Taxes On Stuff From The US

Does anyone know what the customs charged on goods from the US is. I'm thinking about getting a dew shield for a Celestron C11 from Opticsplanet but if the taxes are going to be the same as the cost price it'll be just as cheap to get it from the UK:D

Joanna --

21% VAT + duty. On must telescope stuff, the duty is 4% or 4.5% or smething like that.

(VAT is charged on the purchase price AND shipping. Duty is probably just purchase price.)

-- Jeff.

Hi Joanna.

I agree with Jeff, you can expect to pay 25% or so on top of the overall cost of dewshield and shipping.

There are plenty of sites on the web that will show you have to construct a dew shield and that will save even more money.

Paul

Hi, the last time I had anything shipped over it worked like this:

Duty is 4.2% of the purchase price (make sure the contents are described as 'telescopes' or 'telescope parts' so that the correct rate is applied, not a higher one)

VAT @21% is charged on the total of:
Purchase price
Duty
Shipping
Insurance.

VAT is also charged on any local brokerage fees incurred during customs clearance.

VAT on VAT... nice.

If you have goods delivered by courier (e.g UPS, FedEx etc) they charge around 15 Euro for performing the Custom's clearance for you.

If it is deilvered by An Post (the originator will be US Postal Service if it came from the US), they charge a 5 euro clearance fee.

In the case of An Post, you do not have to pay VAT on the 5 Euro. With UPS/FedEx, I think they charge 21% on their 15 euro fee...

If ever there was a perfect example of stealth tax, this just about takes the biscuit.

If you get something shipped from outside the EU, you can always ask the shipper to declare the value of the good to be a lower value. Of course, this may give you problems if you need to claim insurance for a lost/damaged package.

On that note, try and buy from an EU member state with the lowest VAT charge. I know the UK is 17.5% but I'm not sure of other EU states.

HTH

Dave