, no matter what the value is, you pay that 60% tax and additional administration costs. This leads to situations where many items worth USD50 or so end up doubling their value.
I cannot complain about limitations on things to ship, they are quite sensible. Toys and cellphones are heavily regulated, although they usually pass (sadly, diecasts are counted as toys and thus they have huge delays). Alcohol, medications and prescription glasses are forbidden. You can still ship sunglasses with no problem.
Paying the tax for the CPU would end up with me paying about 30 bucks more than what it's worth here, which is what the government is aiming for, I guess. I understand the excuse to protect local retailers but I hate that the ones that basically put the tax there are mall owners, and while it's true that Amazon stuff doesn't pay local taxes, I don't believe it's fair to basically forbid online shopping by making it as difficult as possible. I would like, for example, what Germany does, as Christopher says, a fair tax and no more excessive "protectionism"
At least I know I'm not crazy for thinking like this
Stats: 139 Starts / 7 Wins / 9 Poles / 5 Fastest laps