Sooooo much cheaper- why?

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Fordsabroad

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I have been looking at the price of a new Canon 600mm f4 lens. The main sellers seem to be asking just below £11,000 but Ashton Little and SLR hut are selling them for £8500 and £9000 respectively. Ashton Little offer a 2 year UK warranty. I understand that they may source these from outside of the UK but surely a Canon lens is a Canon lens no matter where it comes from and if it is guaranteed what is the problem?
What am I missing, is there any reason shouldn't I buy from these sellers?
 
Gray imports,no Nikon warranty and i dont think in some cases you pay the import tax.
 
Your buying 11K lenses and don't know. Crazy
 
Fordsabroad said:
Not a helpful comment, please explain
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There are two kinds of imports in the UK. Those above board where you pay VAT (20%) and you get the manufacturer's warranty and those where the VAT is avoided so things are sent to you from e,g, Hong Kong on the hope customs will not spot them.

It is the importer who has to pay VAT and any other taxes, and when you buy from Hong Kong you are the importer. Some companies promise to pay the VAT if your goods get stopped and some do so. They work on the basis more goods will get through than not so as long as they make money they continue. Equally they will give you a warranty and they will pay for the repair with whichever company they work with. Their warranty is worth it whilst they want to keep the business going but if they decide not to honour it you got no come backs.

Finally, the companies that sell to you goods without VAT and any other taxes, will probably say so somewhere in the fine print but it will be well hidden because other than that they will give the impression they are based in the UK. So the comment was ... you are spending £11,000 you should be more diligent in what you are doing.
 
Nawty said:
Yeah, basically its tax dodging so it depends on how you feel about that...
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Politicians do it all the time, the likes of Amazon, Google, Microsoft and other companies are allowed to tax dodge with our governments blessing, why then should anyone feel guilty about this practice..


mikew said:
Gray imports,no Nikon warranty
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I doubt the OP is expecting a Nikon warranty since he is buying a Canon lens
 
If the Con-servative Home Secretary and dozens of other UK politicians and officials can have tax dodging offshore bank accounts, why should us mere mortals worry about buying grey imports.
I know I don't!
 
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Well I will never be in the position to even contemplate spending that on a lens, but if I did I would want to be secure in the knowledge that if anything went wrong I could either pick up the phone to Elstree or drive there and get it sorted
 
redsnappa said:
Politicians do it all the time, the likes of Amazon, Google, Microsoft and other companies are allowed to tax dodge with our governments blessing, why then should anyone feel guilty about this practice..
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Ah! The "please sir, little Jimmy done it too" defence.
 
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Fordsabroad said:
Not a helpful comment, please explain
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They are grey market dealers. There is way too much info about it to list here but read up all about it online, everyone has to decide for themselves if it for them or not.

My comment was silly, I apologise.
 
No need to apologise, no offence was taken I just did not understand what you were getting at.
It seems from the replies that it is more to do with tax than the equipment. If the guarantee turns out to be useless a £2500 saving can get a pretty serious repair done.
 
Fordsabroad said:
No need to apologise, no offence was taken I just did not understand what you were getting at.
It seems from the replies that it is more to do with tax than the equipment. If the guarantee turns out to be useless a £2500 saving can get a pretty serious repair done.
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If you're planning on buying a grey import, do yourself a favour and make sure you're dealing with someone with a positive history, if you think the most you can lose is your underpayment of tax, you've clearly missed the point..

Panamoz and hdew both get decent writeups
 
Pretty sure Ashton Little has come up before on TP and was pretty much a scam with someone losing money on here. Could have been somewhere else but I'd avoid them no matter what. As above, some get pretty good feedback here and elsewhere.
 
I would add, make sure that in worse case scenario you can afford to pay a handling charge by the courier for the goods being stopped (No idea how much but easily £50-100) + the full VAT on the invoice price including carriage. If there is no such receipt HMRC might/will assume the VAT that would belong to the £11,000 lens. It does not mean you will pay it but you might have to pay it or you lose the lens.
 
redsnappa said:
Politicians do it all the time, the likes of Amazon, Google, Microsoft and other companies are allowed to tax dodge with our governments blessing, why then should anyone feel guilty about this practice..
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As has been discussed in another thread, tax evasion and tax avoidance (dodging) are very different things:

a) A smart accountant
b) Whatever the HMRC say
c)
  • Fraud and conspiracy to defraud, Fraud Act 2006, s 1 – 10 years.
  • Fraudulent evasion of VAT, VATA 1994, s 72 – seven years.
  • Cheating the public revenue under the common law – life imprisonment.
 
Ploddles said:
Pretty sure Ashton Little has come up before on TP and was pretty much a scam with someone losing money on here. Could have been somewhere else but I'd avoid them no matter what. As above, some get pretty good feedback here and elsewhere.
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:muted: :muted: Ahem.....allegedly!
 
jamesev said:
As has been discussed in another thread, tax evasion and tax avoidance (dodging) are very different things:

a) A smart accountant
b) Whatever the HMRC say
c)
  • Fraud and conspiracy to defraud, Fraud Act 2006, s 1 – 10 years.
  • Fraudulent evasion of VAT, VATA 1994, s 72 – seven years.
  • Cheating the public revenue under the common law – life imprisonment.
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You have it the wrong way around.
Tax evasion = non-payment of tax, illegal
Tax avoidance= minimising tax due, legal
 
heidfirst said:
You have it the wrong way around.
Tax evasion = non-payment of tax, illegal
Tax avoidance= minimising tax due, legal
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I don't think there was anywhere in my post that defined which way round they were - just they are very different things
 
Also remember you could order said lenson credit card so a bit of cover.

it then gets stopped at customs and you get sent the vat bill.
you have to pay that to release the goods.
grey import will then have cost you about the same.

i doubt such a high value item will slip through.

when you buy grey like this you defraud the government of revenue for schools, hospitals and all sorts.
you obviously have acres of cash to be considereing this lens so buy UK
 
Mr Bump said:
Also remember you could order said lenson credit card so a bit of cover.

it then gets stopped at customs and you get sent the vat bill.
you have to pay that to release the goods.
grey import will then have cost you about the same.

i doubt such a high value item will slip through.

when you buy grey like this you defraud the government of revenue for schools, hospitals and all sorts.
you obviously have acres of cash to be considereing this lens so buy UK
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On high value items you also get import tax slapped on top of the VAT, and the administration fee added by Royal Mail/Parcelforce.

Our Government defrauds themselves by cutting the top rate of income tax, cutting corporation tax, and doing nothing to tackle tax avoidance. Plus they wouldn't put extra funding into schools and hospitals anyway because of their Austerity agenda - so that's a poor argument. If Google can decide not to pay billions in tax, then why is it suddenly such an issue for Joe Public to buy a £10k lens and not pay VAT?!

I agree it would be crazy to consider buying a grey market £10k lens though with the possibility of customs charges and warranty issues.
 
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Mr Bump said:
Also remember you could order said lenson credit card so a bit of cover.

it then gets stopped at customs and you get sent the vat bill.
you have to pay that to release the goods.
grey import will then have cost you about the same.

i doubt such a high value item will slip through.

when you buy grey like this you defraud the government of revenue for schools, hospitals and all sorts.
you obviously have acres of cash to be considereing this lens so buy UK
Click to expand...


Be careful what you Assume my friend - you are a long way off the mark
 
Ploddles said:
Could be paying on credit etc and thus repaying monthly. Doesn't mean he has loads of ready cash available.
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doesn't matter how anyone is paying it is the commitment to buy a lens for that kind of money, even if you spread it over 2 years.
I'm not giving him a hard time, you spend your money on what you want, some people spend billions on fancy cars.
but that is a new car for some people that lens, so yeah I think he has cash to spare.
 
Mr Bump said:
doesn't matter how anyone is paying it is the commitment to buy a lens for that kind of money, even if you spread it over 2 years.
I'm not giving him a hard time, you spend your money on what you want, some people spend billions on fancy cars.
but that is a new car for some people that lens, so yeah I think he has cash to spare.
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Sort of agree. Always gets me when people buy card for say £25,000 and then haggle over the dealer filling the tank with about £50 of fuel.

Then again if you evade the £1500 of tax you can go get a legit 70-200 to go with your long with what you save...
 
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Some people see vat as unfair and not the fact that vat is what provides most of the UK services. Dodge vat and you deprive society of essential services
 
Digital Rev are still dishonest they basically say if you get charged vat they will reimburse you. If you don't then you will have dodged it and evaded it
 
Mr Bump said:
Some people see vat as unfair and not the fact that vat is what provides most of the UK services. Dodge vat and you deprive society of essential services
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Some people just see any levy as unfair whether VAT, NIC, Income or Corporation tax. doesn't change the fact that these are the conditions of working and buying and selling goods whilst a citizen of a particular country,
 
Mr Bump said:
Digital Rev are still dishonest they basically say if you get charged vat they will reimburse you. If you don't then you will have dodged it and evaded it
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DigitalRev offers the convenience of shouldering these fees on your behalf by sending it via DDP (Duty Delivery Paid). This means that the sender is the one that pays any tax excise, not recipient. The express courier will bill us directly and never request the recipient for payment. This means that the amount you pay on check out is the final and only amount you need to pay.

There are, in some rare occasions, that the courier may overlook this portion and ask you to pay for tax excise. When this happens, simply pay for it first and send us a copy of the paid tax excise receipt and we’ll help refund the paid amount back to your account.

In the event that you require any additional assistance, please do not hesitate to let me know through DM so that I can personally assist you.
 
DigitalRevDeals said:
DigitalRev offers the convenience of shouldering these fees on your behalf by sending it via DDP (Duty Delivery Paid). This means that the sender is the one that pays any tax excise, not recipient. The express courier will bill us directly and never request the recipient for payment. This means that the amount you pay on check out is the final and only amount you need to pay.

There are, in some rare occasions, that the courier may overlook this portion and ask you to pay for tax excise. When this happens, simply pay for it first and send us a copy of the paid tax excise receipt and we’ll help refund the paid amount back to your account.

In the event that you require any additional assistance, please do not hesitate to let me know through DM so that I can personally assist you.
Click to expand...

Fair reply that, so just one more question is that how all your UK orders are shipped DDP? or is it an option that the purchaser can chose not to?
 
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