Thanks for the advice there.
Been told that you can buy the item at the duty free and collect it when you return, so it will never actually leave the country. So it won't need to be declared.
Surely if it's bought in Duty Free then when you declare it, it would have a UK receipt and would not be subject to import duty.
It's one of those tricks which Dixons etc operate which works but will eventually be pounced upon by HMRC. I've benefited from it myself (or not, actually, as I found the item to be cheaper off the net on my return). No, technically it won't have to be declared as it will have been delivered to your home. But read what I said previously about subsequently taking the item out of the country and returning with it. If you get stopped, tax/duty still applies if it is valued at over £340. You can still be asked to show a receipt with proof of tax payment.
What are you supposed to do about equipment you've purchased used and thus have no receipt for?
Then you'll have to convince the Customs man, or try and show some evidence, and hope he's in a good mood.
I would think that Customs would have to be able to prove where it was purchased and in the event that it is used I would think it highly unlikely that they would bother. Different of course if you turn up at Heathrow with 20 boxed DSLR's. In your case Dal they would only have to look on TP to get the proof.....
Customs do NOT have to prove anything. It is entirely up to yourself to prove your innocence. HMRC have greater powers than the Police. Not far short of a licence to kill. The serial numbers on your cameras/lenses are on a database that they have. They can tell which country it was bought in. Throwing away the boxes etc on goods you've bought abroad and trying to pretend that you bought them here is a waste of time.
As for whether or not they would "bother", a friend of mine was held at Heathrow for over an hour while his equipment was checked, including the aforementioned serial numbers on the database. He was asked where he bought it from - a shop in Bristol. "Would that be ABC or XYZ Cameras sir?" "Errr....XYZ." "And what street was it?" Now you're probably thinking this was some whizzy pro kit costing in the thousands. Like hell it was. Canon EOS 600 (I think) 35mm film gear from the 90s, and this incident took place around 5 years ago. Nothing is too much bother for them if it's a slow day and they're bored.
I'm not trying to scare anybody in to being a model citizen and willingly hand over their hard earned cash to this thieving parasitical scum-sucking blood-leeching rotting corpse of a government. It's our duty as good honest working British-born citizens to deprive them of as much of our money as possible. I'm just as guilty as any of you and take great delight in it on occasions. The chances of getting stopped and taken to the cleaners are slim. There's many a flight I've got off and walked through an empty customs hall. Yet I've seen a totally innocent looking old lady of apparently English origin having her suitcase taken apart. An ordinary looking business man driven to the point of almost having a stroke with anger after being caught with a small holdall of cigarettes way in excess of the limit and receiving notice of prosecution. I know this because he ripped the papers up and threw them in the bin outside where I was sat waiting for a taxi, and I had a look.
I've also found myself in a packed customs hall of mixed flights,slowly making my way through, right in the thick of it thinking I would be safe, only to have a tap on the shoulder and be asked by a Customs officer what flight I've just got off. When I said Tokyo, he replied thank you sir, have a good day. Now, if he'd looked in my bag and found all the goodies I'd brought back from those magnificent Japanese shops it would be a different story.
I'm just telling you what the law is and the consequences of circumventing it. So if you get caught, it's no use jumping up and down shouting and screaming about the injustice of it all etc. HMRC are in no way stupid so don't try to make up stories as you go along. Admit it with honesty and good grace and if they don't let you go with a warning they'll minimise the penalty hopefully. Give them any crap or bad attitude though, and they will certainly hang you.
