I'm interested in buying a new reel ( sage 4560 ) , and have thought about buying it from America ; but I'm worried about paying for import duties .

I got caught a couple of years ago , and ended up having to pay import duties that basically cost the amount I was intending on saving.

Any ideas

regards

Dave ( Istabraq )

Do a search on here. Type in "import" and a few should pop up like this one. Might be easier this way.

USA to UK – import duties???

You WILL pay import duties. Parcel Force have a deal with the Revenue and check all parcels over a certain value. I've bought loads of gear from the US and have paid duty everytime AND ParcelForce's "handling charges".

It takes a short time for goods to get here from the States but it can take anytime up to 10 to 14 days for it to clear customs and the sorting office.
They have a large well staffed workforce that just check parcels. ParcelForce have an arrangement to collect the duty for the Customs and Excise.Duty is 17.5% VAT plus import tax and a percentage to ParcelForce.

It can still work out cheaper though. The other critical factor is the exchange rate. The Pound is gaining on the dollar at the moment.

My advice? Buy secondhand through e.bay or special deals and offers only.Small stuff that gets posted in a padded envelope usually clears no problem. It's when they post expensive goods with a US custom declaration as to it's value for insurance purposes it gets painful.

Most of my expensive gear is all second hand and from the US. I have saved a lot of money too, but it's not a free ride, believe me. Still cheaper than the UK but prepare for 2-sometimes nearly 3 weeks to get high value products to your home.

Weigh it up. I think it's still worth it for high value as long as you take into consideration the factors I've mentioned.

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I won a £1,000,000 and spent most of it on prostitutes, drink,trout fishing, cars, cocaine, cigars and the rest I wasted...

When the exchange rate was up around 2$ to the pound it was worth doing.
Now there has to be a big saving to make it worth paying the duty.

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/vat/managing/.../importing.htm

There are still good savings to be made if you know someone who can bring the goods back for you. I think the travellers import allowance from none EU countries is around £340.

Thanks for the info.....much appreciated

regards

Dave

If the item is sent as a gift, there is no tax to pay I think.

The maximum value you are allowed to receive as a gift is somewhere around £36. The person sending the gift has to describe the gifts accurately and give an accurate value. You as the receiver are liable for the duty and a hefty fine if the sender under values the gift and it is found to be of a higher value. Customs do open packages to check what they contain.

http://customs.hmrc.gov.uk/channelsP...yType=document

sorry wrong post

Its your donald duck mate. I have imported alot of goods in the past. I had $250 order come through with no chrages but the next an order for around $60 get stung. If you wonder regards how much a basic rule of the thumd would be vat $100 would be the rate on £100 plus about £10 for the bu@@ers to cut the tape the re-seal it. So a $100 order would be £15 plus £10 = £25 at your door!!!! As said already if you know someone over there or going over then that would be the way forward, either get them to bring the goods home or post them as a gift with a lesser amount declared and things like the warranty card etc posted seperately. My mates in florida just now an Im hoping for a rio gold plus tippet material brought back!! My neighbours over next year so Im planning on having another order ready. It is possible to work the system just put a tad thought into it.

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Till The Next Cast

Cheers

JOHN



Some Fishing photos!!

http://s59.photobucket.com/albums/g3...t=71c37867.pbr

Sorry, no..gifts are only excepmt to £36.

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Roy