Import Duty for Equatorial Mounts

UnknownSpecies

I've been looking into getting a proper equatorial mount and will possibly need to buy from a UK seller post Brexit. Does anyone know from experience what rate of duty rate an equatorial mount would fall under? For example if you bought from the US or China, what would it be now? I can't find the right code on the TARIC website to check this myself. My hope is that it's somehow duty free similar to astronomy cameras which I managed to buy with no duty recently

Gregor Samsa

The goods code would be: 9005900000

"Binoculars, monoculars, other optical telescopes, and mountings therefor; other astronomical instruments and mountings therefor, but not including instruments for radio-astronomy - Parts and accessories (including mountings)"

https://www.taricsupport.com/nomenclatuur/9005900000.html

I doubt astronomy cameras are duty free - you probably just got away with not being charged.

But if you want to check, their code would be 9006590000 "Photographic (other than cinematographic) cameras; photographic flashlight apparatus and flashbulbs other than discharge lamps of heading 8539 - Other cameras - Other"

UnknownSpecies

Gregor Samsa wrote: »

The goods code would be: 9005900000

"Binoculars, monoculars, other optical telescopes, and mountings therefor; other astronomical instruments and mountings therefor, but not including instruments for radio-astronomy - Parts and accessories (including mountings)"

https://www.taricsupport.com/nomenclatuur/9005900000.html

I doubt astronomy cameras are duty free - you probably just got away with not being charged.

But if you want to check, their code would be 9006590000 "Photographic (other than cinematographic) cameras; photographic flashlight apparatus and flashbulbs other than discharge lamps of heading 8539 - Other cameras - Other"

Thanks for that, you're right that probably is the code above. Here is a link that shows the rate would be 4.2% from the US. That's not too bad.

On the camera, before ordering I found this code for digital cameras, but looking at it again it might be for TV broadcasting cameras specifically. I also saw the Revenues example duty calculation has a digital camera which is 0% duty (Example 3). I didn't get a breakdown of the VAT, import duty and courier handling charges when I paid the total, but it wasn't off the walls so assumed it was 0%. I could be wrong there.

ps200306

There's another option if the gear you want is available from an Irish reseller. The markup tends to be high and, since this is Ireland, insanely high. Years ago when shopping for a very expensive telescope with equatorial mount I reckoned the cost of buying in the US plus shipping and VAT and the 4.2% import duty worked out considerably less than the Irish retail price. I put the figures to the Irish reseller and they instantly dropped the price to match.

That said, the reseller took more than six months to fulfill the order and in any case the same haggling approach didn't work on numerous subsequent occasions. Since even a cooperative retailer wasn't saving me any money, or offering anything other than the nebulous advantage of a local warranty, I eventually got over my idealistic urge to "buy Irish". There may be reasons why Ireland sucks at retail competitiveness but I decided it wasn't my problem to sort out. But you might get lucky.

UnknownSpecies

Agree completely with the above. I try to shop locally where possible but honestly I can't justify spending literally hundreds more for the exact same product. It's difficult to buy Irish for most niche hobbies unless you want to pay well over the odds for very little extra value in return.