yo.

im going on a visit to NY city this februay and plan to buy a guitar and a few pedals to take back to the UK, sadly i want to buy brand new, how easily do they pick up on this at customs? i am aware that you can be charged VAT and some other random taxes, what im thinking is too put the pedals in my suitcase and throw away the boxes and instructions, maybe even scratch them up a bit, but as you probably guessed im not about to scratch up a brand new thousand dollar jackson. i think im going to buy a hardcase, and throw away all instructions and stuff, what other things can i do to ensure that they dont think its brand new?
anyone had any experiece in taking back gear from other countries?
i was thinking of getting the guy who sells it to me to write a reciept out stating that its second hand, but i dont think any major chain music shop would do this. small independant shops might but i havent got time to treck around the city finding a small shop that sells jackson SLSMGs.

thanks,
any advice greatly appreciated. JMS

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So long as you don't have any price tags on it they really can't do shit. I got some shit from a customs officer once when I came with my guitar, but in the end he really could not prove that I was going to try to sell the guitar bought in the US to make some profit. My guitar was 2nd hand but looked new, he asked me for a receipt of it but I told him I had none as I bought it 2nd hand, and just made up how much I payed for it, so in the end he just fucked off.

He also can't prove that you're not a musician yourself just traveling with your own instrument/on a tour/whatever.

For the guitar all I can suggest is wiping your face with your hands and making smudges all over it. Put the pedals in your normal check in luggage, maybe beat up the boxes a little if they look really new..

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Don't throw away the manuals, post them to yourself before you fly home!

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Or claim that you brought them with you. As far as the paper work will look; you lelt with one guitar and returned with one guitar.

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Customs can add VAT (at 17.5%) onto anything you bring into the UK with a value in excess of something like £15 (that's why Play and HMV have mail order operations in Jersey and Guernsey - they can omit VAT from most of their items and appear cheaper to customers). Customs can also add import duty, but the rate escapes me (it's about 2-odd percent).

You should really declare the goods you are bringing back into the country upon your arrival at the UK airport. You don't have to, of course, but you run the risk of being caught out. This would not be a good thing as Customs can choose to levy an additional penalty of up to 100% of the tax due. They could take a lenient approach if it's an honest mistake, but they aren't obliged to.

Even if you throw away the receipt, Customs can impound it, get it valued and then levy the tax that way.

At the end of the day, it's a lottery; you might get caught, you might not.

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Those Customs guys can be pure assholes when it come to seizing property. I had a guitar that got seized for a month by Customs because of some plant protection quarantine (PPE) law. It guess that was payback for all the other shit I smuggled into the country while in the Navy. I'm not sure if the UK has anything like the PPE but it wouldn't surprise me so be careful.

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They can't reasonably seize a musical instrument that you're bringing into the country. It's yours and there's really no way to prove you're going to sell it afterwards. However, if you bring in a shitload of foreign exotic liquor, many pieces of expensive jewelry/clothing, cigars, or generally anything in large quantities that is obviously not just for your own consumption, you can get into some shit if you lie to the customs officers and they do a routine check on your baggage.

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It happened to me. Customs seize my Ran at JFK airport and placed it in quarantine for over a month. It was a bitch getting it out. Because it was made of wood and from another country, Customs had all rights to seize it to protect the rest of the country from potential wood parasites. Plus, it is illegal to own items made from certain species of endangered trees. It was the first Ran ever shipped to the US so that may have had something to do with the seize.

All I'm saying is that Customs can do just about anything they want, so don't push them. They have a mad amount of authority so the best ideal is to play it cool and hope they don't decide to check you. If so, play dumb.

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what about shipping it back to yourself via fed ex or ups or something? do that the day before you leave to go home and you get home and accept your package...

Yeah, thats is a good ideal because you could send it as a "gift" to yourself, but the down side is that shipping may cost more than the Customs tax.

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thanks for all of the advice, the whole busines seems pretty hit and miss to me, i could just go for a second hand guitar instead, would maybe take out some of the trouble. still want the SLSMG though

trouble is i dont know what to expect with used instruments from the US, i imagine most shops just sell plenty of old ibanez and jacksons from the 90s?

anyone know any sick used guitar shops in NY?
im a bit brainless when it comes to th states, never been so i cant imagine what the used gear is like there.

thanks again.

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Wait a second, but you ordered the guitar and had it mailed to you right? Or did you actually go to Poland and bring back the guitar with you? jacksonmetalhead is going to travel abroad, buy it, and bring it back home as luggage.

And jacksonmetal: It doesn't matter if it's used or not, like I said, I had a few words with the customs officer and my guitar was used because it looked relatively new(though the case looked like ass).

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Doesn't matter if its shipped in or brought in. You still have to get it past Customs, which was no problem while in the Navy because I had a million places to hide shit on a aircraft carrier. Even military personal have to clear Customs when coming home. Worst case was I had to wait a few days for the Customs officers to leave then bring my stuff off ship. You have a better chance of getting it past Customs in the US if you bring it in personally, but if you ship it they will catch, tax, or seize it.

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it will be too big to bring as carry-on, so its gonna go through the baggage system ... so it will get beat up unless you box and pad it.

also nyc is expen$ive. i'm sure you'll have fun there but don't plan on finding any sweet deals unless you're looking for a $10 hotdog and a ray charles airbrush tee.

prices here are always better online / private. if sellers here won't ship to you, get a friend to reship it. it won't cost more than $40-60 to the uk.

have fun enjoy your trip!

Absolutely the worst possible advice... FedEx declare everything they bring into the UK and will refuse to hand over your goods until you reimburse them the VAT and import duty.

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Below is a link to the HM Revenue & Customs website concerning bringing goods into the UK:

http://customs.hmrc.gov.uk/channels...tyType=document

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The GC at NYC has some ok pricings, you have to realize that with the current state of the british pound, anything bought in America is bound to be way cheaper than in the UK.

I'm in the US on vacation too right now, I might stop by the NYC GC and see if they have some pickup I'm looking for.

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thanks for all of your advice people, you have now successfully put me off buying a guitar in the US! haha, i think i will still give it a shot though, i mean it probably still works out cheaper than the uk even if i do have to pay taxes etc.

now i just have to balance the risk and worth of trying to not declare the guitar when arriving back in the UK, what i could do is get my local guitar shop to write out a fake reciept for the product so i could take that through with me and "prove" that i bought the guitar in the UK and that im only taking it over to play it when im there, maybe if i provide them with the reciept when i get back to the UK they will let me through without tax, although if they manage to catch me out somehow i could probably be done for fraud or something.

thought?

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I think it's unlikely any business will help you out with a fake receipt, as the only thing in it for them is the possibility of being investigated for fraud.

Your best bet is to either try bringing it back as your old guitar and see if you get away with it (but be prepared not to) or to just buy one online legitimately and pay the customs, and work that into your costing when you buy it. As was said earlier, the favourable exchange rates at this time will be of use to you.

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There's no way any legitimate business would want to be party to defrauding the Treasury - they'd incur penalties, be earmarked for time-consuming VAT and Corporation/Income tax investigations and at worst face a criminal prosecution through the courts.

This action would also see you straying from "honest mistake" waters to the altogether more turbulent straits of wilful tax evasion. Once deliberate tax evasion has been established the penalties become severe and you could even face jail.

The way you have to approach this is that sterling's strength against the dollar means that goods bought in the US are nearly twice as cheap as that in the UK. Of course, this doesn't take into account US inflation, interest or sales tax rates but nevertheless it's a good approximation. So, if you declare the guitar you'll pay an extra 17.5% plus a bit of duty, which still means you've got a bargain (30% off is decent in anyone's book).

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If you're in NYC don't go to a Guitar Center, which is the same shit everywhere. Go to something like Manny's Music. Or head up Rochester way and check out the Great House of Guitars, which is more or less the biggest guitar store in the country. But seriously, don't travel to a specific place with a specific flavor just to check out some generic chain.

And you have to weigh the risks and rewards in your scheme here, and I don't think the tax that still saves you a shit-ton of money is worth the risk of incurring heavy fines or jail time to avoid paying. Better to have something simple that doesn't look like a scheme and therefore won't fuck you if it fails than something complicated that does, and which is actually more likely to arouse suspicion and therefore fail.

sounds like a stupid idea to make out fake reciepts then (thought it probably would be) well i guess im going to try and do it legit. work all the taxes into the cost and see if it still works out cheap enough to cover the annoyance of trecking around buying it, finding a case and flying it back etc.

guess i will phone some NYC guiar shops first to check what shit they have and how much it costs.

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In all likelihood it will still work out cheaper, and you'll have had the added bonus of going to New York for a holiday as well!

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Remember to check out St Marks place if you like hookers

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will do

also planning on visiting plenty of steak houses too haha, dont know if i could hack a whole t bone though

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