UK Import duty on secondhand M's

Austerby

Austerby

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Can anyone please advise what tax I should budget for if attempting to take advantage of the current GBP strength and buy a used MP from a US dealer. I'm looking at about USD2400 or GBP1200 purchase price.

Would I need to pay it as it is a secondhand item?

Many thanks for your comments.
 
Iff you get hit, you're looking at normal VAT at 17.5% and then a few quid on top for the shipping company's handling charge (~£10? from memory).

I'd count on you having to pay and then if you don't - a bonus :)
 
You pay approx a third in import duty, AND then 17.5% VAT,
that would be about £400 plus £280 VAT - personally unless you can get the seller to mark the camera as a gift, or devalue it considerably,(Which of course ruins any insurance claim) I wouldnt bother!
 
Cheers Thea, I hadn't realised that. I only got invoiced for VAT when I imported film from Freestyle.

Looking at the HM Customs site, it seems film cameras have a duty rate of 4.9%, where did you get the 33% rate info. from?
 
Magus

Our customs/tax people are sneaky, if thay catch your cheating, road side Guillitione, swish, chop, knit one purl one.

Noel
 
Thea said:
You pay approx a third in import duty, AND then 17.5% VAT,
that would be about £400 plus £280 VAT - personally unless you can get the seller to mark the camera as a gift, or devalue it considerably,(Which of course ruins any insurance claim) I wouldnt bother!
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are you sure, thea?

i bought a synth for about £500 from japan a couple of months ago and had to pay about £50 import duty. if your camera is roughly twice that i'd imagine you'd pay around £100.
 
I bought a (No I know not camera gear but you did ask!) Dora The Explorer House acouple of years ago for my daughter's Christmas present, it cost me £75 equiv at the time, which was about half price in the UK, but I got banged £28 import duty and then 17.5% VAT £18.55 which works out at a third plus VAT..I imagine that cameras and toys come under the same regulations, ie to pay duty on??


Unless they have changed the system in the last couple of years that is?
 
Even if marked as a gift, if the value (including postage costs) exceeds £36 you will pay duty on it. That's duty, vat on top of that, and the Royal Mails/courier company's charge for collecting the duty and vat on top of that.

Having said that, a colleague of mine recently bought a camera from Hong Kong via ebay. They marked it as worth 50p and he didn't pay any duty or vat on top of it. He actually paid over £200 for it, it's dodgy to say the least but I wonder where the blame would lie? The exporter in Hong Kong has lied, not my colleague. But I wonder if they'd realised the value of the package would HM Customs try to get the duty and vat off my colleague.

And if the package goes missing, you'll never get anything back, as it was only worth 50p, right? Even with the current exchange rates, it's risky. It's probably be cheaper (and much more fun) to fly to the US and collect it in person. Then walk through the "nothing to declare" channel back home.
 
Thea said:
I bought a (No I know not camera gear but you did ask!) Dora The Explorer House acouple of years ago for my daughter's Christmas present, it cost me £75 equiv at the time, which was about half price in the UK, but I got banged £28 import duty and then 17.5% VAT £18.55 which works out at a third plus VAT..I imagine that cameras and toys come under the same regulations, ie to pay duty on??


Unless they have changed the system in the last couple of years that is?
Click to expand...


It all depends on the tariff charts, which categorize different items in all sorts of (not very logical sometimes) ways.

This is a link to a circular on HM Customs website listing duty and VAT on common goods purchased from abroad on the internet. You'll see that digital still cameras have no duty (but do carry VAT at the standard rate of 17.5%), while 35mm SLR film cameras carry a 4.9% duty and VAT. Makes no sense why one gets charged duty and the other doesn't, but there you go.

http://customs.hmrc.gov.uk/channels...ent&id=HMCE_PROD_009989&propertyType=document
 
Thanks for the HMRC link. Looks like I should therefore just budget for VAT as no duty on still cameras. That adds about £200 to the purchase price, not bad then at £1400 for a nearly new 0.58 MP? (though no bargain...)
 
I've just imported two items into the UK from the USA:

Used Hasselblad prism bought off eBay from a US dealer - smacked for charges that meant I could almost have bought a metered version from a UK eBay seller. Pay duty or the item will be scrapped - no appeal or specific explanation. Really bad experience.

Second item was a used Hasselblad 80mm CF lens from a Forum member and marked as a repaired item - no charge.

Then there's the £24,000 motorcycle just rejected by US Customs, yet suspended on a daily storage charge without any info on return date. We think it's probable we will never see it again !

Customs have more power than the Police, don't need approval to seize goods. It's guilty until proved innocent.

Rolo
 
On second hand cameras, you will pay VAT at 17.5% on the whole declared price (declared value of item PLUS cost of shipping) as well as any handling charge deemed by the carrier (The Post Office charges something like £8 just for sorting this out on top of HM customs charges). I recently paid £42 on charges for a M2 'valued' at £230 inc shipping) hen it was shipped from the USA by USPS and then delivered by Royal Mail.

Charlie
 
I have bought items ranging from $5 to nearly $400... I'm also waiting on a $900 camera.

If the item is valued at over £18 sterling as custom, or £30 sterling as gift, you are charged 17,5% VAT and a small duty on top.

I spent about £200-ish on a camera from the states. I paid £50 import tax. £35 customs and import, £15 parcelforce 'fee'.
 
I bought a Canonet from the US; paid duty, vat and post office fee on top. Sent it back to the US some time later for a repair, received it back, paid duty, vat and post office fee on top again. The problem was it was posted insured (which obviously cost more as well) so Customs used the insured value to base their charges on.

It's up to Royal Mail to collect the charges. A few years ago they didn't bother, but I've never had anything escape duty in recent years.
 
mpt600 said:
I bought a Canonet from the US; paid duty, vat and post office fee on top. Sent it back to the US some time later for a repair, received it back, paid duty, vat and post office fee on top again. The problem was it was posted insured (which obviously cost more as well) so Customs used the insured value to base their charges on.

It's up to Royal Mail to collect the charges. A few years ago they didn't bother, but I've never had anything escape duty in recent years.
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If you ask nicely, your local Customs office should be able supply you with a form that you include in the box when sending it abroad and if your repairman is kind enough to include it in the box on the way back, you'll only have to pay the fees on the repair cost, not on the item value.

I guess the form has to be stamped and signed by three Customs officers wearing dark robes with garlic around their necks under full moon on a snowy sunday in june but it might be worth a shot :)
 
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