new york.

neonheartbeat

so, a group of friends and i are going on a photography trip to
new york,

i've never travelled to the us before, can someone fill me in on all this tax and customs business?
i plan on buying ALOT of clothes.

and i'm curious to know what local limerick yobs who have been to the big apple thought of how the two cities compared?
is it worth not being able to sleep at night with excitement?
any additional advice would be great!

Limerick Dude

Im going there for 3 months in June on a j1 , i cannot wait!!!!

Sorry i have no real info about the place for you, just that im going there too, cant wait

neonheartbeat

lol, i know man i'm pretty excited myself to be honest.
the limerick senior annual trip heads somewhere different in the eu each year,
this year they got the green light to travel outside the eu.

9 days man!

Mc Love

Never been to NY, but have been to Boston, LA, Vegas, San Francisco. Make sure you leave a tip!!

fade2che

Good for you!
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/
This place is the business for camera prices, doesnt open Saturday.
I don't have a clue about clothes.

Browney7

Customs in the Irish airports usually try targeting flights coming into Ireland from the US to get you to pay the duty on clothes bought there but if you take off the labels you should be fine.

You are allowed a duty free allowance on purchases but it's tiny but at the same time I wouldn't worry if I were you.

You could pick up photography equipment over there on the cheap I'd say but sure you probably know that already. You should get some shots from the top of the empire state if it's a clear day.

Enjoy

Roadend

I've bee nto the US a few times and those return flights come in around5/6 am so have never seen any customs officials working.

cooperguy

Seconded. They are brilliant for all electronics I got a few bits there when I was in NY. Make sure you take everything out of the boxes in case you get stopped at customs though. And take all tags off your clothes. A great place for the clothes shopping is Jersey Gardens. Lots of shops at knock down prices. Busses leave from the main station in Manhattan and drop you at the door. Woodbury Common is good too though I havent been there myself. Its a bit further away though. Takes about an hour to get there from the bus station in Manhattan.

XxXciaraxXx

N.Y is unreal! Went there foor the first time last March and loved it so much had to go again in August!

The shopping is like no other place! What day and time is your flight arriving back into Shannon? I always made sure that it was and early flight (5/6am) preferrably of a weekend because customs dont work weekends so I was informed!

As for gadgets, if you are going over in the next week or two Circuit City are having a liquidation sale!If you are buying in Best Buy, get net access in th hotel and reserve the product for instore pickup because the web prices are way cheaper and you will only have to pay the web price by reserving it!The Sony Center is wicked but very expensive.

Hope this info helps!

Mars Bar

neonheartbeat wrote: »

so, a group of friends and i are going on a photography trip to
new york,

i've never travelled to the us before, can someone fill me in on all this tax and customs business?
i plan on buying ALOT of clothes.

and i'm curious to know what local limerick yobs who have been to the big apple thought of how the two cities compared?
is it worth not being able to sleep at night with excitement?
any additional advice would be great!

Oh one of my friends, Aine, is going on that! Hope you have a good time, hope to get there myself some day!

Ardscoil Ris

New York...the Windy Apple.

Comhrá

and i'm curious to know what local limerick yobs who have been to the big apple thought of how the two cities compared?

Well, for a start, New York's a lot bigger :pac:

Sorry......couldn't resist that sarky comment!

Seriously though, New York folk are a good deal friendlier than you might think...at least that was my experience. Also, I think the centre of New York feels a lot safer than Limerick city centre at night.....you won't see any groups of menacing youngsters swaggering about half pissed and shouting at 2am..... zero tolerance might have something to do with that...I don't know.

Enjoy it, it's a fabulous city and you'll be agog. Just see Times Square at night and look at Manhattan from atop the Empire State Building at dusk.

oh well

if bring clothes/etc back don't take the labels off. Customs people aren't stupid and if you do get caught its easy to spot new clothes from old worn clothes. Customs can decide to put their own price on anything you buy and then its up to you to prove the price you really paid. You could end up paying in taxes more than you actually paid for the clothes in first place. Most people don't get caught but it does happen - you are smuggling after all.

zuroph

oh well wrote: »

if bring clothes/etc back don't take the labels off. Customs people aren't stupid and if you do get caught its easy to spot new clothes from old worn clothes. Customs can decide to put their own price on anything you buy and then its up to you to prove the price you really paid. You could end up paying in taxes more than you actually paid for the clothes in first place. Most people don't get caught but it does happen - you are smuggling after all.

dont mind this. just take off the tags, and ball the clothes up a bit and ul be grand. if they did catch you and you had to prove the price, u have the reciepts. keep em in ur pocket.

cooperguy

They arent stupid but how do they prove it? Without proof they have no grounds to charge you surely?

Comhrá

cooperguy wrote: »

They arent stupid but how do they prove it? Without proof they have no grounds to charge you surely?

I don't think it quite works that way.......As far as I know it's up to YOU, the importer, to prove anything you say as to where you bought the goods, and if you have paid any excise/duty due. The Customs guy doesn't have to prove anything. Just my tuppence worth.

John.

tomcollins97

neonheartbeat wrote: »

so, a group of friends and i are going on a photography trip to
new york,

I bought a camera in B&H last year – great shop. I was worried about the tax issue when I got home so I took the camera out of its box & posted the receipt, packaging & manuals home! That way when I got to customs back in Dublin the camera was one I brought with me! I paid in cash so there was no credit card record.

Same goes for clothes – remove all tags and post home any receipts you want to keep. Pay in cash where possible. Wear items for a hour or two so they don’t look brand new! People only get caught by customs when they make themselves easy targets. There is nothing that can be done if they cannot prove you bought stuff over there. To the best of my knowledge they don’t compare the weight of your bag on the way out to what it is on the way back! Even this would not constitute proof that anything was purchased. You could have a very generous auntie!

oh well

customs can and do put their own price on items - boss got caught with golf clubs he had bought. Had used them, roughed them up a bit, etc. When it came to Shannon he tried to say he had bought them previous to the trip. It didn't wash with custom officers, they put a price on them and he had to prove what he'd paid. Took him 3 months to get golf clubs back - after paying a fine.

Last Christmas friends aunt stopped in Shannon after girls weekend in NY. She was only one stopped in their gang of 10. She obviously had clothes which were new and extra handbags more than a weekend in NY would entail. Customs came go an agreement with her to "only" pay 250 euro in taxes.

they can also easily tell if items aren't available in shops in Ireland - most of the clothes/cameras/bags people buy in NY aren't same range as here.

Ya loads get away with it but some don't .....................