Buying a lens from USA, tax cost?

I find the shipping costs from the US seem to have gone up lately negating our stronger pound advantage.
You'll have to pay at least the 20% VAT on a new item.
From EU countries there won't be any additional charges other than slightly higher postage.
You should bear in mind potential warranty issues with something like a lens which *might* arrive damaged.
In theory the maker might fix any fault locally but if it got kicked about en route it will be more expensive doing returns to America,
 
Some sellers abroad are offering a "Get it through customs without paying extra", service backed by eBay. Might be worth investigating.
 
Customs is often all over the place when it comes to pricing, I once had some product shipped from the states in two identical branded boxes stating the same contents and value yet customs charged me different amounts.

I think it works out to roughly 20% of the declared value (assuming it's over the threshold) and then a £8 or £13 handling fee thrown on top, services like UPS/Fedex will be more expensive but tend to clear immediately.

As 4wd says you shouldn't be paying import taxes on anything sourced in the EU as it's at the point it enters the EU that those taxes are supposed to be pegged on.
 
You will pay approx 4.5% import tax on the lens price plus 20% vat on the purchase price and postage cost (vat on postage due to it being a service) plus a handling fee so if you budget approx 30% you shouldn't be far off
 
I buy a lot of stuff from overseas and it usually ends up being around 25%. HMRC list their exchange rate so you should be able to work it out from that: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/exchange-rates-for-customs-and-vat

The VAT is meant to be charged on anything over the £15 threshold but in my experience on a large item they tend to charge on the whole declared amount. In the past when they have made a mistake I've filled out a form and to be fair I've received a letter back a couple of weeks later with their decision and and then a cheque a couple of weeks after that.
 
The only time I've ever got stung for import was with a lens from the USA, an additional £80.

IMVHO it's best to assume that you'll have to pay import and factor that in to the price you're willing to pay, that way if you don't have to pay it'll be a nice surprise rather than a nasty one :D
 
The thing that really p's me off about stuff from the USA is the Royal Mail handling charge. Last thing I got from the US had about £3.50 tax and then the Royal Mail stuck over £9 on top, daylight robbery.
 
If you bought from Japan, you would be liable for the same level of duties and VAT as buying from USA. As Germany is within the EU, no taxes would be payable
 
There's a calculator for this here:
http://www.dutycalculator.com/new-import-duty-and-tax-calculation/

Basically you take the cost of the lens and add postage and insurance to get the import value.
Then you pay 6.7% of the import value as import duty
Then you pay 20% of the new total, including the duty (this is the VAT and yes, you pay VAT on the import duty!)
Then you add the courier fee - could be anything from ~£8 up (I paid about £30 on an expensive item once, I think - depends on the courier).
The easiest way to work all that out is that you pay ~28% of the total (inc P&P) you paid to the seller, plus the courier fee.
Also bear in mind that, if you're paying in US $, most payment methods don't charge you at the 'real' exchange rate - you usually pay about 3-4% more than that.
 
Hi, I would be more concerned about the seller being honest. Americans are very

Wary about buying from people outside there own country and we should apply the same thought to them. As an example when the Canon 350D came onto the market I bought one from an EBay seller in the USA and it was delivered as stated however when I was asked by work colleagues if could do the same for them so I ordered two more and received nothing, even unable to contact the seller, I managed to contact the police from there home county address from the first package but when they got back to me they said it was a run down empty property, money lost and lesson learnt.

My advice, DO YOUR HOME WORK on the seller or better still for a lot of money buy from nearer home.

Russ
 
All items from outside EU are subject to 20% VAT and potential additional handling fees varied by couriers.

For personal shipping the lower limit is 36 pounds, 18 pounds lower limits is for business goods.
 
i just got a package from US. Cost $68+ $9 postage it cost me £17.50 to pick up duty and fees far to much to be worth it
Hoof
 
I found buying from Europe cheaper atm due to the weak Euro. I had a new Pentax 150-450mm f5.6 arrive from the Netherlands today, it was posted Tuesday evening and arrived lunchtime.

UK cost £2k ... cost from the Netherlands with postage, currency conversion and bank charges ... £1580. Not a bad saving. :)
 
funnily enough just bought some lenses for my RB67 one from Japan and one from USA both import costs were similar and were about £30 for each lens and they were both about £100/each net.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top