Import duty

[Stonefly]

Does anyone know what the percentage is for importing a watch?
I assume that its a sliding scale dependant of price (up to an upper bracket of tax).

Say you were after a $5-8K watch, about how much would you be paying on that to bring it into the UK?
Cheers

[Stu R]

20% VAT.

Import duty is a funny one. It's 4.5%, but it's got predefined minimum and maximum duty values of 0.30 and 0.80 Euros respectively. So the most you'll pay is 0.8 Euros. What this means is essentially you'll pay nothing, because for a single item it falls below the 10 EUR threshold of dutiable value.

Taking your $8k watch bought from the US as an example:

Watch Value: $8000
Shipping Cost: $100
Insurance: $10

Which gives you an $8110 value, which Google tells me is £5256.
So your Duty is going to be 4.5% of this, which is £236 or thereabouts. Obviously this somewhat exceeds the 0.80EUR (about 65p) maximum rate, so the duty cost is £0.00.
Totals:

Landed Value of Goods: £5256
VAT @ 20%: £1051
Total Cost: £6307

Edited by Stu R on Thursday 29th December 13:04

[Rich n Em]

As Stu says, I think it's only the VAT you've got to worry about realistically.

It'd likely be cheaper to fly out there, buy it and stick it on your wrist for the ride home!

[davepoth]

Rich n Em said:

As Stu says, I think it's only the VAT you've got to worry about realistically.

It'd likely be cheaper to fly out there, buy it and stick it on your wrist for the ride home!

Don't forget to post the receipt and warranty card back separately.

[Stonefly]

Thanks folks!!!

That's much better than I thought. I did wonder if it would make the watch pretty much the same price as you would get it over here but if I can combine it with a cheeky getaway everyone would be happy!

[Justayellowbadge]

You can also end up with a couple of hundred in 'admin charges' depending on which box dropping bunch of incomptents deliver it.

[Buster73]

Rich n Em said:

As Stu says, I think it's only the VAT you've got to worry about realistically.

It'd likely be cheaper to fly out there, buy it and stick it on your wrist for the ride home!

Bought my sub in Switzerland many moons ago , watch on wrist and boxes ,receipt and papers inside my ski boot bag.

Piece of cake.

[LukeBird]

Justayellowbadge said:

You can also end up with a couple of hundred in 'admin charges' depending on which box dropping bunch of incomptents deliver it.

Don't forget this!
I had a watch imported from Switzerland recently that had the following charges when it landed-
£20.12 (Duties Type)
£112.83 (VAT Type)
£15.00 (Deferment Proc. Fee.)
+ VAT on that last fee, for a total of £150.95. (I have the docs in front of me, I didn't remember that!)

Value was declared at $788.75 + $103.50 for shipping (presumably it was ferried by unicorn?!).

What a bloody PITA...!

[Pesty]

Buster73 said:

Bought my sub in Switzerland many moons ago , watch on wrist and boxes ,receipt and papers inside my ski boot bag.

Piece of cake.

If the watch is over a certain ammount (about £4k IIRC could be less) the Swiss watch shop has to notify customs and you have to give them your passport number)

You will get hit for taxes. Below that amount you usualy get away with it but if you get caught expect to get bended over.

[Moreymach]

Not wanting to hijack the thread but what tax or duty would apply buying from Germany ?

I sort of assumed that as its EU all duty / tax would be deemed paid. Am I right ?

TIA

[Justayellowbadge]

Moreymach said:

Not wanting to hijack the thread but what tax or duty would apply buying from Germany ?

I sort of assumed that as its EU all duty / tax would be deemed paid. Am I right ?

TIA

Indeed, but be careful - a few places I've bought from in Germany quote the price without their VAT, so you can still get hit for more than the headline price.

[Moreymach]

Justayellowbadge said:

Indeed, but be careful - a few places I've bought from in Germany quote the price without their VAT, so you can still get hit for more than the headline price.

Good point.

I was looking at something like this http://www.watch.de/english/checkout/onepage/ and seems they do include VAT.

[Speedracer329]

The only times I have been hit for import duty is when I have bought from the States, never had it when coming from the east.

[Buster73]

Pesty said:

If the watch is over a certain ammount (about £4k IIRC could be less) the Swiss watch shop has to notify customs and you have to give them your passport number)

You will get hit for taxes. Below that amount you usualy get away with it but if you get caught expect to get bended over.

This was 10 years ago , I think I got 6 or 7 % discount and no vat as it was being exported = £1290 .

I know things have changed since then as I have been back to the same shop every time I go skiing there .

[Grant76]

Speedracer329 said:

The only times I have been hit for import duty is when I have bought from the States, never had it when coming from the east.

So how does it work? Do they send a bill before delivery?

[Stu R]

Grant76 said:

Speedracer329 said:

The only times I have been hit for import duty is when I have bought from the States, never had it when coming from the east.

So how does it work? Do they send a bill before delivery?

They basically use their DAN / deferment accounts to get the goods through faster, and bill you for the privilege (part of what the multitude of charges go towards). They'll normally either release goods upon payment, take payment upon delivery, or if you've an account that permits it, just invoice monthly.

[Grant76]

Stu R said:

Grant76 said:

Speedracer329 said:

The only times I have been hit for import duty is when I have bought from the States, never had it when coming from the east.

So how does it work? Do they send a bill before delivery?

They basically use their DAN / deferment accounts to get the goods through faster, and bill you for the privilege (part of what the multitude of charges go towards). They'll normally either release goods upon payment, take payment upon delivery, or if you've an account that permits it, just invoice monthly.

Thanks for the response Stu, been wondering how it works for a while.

[eccles]

I paid just under £500 for an old Breitling recently including delivery from the States.
Was sent USPS so end up in the parcel force depot near me. You get a payslip type of letter that you tear open with your VAT, customs and handling fee inside. you can either pay on line and they'll re-deliver or like me, you pop along in the evening after work, pay them the money and you get your parcel.
I ended up having to pay £107 in fees.

I've not had anything sent from the States by USPS that ever got through without being stiffed for fees of some sort.

[Grant76]

Is this always the case?

I've heard of a few people buying through Amazon (US) and there been no fee whatsoever.

[Speedracer329]

Grant76 said:

So how does it work? Do they send a bill before delivery?

Both times I have had to pay it I got something through the post advising me I had to pay the fee before it could be delivered, & dwetails of how to pay online. First one was around £24 on a purchaes that cost about £60, this time it was just over £30 for a purchase at £89.

Edited by Speedracer329 on Friday 30th December 00:37