Has anyone ever imported a guitar from the USA to the UK?

I am am thinking of doing it, but I want to get a feel for what I'm going to get charged by the arseholes at customs.

I have read that, for an electric guitar:
Duty is charged at 3%
VAT is 17.5%

I think I can handle a 20.5% charge, still cheaper than buying in the UK, but
I have also read that customs will then charge you delivery from the depot to your home. Arseholes. Anyone know what would that would cost?

Customs have a habit of randomly inspecting various packages, which may or may not happen to be yours, and they'll charge you for the privilege.

Having to pay 20.5% extra on something you've already paid VAT on (albeit to the yanks) pisses me off. I try to go EU whereever possible.

If that was a £3000 custom guitar, yuo have to factor in at least another £615. That just sucks.

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Could the sender not label an item as a gift to avoid the charges?

They can, but it's not technically legal.

But it really depends on how nice the person who is mailing it is. If its a bigger company and all their stuff is shipped through another company on account, they may have no control over it.

It's always worth asking though!

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i had to pay a bunch of money afterwards, custom's shit.

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How much?

Give us an example. what did you buy, what was the price, and how much did Customs rape you for?

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After a bit more research today, I found this web page on import rates.

Duty is, in fact, 3.7%, VAT is 17.5%

Also, here is a good web page which is the kind of answer I'm looking for.

no, you are still charged:

"If the items were given to you as a gift or a present, you still have to pay duty and VAT on them. In these circumstances the value of the item is used in the calculations. If you do not know the value of the items, the Customs Officer may have to detain them for valuation. "

It is so cuntish, I can't believe it.

i just imported an 800 dollar guitar.
it was a genuine gift as far as customs were concerned (friend bought it for me and shipped it),

all in all, i got hit for £40 at this end, some of that was a handling fee from parcel farce.
so i think that i didn't pay vat(17.5%), but i did pay 3.7%duty.

i've ordered stuff from thoman, and not paid duty, but they include vat in their prices.

a customs lady told me over the phone that you will have to pay both duty and vat, and whats more, its not 17.5 + 3.7 = 21.2 you actually have to pay duty, then vat on the total after duty (or the other way round i can't remember)


still works out cheaper though.

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isnt that because theyre a european company and therefore, are in the eu. so as a result, no tax or duties are required to be paid as you are trading/buying from companies in the eu.

your probably right about the duty, but you still have to pay VAT

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yeah, thats right, it sucks. Works out at 21.8%.

yea, your right, vat still applies

Well, I got up this morning and thought "fuck it" and bought the guitar I was considering

http://www.music123.com/Washburn-WG587-i20396.music

My first 7 string, looks like a steal, all the reviews I've seen are excellent, I'll let you all know how muck I'm raped for when it arrives...

[A quick introduction to VAT: VAT is a sales tax, i.e. it is paid by consumers on the goods they buy from VAT registered entities. Now instead of buying all our goods and then writing a cheque to Customs for the VAT amount, VAT registered companies charge the VAT automatically and pay it over to Customs on our behalf. No VAT is due or subsequently paid over if the selling company is not VAT registered.

VAT registered companies who buy from another VAT registered company can offset the VAT it has paid against the VAT that it charges to customers. Basically, you pay Customs the difference between the VAT you have charged on your sales less the VAT you have paid on your purchases.

You'll be unsurprised to hear that it gets a lot more complicated than this.]

OK, ready...



No, it doesn't quite work like that. If the purchaser and seller are both VAT registered and members of the EU, then VAT is charged at the rate in force in the country of destination. It is treated as a zero-rated supply in the country of origin (the seller's country), i.e. the seller does not charge VAT on the supply and it is down to Customs in the destination country to add the VAT on at their rate. This VAT can then be reclaimed by the buyer from Customs on the next VAT return.

As an example, suppose a VAT registered company in Spain sells a piano to a VAT registered musical production company in the UK for £1,000 net. [Suppose the Spanish company invoices in Sterling and takes on the exchange rate risk rather than the UK company.] The VAT rates in force are 16% and 17.5% respectively.

The gross cost to the UK company is £1,000 + VAT at 17.5% = £1,175 whereas the gross selling price charged by the Spanish company is £1,000 + VAT at 0%, since it is a zero-rated supply. Note that this is different than £1,000 exclusive of VAT and it is due to this that the UK company can reclaim the £175 of VAT imposed by UK Customs. The amount that goes into the respective company accounts is £1,000 in both cases but the Spanish company does not account for the VAT whereas the UK company does. So the contra outlined in the above introduction is maintained.

If the UK company was not VAT registered (in this sense it could be a normal person buying for private use) the amount charged by the Spanish company would be £1,000 + VAT at 16% = £1,160. The Spanish company would pay £160 of VAT to Spanish Customs on behalf of the UK company. This VAT is not recoverable by the UK company since it is not VAT registered and is therefore considered as a cost to the company rather than a tax. UK Customs cannot charge VAT on top of this since the UK company has already paid VAT to Spanish customs - they get their share of the VAT when a non-VAT registered Spanish company buys a product from a VAT registered UK company. As such, the amounts that go into the accounts are £1,160 for the UK company and £1,000 for the Spanish company.

The whole arrangement is designed to encourage free trade throughout the EU.

Unfortunately - after all that - I am yet to encounter VAT issues beyond the EU in my studies so I can't help you with the US order!

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For anyone who still cares, guitar + shipping was about $250 (about £150), I was charged just over £40 Duty, VAT and delivery.