Im looking at buying a new digital camera. I have been comparing prices and the best i can find are from a seller on ebay. The items are shipped from hong kong and i dont want to get stung on import tax. I will ask the seller to mark up the item cheaper than it is to try and avoid some charge, but just want to know how much i could be charged to see if its worth while.

The camera is £352 including postage, what would i have to pay for import tax if i had to pay the full amount.

The camera is a Panasonic DMC-FZ20 and comes with 512mb SD carb, spare battery, 2 year warrenty, camera case and mini tripod.

I would be saving about £100 buying it this way instead of buying it from the UK.

Thanks

I have bought stuff in the past from abroad.... USA a fair bit.

Its hit and miss wether it gets taxed as customs just seem to take random samples.

Id be wary of telling obvious porkies by stating a really low price, or you will get hit with punitive taxes too.

Ive had stuff delivered by royal mail in the past from USA that they wouldnt hand over till i had paid a 20 odd quid customs charge.

in the case of stuff from the usa, its not taxed if declared as a gift, or under 22 dollars.

if you get stung for vat alone, you are not gonna make much of a saving.

also, take into account if it goes wrong, how are you gonna get warranty?

atb

steve

[Edited on 30/5/05 by stephen_gusterson]

Roughly everything of more than £18 value is subject to import charges. This consists of a handling fee of about £15 and VAT at 17.5% and then import duties which vary depending on the item. I think electronics are 0% import duty. Your're still looking at £15 + 17.5%.

You could get it marked as a gift which means no import duties but if you get caught then you are in the poo not the sender and you'll be in a whole world of trouble.

The only sure way to get around paying duties is to have the shipper mark the outside of the package with a valid UK VAT registration number. Which you can only do if it's a company purchase.

I've just bought a Canon EOS 350D. It looks like you're going to save a packet by importing until you add on all the extras and duties. Even though I have the VAT number I decided to buy from the UK (Dabs.com) as the cost saving was not worth the hassle if somethign went wrong.

For £100 it's probably not worth it - if you have a low stated value and it goes missing, you loose out. If it's a high value then loads of VAT.

Conversely to this I just had $10000 worth of goods sent in with lowish value in 4 boxes, and didn't pay a sent.

You need to find out if he will put £100 value on it, a lot of them won't.

I think all the import duty and VAT details on stuff sent in from abroad are on the royal mail website somewhere.

I have bought stuff from hongkong and the states before, and sometimes it comes through without attracting customs, sometimes I have to pay a charge. it really is hit and miss.

Andy

Think i have said this before on here. My housemate got caught out the other week. Package marked as a gift with low value. Actually £200 worth of stuff. Had to pay a £50+ customs charge before he could have the parcel.

Besides I would be wary of buying anything like that from overseas, as if something goes wrong with it its a lot of hassle to send it back etc.

My dad just got an Olympus C70z from warehouseexpress.com. They have the camera you want at £389.

http://www.warehouseexpress.com/index.cfm?photo/digicameras/panasonic.html

David