Importing a pickup

[untune]

Hi all

Just a quickie, as I've never bought anything bigger than a CD from the States. If I was to purchase a pickup (soapbar) along with a couple of other bits (pickup ring etc) for a certain sum inclusive of delivery etc, would I incur any additional charges (tax/duty) when it gets here?

Cheers

[mart]

Maybe. I think there's a threshold, so you only pay duty if the items are (declared to be) worth a certain amount. And then I think there's an element of luck as to whether the powers-that-be choose to demand that duty or not.

And if the duty does get charged, you'll probably find yourself paying extra to the courier for the pleasure of giving them the money. HMRC make the courier pay the duty, so they then ask you for the money and their expense.

Having said all that, when I've had to pay duty, it's still been cheaper than buying the item locally. Putting that another way, I only buy from the US when the margin is large enough to be sure that it'll work out cheaper. Someone will probably come along with some exact figures but, from memory, I think I've usually ended up paying around 20% of the value of things in duty+charges.

[ikay]

Here's a link to a useful online import duty calculator - [url="http://www.dutycalculator.com/new-import-duty-and-tax-calculation/"]http://www.dutycalculator.com/new-import-d...ax-calculation/[/url]

You will pay 20% VAT on the full value of the goods plus shipping costs. If the total value is over £135 you will also pay an additional 3.7% duty (if value is under £135 you just pay the VAT). Depending on how it's shipped, you will most likely also be charged a handling fee for processing the imported item. This is usually a flat fee (around £8 or so).

A good rule of thumb is to add 25% to the totl cost of goods plus shipping. Not many items slip through without being charged these days. I've imported things such as pickups and sets of tuners and all have been hit with import charges. In the end it usually still works out a bit cheaper, but not by much.

[untune]

Many thanks for that info guys, thank link is very useful too. I'll weigh it up and see what options I have, cheers

[Count Bassy]

I boughts Bartolini pick up and pre amp from the states last year and didn't get charged anything extra, however the shop had written a value of $25 on the package (I didn't ask them to) when it was actually more like £180.

[Big_Stu]

I wanted a scratchplate for my SG Junior. I found one in the USA for the equivalent of £18. Because it was a vintage part HMRC wanted another £35 in import duty, after leaving it in a Glasgow office for three weeks before writing to me, while I gave grief to the shop in the USA not knowing where it was.
I told HMRC to shove it, & had JayDee make me one from some old vintage blanks he had laying around.

[Delberthot]

I've had a couple of Lollar pickups sent from the US and didn't have to pay anything extra