Duty taxes USA -> UK

[FJDBart]

Hello photographers of the world

I'm based in the uk now, and I sadly found out that prices for photo equipment are much higher than the US. Some times twices the price.
I've been searching a good price for a Canon 2- 135 IS / USM : the cheaptest one I found on the net was 339pounds.
But On a webstore called B&H photo video I found this lens for 399Dollars +pp (206pounds) V. Cheap !
Well So my question is if : I buy this lens, Do I have to pay any extra tax (dutty tax) for it ?
Thanks
Fernando

[andygrif]

Yes you will have to pay duty AND tax. Anything up to the value of £18 can be imported remotely (i.e. without you personally bringing it back into the country).

The send must by law write the true value of the item on the customs document, although many people do try and get round this. It's unlikely that B&H would entertain writing 'gift no value' on a $400 lens.

It's ridiculously difficulat to get accurate import duty fees online, but HMCE (or HMRC as it's now called) have a helpline (and they really are very helpful) who will do you a rough quote if you tell them what the item is and it's value.

AFAIK there is no duty on photographic kit, but they will charge you VAT @ 17.5%, but you're best of checking this with HMRC, however I just ran a very wooly description of an SLR lens through the TARIC website (http://europa.eu.int/comm/taxation_customs/dds/cgi-bin/tarquer?Lang=EN) with the item code of 9006510000 and it tells me there's an import duty rate of 4.2%

So, worst case scenario you'd be looking at $17 of duty, then $73 of VAT, which at 1.8 / £ comes to about £275.

By the way, have you looked at http://www.7dayshop.com (http://www.7dayshop.com/)

[neil_r]

I buy all my kit from B&H and always get stung by customs for duty and it still works out cheaper than sourcing in the UK:confused: . Now why has that not come up as an election issue?

N

[dewmuw]

I buy all my kit from B&H and always get stung by customs for duty and it still works out cheaper than sourcing in the UK:confused: . Now why has that not come up as an election issue?

N

Is there and election on? :D

[weemannie]

I've made a couple of purchases from US and allowed about 22% for duty and VAT which was a pretty good guide

[KevC]

I'm not from the UK, but with Canada we get charged big amounts of duty *and* taxes. However, if you choose UPS Expedited or UPS Express, custom clearance is covered in the shipping charge. Yup, that's right. No brokerage/duty. You pretty much paid it while paying for the shipping.

Taxes, on the other hand, are always charged.