[Elecraft] Import duties on amateur radio items

[David Lankshear]

Quote

This raises a question in my mind for you VAT payers.  If 
you pay the VAT, and then discover that your item has been 
more or less destroyed in shipping, do you get any refund on 
the VAT?  What happens on the replacement item, assuming you 
get one?  Perhaps your comment about the replacement part 
suggests you wouldn't pay the VAT twice.

Dave W7AQK

Dave, Don't forget the postal service's "handling" fee, which is another addition to the
UK's 17.5% VAT.

Oh, and you'd  likelystand a better chance of piking butter up a porcupine's a55 with
a red hot shovel than getting a refund from Her Majesty's Customs and Excise!  

Fortunately, replacement components I've needed have had a shipped value below 
the VAT threshold, so they've come through unchallenged.  HMC&E are a law unto
themselves and once rendered one (constructed) piece of equipment I imported into a 
kit, having even dismantled and destroyed some of the components.  Complaints in all
directions including my MP received approximately the same response:
Tough!

I just hope there's never a need to return a K3 module to Elecraft for repair as
that could well prove interesting.  In theory, VAT would be chargeable on the repair
cost, return shipping and insurance as that's the service provided, but if they decided
to assign their own value to the item, it would probably prove impossible to change 
their assessment.

73 DaveL  G3TJP