Hong Kong Duty/Custom Fees?

Has anyone ever bought a lens from Japan/Hong Kong i.e. and had to pay duty/custom fees? There are a few good buys on lenses at some of these places but wouldn't be a good buy if I had to pay duty/custom fees.

While I haven't purchased anything from there for over 30 years, there was at that time and I can't imagine that a source of revenue would ever be cut.

P.S. This is probably the wrong place for this question.

Hawks Feather wrote in post #12193940
=Hawk's Feather;12193940]While I haven't purchased anything from there for over 30 years, there was at that time and I can't imagine that a source of revenue would ever be cut.

P.S. This is probably the wrong place for this question.

The seller states that he ships the item as a gift of no commercial value. I don't know how much water that would hold especially if the package was inspected.

Although I have not purchased cameras or lenses from Hong Kong and the Mainland, I've bought other photography items (all from eBay merchants), including HD filters, background stands, and lights, and I've never had any kind of duty assessed on the equipment, at least to my knowledge. It could be a function of declared value, or it might be some kind of duty-free protocol arrangement; I just don't know. If memory serves me correctly, I also bought an SDHC card from Eastern Europe, and no import duty was assessed.

In any case, foreign merchants will likely disclaim responsibility for any duty that is assessed, so the buyer is at risk.

in america, i don't think u have to pay anything for consumer items that ship to u from abroad. it's still the land of the free!

Shipping as a GIFT is Fraud with potential criminal charges and not a good idea..... I've bought from Canada and no duty on cameras and lenses coming into the USA (Its hard to find that out too), I'd assume its the same from HK.

Best of luck, sometimes its a bit more but easier to do it from here.

Mark H

Mark H

MrLA is accurate. I trade internationally somewhat frequently, and, work for a company that does international business daily. There are no duties, levies or taxes on items shipping into the US. The same is not true for items shipping into other countries, however, it is solely dependent on the country you're shipping to.

Items coming into the states might get inspected at customs, but even that's a big maybe. I can't remember the last time I've had anything personal inspected at customs; and maybe one out of every fifty commercial shipments at work gets inspected.

I have won items through ebay from foreign sellers and have yet to pay duties. I am guessing that they claim it to be a gift because the return address is usually my last name with a bogus first. If not, it is a huge coinsidence being that my last name is a fairly uncommon one.

I've bought a fair amount of high end optical gear there (Leica & Swarovski binoculars and spotting scopes), declared them on the customs forms the airline passes out and have never had to pay anything. I wouldn't worry about it.

Thanks everyone for being so helpful.

I'm from Canada, and I know that technically we are supposed to pay taxes, but no duties.

On EBay most HK sellers mention that we are responsible for any duties/taxes/etc., but the last couple times I bought camera stuff from there everything was actually marked as "Gift" (Guess the sellers really wanted that positive feedback ) and as a result I never had to pay any additional taxes and such. I do, however, recall buying a set of Kenko Extension Tubes from a HK seller that wasn't marked as a gift, but wasn't charged any taxes.