Import Tax on ebay for camera's from hong kong.

robvam

Im thinking of getting either a Canon iXus 75 or a Panasonic Lumix TZ3 on ebay. It will come from hong kong by fedex (i think) . What is the deal with import duty? Will i get stung?

PeakOutput

its a risk

iv got a hardware software combo from the states(box would be about the same size as a cameras box) and did not get asked to pay vat on it by customs

BUT

iv also imported an expensive bike from the states and that did get stopped and i had to fork out an extra 300

robvam

nasty, I got a creative vision m MP3 player a while ago and it arrived fine. but after a few weeks i got a letter saying i owe about 70 euro. Whats that about, should they not tell you when it arrives at the door.

robvam

could i ask the company to mark it as a gift?

sunny2004

I can only tell you my experiece regarding Ebay and hong kong and chinese sellers..
If they ship with their own equivellent an post service and mark it as a gift you might be lucky.. but then again you also might be unlucky if it goes missing ! Fedex, seem to have there own system, I have got stuff from sellers and fedex sent a customs bill some weeks later.. the funny part of it was the item was bought from a UK seller but what i didnt know was he was in fact shipping from outside the EU, the sting was getting the bill weeks later..

The moral of this story is simple, if buying it and adding the customs duty is not a bargain than dont bother.. and thats without even discussing the warrenty...........

Hope it helps..

PeakOutput

robvam wrote:

should they not tell you when it arrives at the door.

my bike got stopped and held at customs till i paid so i thought they stopped everything

i have gotten microphones worth about 300 euro from ebay and from china and they did not get stopepd

Shiny

The best way is to pay duty,

BUT

I usually get the Hong Kong guys to declare the item
of less value.

So if they mark it worth only 50euro then you will get charged
about 10 euro duty, yet you will have saved much more.

robvam

great advice thanks, by the way does anyone know how the tax is calculated?

PeakOutput

robvam wrote:

great advice thanks, by the way does anyone know how the tax is calculated?

its vat so 21%

robvam

cool thanks

magicbastarder

they charge VAT on the delivery charge too, plus a handling fee, i think.

jubi lee

de

Fionn

susshh about it

Paddy@CIRL

Very hit & miss, got stung by FedEx for €27 on a 'gifted' 70-200 f2.8, but the 10-20 and 24-70 2.8 arrived tax free. My current order is being sent in different packages through different methods of post, at different times ....

el tel

robvam wrote:

Im thinking of getting either a Canon iXus 75 or a Panasonic Lumix TZ3 on ebay. It will come from hong kong by fedex (i think) . What is the deal with import duty? Will i get stung?

I'm going to the US and will be bringing back a TZ3 ($299) for myself. Seems like a decent camera although there's no way I'd pay full price on one.