Considering buying a camera and importing from the USA

Thorbar

I'm currently looking at buying a Digital Camera, extra battery, 1gig sd car, bag and tripod from B & H who are located in New york. Here's a list of the items I'm looking at.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/WishList/16D1F593E5&BI=28

This total comes including shipping comes to 440 euros.

As best as I can see from www.revenue.ie I'll end up paying 4.2% customs tax and 21% vat which brings the total to 563 euros.

After looking at other websites in Europe they either don't carry the camera/gear I want or even after the excise/vat/customs comes out more expensive so that's why I'm considering buying it from New York.

My two questions are, have I calculated the customs and excise duty/VAT correctly and will the camera charger work over here?

dublinguy05

I just ordered some camera gear from bhphoto....you will end up aying about 600 in total, there are handling charges which each couriers company charges and then they add the shiiping charge on top and charge vat on that too...just had a look at the camera your buying would you not consider getting a canon g6, its an extra 139 dollars but a much better camera, with over double the amount of pixels than the panasonic...

qwertz

What camera are you buying?

Thorbar

I'm thinking about getting the Panasonic DMC-FZ3. I don't really have the extra $140 and I think for what I want the FZ3 fills most of my requirements. I don't plan on printing out my photos in large formats so I don't need the 7.1 MP and the FZ3 has a much better zoom. If I was going to go for another camera I'd probably try and get the FZ4 which is an updated FZ3 with 4MP and faster zoom for an extra $50.

DotOrg

you may be lucky and not get charged VAT/excise etc when you get it as someone I know did when they spent well over €3000 on B&H :-) :-) that was some ammount of tax saved

qwertz

€361 is the cheapest price I found in good old Europa.

Yerac

If UPS handle your order you are almost guaranteed to pay customs. Not only that, they actually charge you for charging you VAT etc. So try and check out the UPS site to see what additional charge might be on top of that. I ended up paying UPS twice (once for the shipping and handling at B+h's end and once for processing the Customs etc in Ireland), they also overcharged me on the customs and I eventually got money back from of them, after some wrangling.

Ponster

341euro from www.nomatica.fr if it helps !

I bought a charger from them last year and it had a 110/220 volt switch on it.
You'd really need to ask them about that first though.

Thorbar

Yerac wrote:

If UPS handle your order you are almost guaranteed to pay customs. Not only that, they actually charge you for charging you VAT etc. So try and check out the UPS site to see what additional charge might be on top of that. I ended up paying UPS twice (once for the shipping and handling at B+h's end and once for processing the Customs etc in Ireland), they also overcharged me on the customs and I eventually got money back from of them, after some wrangling.

B&H give the option of shipping with US postal service. Am I better off going with them over UPS? I just don't like the idea of having to deal with GLS who have the USPS contract, from my own and other's experience they're a bit of a nightmare.

bagocans

If you get them to send it described as a "gift" or "second-hand goods" you won't have to pay customs on it, unless they get suspicious or the crowd sending won't do it.

qwertz

Even if you end up not paying customs, does Panasonic Europe cover the warranty of cameras bought in the USA? Most camera manufacturers don't. Also, if you want it cheap, try SE-Asia.

Yerac

As far as I know the US Postal option isn't any better.

I've read that whichever company (think it's royal mail related) handles them in this part of the world is also very keen on collecting the customs. Don;t know if they have a similar charge for processing it though.

I think it would make sense to price it with all customs and charges and see if there is still a saving, and make your mind up then.

Burago

Not many companies will describe your package as a gift, a reputable retailer like B&H definitely won't!

FX Meister

bagocans wrote:

If you get them to send it described as a "gift" or "second-hand goods" you won't have to pay customs on it, unless they get suspicious or the crowd sending won't do it.

You have no chance of getting them to do this. Also, don't go for a 3.1 mega pixel camera, not in this day and age.

rymus

Use the purchase of expensive electronics as an excuse for a summer holiday to the US. When I was over back in 2003 I got a sony minidv camcorder for $900 which at the time cost €2000 over here. Paid no duty, tax or shipping charges for it and had a bloody good 2 weeks in the US and Canada into the bargain.

I had intended to go back this summer/autumn to get a Canon 20D and a few lenses..

Burago

FX Meister wrote:

You have no chance of getting them to do this. Also, don't go for a 3.1 mega pixel camera, not in this day and age.

I dunno, with Leica optics and an image stabilisation system this looks to be a nice camera. Granted 3mp is not a lot but if that anti shake thing saved you two stops you could use 100ISO instead of 400 in the same situtation meaning noise free images. If all you're making are 6x4 or even 8x10 then 3mp is fine.

Thorbar

qwertz wrote:

Even if you end up not paying customs, does Panasonic Europe cover the warranty of cameras bought in the USA? Most camera manufacturers don't. Also, if you want it cheap, try SE-Asia.

Actually my dad works in Hong Kong. I've asked him to price an DMC-FZ20, its the same as the FZ3 only with a hotshoe, 5mp, better flash and bigger LCD. Only problem is its nearly twice as heavy and a lot bigger. If the FZ20 is within my budget over there I'll ask him to pick it up for me.

bagocans

Crap crap crap, ive just been stung for customs. I had them send it as a gift and they put an invoice for secondhand camera with it. It's worth 430 euros and the postman came around with it, on the label there was just a slash through customs but there was 174 euros beneath VAT or tax, can't remember which. There's no way i'm paying 174 euro, i'd have accepted it if it was alot lower but that sounds extortionist, anyone know if those figures are wrong or what to do?
I've heard vat can be 21% but that would only come to about 85 euro!
any ideas?

bagocans

Just been to the post office, I don't really have any qualms with paying what i should have to pay, but i'm being taxed for a value beyond what i payed.
VAT should be 21% of the contents value, I payed 440euro which would mean i have to pay about 85 euros. The invoice has very poor writing and i'm being charged 179 euros, 21% of what they reckon the value to be 833 euros (irish price!). Before i get onto the phone to them has this happened to anyone before? Being charged VAT for an amount you didn't pay seems extortionist, can they do that!

MojoMaker

The clue is in the word "value". It has little to do with the price. This is why importing goods is a false economy and why stuff keeps getting more expensive here.

Put simply, the 'value' of the item is what it costs to buy new in Ireland. Didn't you know this before you went online?

paulj13

Hi bagocans,

Can you tell us more about this product and where it came from? I would agree that their calculations seem to be a little high but it maybe based on a RRP for the camera in Ireland. Why not find the contact details for the distributor of the camera here in Ireland and ask them. Work out VAT from there and see how it goes with the Post office then.

Also is it possible ask the company you purchased off to send you a full invoice with the full cost details including shipping on headed paper. Try and do this via Fax and also via post. The Fax copy may lend some weight to the cost in the immediate term. Finally act fast, if you have not accepted the product its due to go back to the source.

Regards,

FX Meister

But how do they put an Irish value on it as it can vary widely in price in Ireland anyway?

obewan

So what are the chances of someone coming home from a business trip getting say; a t/photo lens or even a full camera through, without getting stung for "tax/vat?"

Mick.

FX Meister

Extremely easy. These guys are talking about posted deliveries, which are marked for customs.

edit: But let me add to that. Just to be on the safe side, post all the receipts and manuals home from where you buy them. Boxes too if you want to keep them. My sister brought my 300D home from NY, aswell as a load of stuff for my DV Cam, no problems at all. She put all the documents in her boyfriends luggage and they just walked out seperately

paulj13

There are two approaches that bagocans could take to put an Irish price on it. One is the RRP. This stands for Recommend Retail Price and most distributor in a region will have a price such as this which they can quote. However the RRP is usually above the market value of what the product actually sells for (ever this a product market down 50% form the RRP). Therefore the other option that bagocans can use to arm himself with a cost for the product here is a retailer quotation. He can walk in to most camera shops and get a written quote from them for the value of the camera. They provide this service usually for insurance quotes.

bagocans

The guy in the post office didn't know how they came to the figure of €180 either so he gave me the number of customs. Customs said i should only have to pay 21% of what i paid and said to send it back o them with a letter explaining my case and proof of it's value.
They just called today and said it's on its way back to me with the reduced VAT charge, around €100 (21% of what i paid rather than 21% of its irish value)
WOOHOO, my polite letter paid off.

FX Meister

Did you have to pay the vat on the delivery charge aswell? Is there a duty payment on top on the VAT?

thesteve

I gave up ordering things from the states months ago, going over there or getting someone you know who is going to get something is the only way to go. I brought back a brand new laptop but as mentioned above, I ditched the boxes (keep the receipts, they're not going to strip search you to proove you just bought it).

I got a friend of mine to get a digital camera for me. The eejit actually left it in its box and put it in his suitcase, he still got it through no bother though.

It's impor duty thats killing you. The thing is with these custom lads, its like they make up their own rules, I tried to get an exact figure out of the for import duty before and got nowhere, ie. you get charged XX% of the value once the item is worth over $XX...

It's so unpredictable, I ordered roller blades, $250, had to pay 70 euro when delivered. Ordered $90 worth of stuff from a gadget site, had to pay 10 euro on delivery. When I order DVD's I order them 1 here and 1 there, not getting charged Imort duty on the less valued items, instead of in bulk as I'd like.

send it described as a "gift" or "second-hand goods" you won't have to pay customs on it

...never works

After looking at other websites in Europe they either don't carry the camera/gear I want or even after the excise/vat/customs comes out more expensive

theres no import duty when you order something from europe (i know you may be referring to shipping, etc)

miju

the charger should work just buy a travel adapter for it

bagocans

FX Meister wrote:

Did you have to pay the vat on the delivery charge aswell? Is there a duty payment on top on the VAT?

21% on everything, contents and delivery.
better than 21% of its value here though.

s_mury

I just got stung for customs. If the delivery charge is not marked on the package then customs estimate it. In my case their complete over-estimate of the shipping brought the total taxable value of the goods to twice that of what it actually was!

Make sure you get the retailer to clearly mark the shipping costs on the package.

bagocans

s_mury wrote:

I just got stung for customs. If the delivery charge is not marked on the package then customs estimate it. In my case their complete over-estimate of the shipping brought the total taxable value of the goods to twice that of what it actually was!

Make sure you get the retailer to clearly mark the shipping costs on the package.

Show them evidence of what you paid, thats what i had to do. A polite but persuasive letter did the trick.