Import Tax Costs from USA to UK

[Daywalker]

Hi my axe-wielding friends...

Im selling a couple of my imports to pay for a USA model and i was wondering what i could expect to pay at this end in tax if i bought say a Dk1 from Fullers Guitar in the USA?

Thanks in advance.

[The Mitch]

Damn, I can't remember how much I paid the last time.
But you can expect taxes around 10% of the item's value. I'm not sure

[Daywalker]

HMRC UK say 3.7% on guitars under common internet goods.
3.7 on $1700 is only $62 dollars. That seems a really small amount...

[neilli]

To start with, don't buy from Fuller's unless you know for absolute certainty that they're as cheap as elsewhere or the guitar is unique, because they're renowned for being expensive! Though I've heard if you call them (rather than email) you can get a better price than they offer 'electronically'.

As for UK tax, you should budget on adding 25% to the amount you pay the store and you should be covered with a bit to spare.

UK charges are 17.5% VAT + whatever duty is at the moment. But you have to pay these on the total cost including shipping, AND one of them is calculated after the other is added (I think duty is added first, then VAT is calculated on that new total).

[Daywalker]

Hey - that is really helpfull, thanks.
I guess if i tried hard enough i might be able to find what i want be sold here in England. There just seems to be so much better range in US (duh, obviously..

[The Mitch]

Holy Shit!
That sucks man...
I'm searching for a Quicksliver KV2 and it looks like that I also have to order from the US.

[sonicsamurai]

u will pay enough tax and customs to make the guitar virtually the same price as it is in dollars, u just end up paying that value in pounds pretty much...tho you will save a bit, maybe a few hundred on a very expensive guitar i think. but delivery is expensive by itself so the saving isn't as pronopunced as u expect it to be...

[Daywalker]

This is interesting because if that is the case....i would feel more confident about a delivery from the UK instead...when you are paying nearly £2K, a couple of hundred quid seems a little silly to quibble over.

[neilli]

Oh, it's worth buying a US made (or high end) guitar from the US, just for the range of choice and you'll still save a bunch of cash if you're comparing like with like (i.e. new guitars). Put it this way: when I was still there, I'd never have bought a new guitar from the UK - it's just not worth it.

The exchange is basically 2$ = £1, so in pounds the guitar would cost half the dollar amount, and bear in mind that guitars are proportionally cheaper in the US anyway. If you buy a black SL2H for say $1500, even if you pay $200 shipping that's £850, so including tax you'd get it for less than 1100 quid. Which I'd wager is way cheaper than you can find a new SL2H for in the UK.

The tax you pay is based on the insured (declared) value, and of course, some people (not me guv, honest) take a risk and under-insure to save some tax....

[Daywalker]

My next question then is if "Fullers" is not the place to buy in the US - anyone have any good experience of a good place to buy from the US?

[neilli]

Check out the dealers list here - they're all good guys!

[Daywalker]

Seems to be just Matts Music and Piney Hills...under the ads board.
Is there another list?

[Daywalker]

Scrap - that *dealers* at the top of the page

[neilli]

Check your PMs

[Daywalker]

Cheers...have replied.