good value vinyl cleaner from the US

Just bought this,cost £310 inc shipping (not sure about import tax though)

I have just had some LPs cleaned by one of these and they are the cleanest LPs I have ever seen

usual cost £45o in the Uk,but as i say,i dont know whether i will pay any taxes



http://www.audioadvisor.com/store/p...ct_name=HW-16.5+Record+Cleaning+Machine&qty=1

 

Looking good. Let us know whether you get charged import.

 

As I understand it, "import tax" for most things is simply a matter of adding 17.5% VAT. The only anomaly, is that because Royal mail collect the VAT on behalf of Customs & Excise when they deliver the parcel, there's an additional charge (can't remember how much - about £8??)

So £310 + 17.5% + £8 = £372.25

You should save about £75...

 

Actually theres also import duty which is levied as a percentage before (of course) they slap on the VAT. The percentage duty varies depending on what it is being imported and from where. Dunno what duty an american record cleaning doohicky would attract though.

 

sounds like it will still be cheaper,either way,thanks for the answers though

I bought iy anway because of how bloody great the cleaner is,this opens up the possibility of blagging some really good deals at fairs.Apparently,the trick is trying to spot what is dirt and what is underlying damage

i suppose thats just practice

 

That's my point - or rather the opposite is my point. Most products DON'T have import duty - free trade agreements with the US and all that - you just add VAT.

There are some pages on the Customs & Excise site (if my memory serves me well) which tell you everything with duty, and it's remarkably little. I had a thorough look when I was importing a guitar from the 'states for my wife.

 

Chris - most things DO have import duty. To find out exactly how much see here:

http://europa.eu.int/comm/taxation_customs/dds/cgi-bin/tarchap?Lang=EN

That's the EU TARIC database (which applies to all EU countries). It's something of a nightmare to navigate as the search facility is next to useless. As an example, within Chapter 85 (ELECTRICAL MACHINERY AND EQUIPMENT AND PARTS THEREOF; SOUND RECORDERS AND REPRODUCERS, TELEVISION IMAGE AND SOUND RECORDERS AND REPRODUCERS, AND PARTS AND ACCESSORIES OF SUCH ARTICLES) you can drill down to:

Turntables (Record Decks) which subdivides into:

- With automatic record changing mechanism, and
- Other

If you chose "Other" you get TARIC code 8519390000 which you can then look up in the database, giving USA as the country of origin and a date. That tells you that TTs imported from the US are subject to 2% import duty.

As a rule of thumb, count on most things attracting an import duty of about 4% and you won't go far wrong.

Michael.

 

they will add the cost of shipping to the item, then add the relevant import tax and then VAT.

 

It makes me snigger that they tax (VAT) the tax (Duty) - presumably on the basis that by adding duty they are adding value

 

I really dont understand how they can add import and VAT to shipping costs, but they do.

 

Yep, I forgot to mention that bit. The shipping costs are included when calculating duty and VAT.

Michael.