[Elecraft] Import duties on amateur radio items

[David Woolley (E.L)]

Ian White GM3SEK wrote:

> Most are free from import duty, or else it's only a few percent. The 

And it is waived if the total duty is less than GBP 7, even if the 
shipment value exceeds the allowance.

> killer is the Value Added Tax, which is 17.5% in the UK and even higher 
> in some other EU countries. Unless the item is of small value, or is 
> below the Customs exemptions for incoming travelers, VAT will normally 
> be charged on *all* incoming goods.

The other killer is the GBP 8 handling charge by the Post Office for 
doing the customs processing on items that exceed the allowance. 
Together, these mean that orders over GBP 18 (hopefully more like GBP 
100 at the end of the year, but the necessary Statutory Instruments 
don't yet exist) are very unattractive, particularly ones just over, 
where the GBP 8 is significant.

The other thing that Elecraft need to consider is formalising their 
shipping rates for low value orders.  If one actually looks at the 
official rates and considers a small project item, shipping is 
comparable than the cost of the item.  However, I suspect, that in 
practice, they may be prepared to use postal packets for such items.

> 
> The worst thing is that both duty and taxes are applied to the bottom 
> line of the invoice, the total including both shipping and insurance! 
> Helpful exporters to the EU will bill for those two service items 
> separately, so that duty and VAT are applied only to the true value of 
> the goods. As far as I'm aware, this is a perfectly legal way to 
> minimize the tax liability.

I am pretty sure that that is illegal tax evasion, if they only include 
the goods value on the declaration.  The Revenue and Customs document 
that explains the current rules for postal shipments makes it very 
clear, and cites source legislation, that duty and VAT are based on the 
bottom line price, including shipping and insurance.

Shipping and insurance is not counted for gifts sent directly from one 
individual to another, and the limit is GBP 36, rather than GBP 18, but 
that is not relevant for a company.


-- 
David Woolley
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