Buying from the UK

[minux]

I am looking at purchasing an item from the UK that will cost around $500, do i have to pay any sort of import tax, VAT etc?

Any help appreciated.

[azkwazere]

Depends on what the item is for it to be imported!

Usually, there is a threshold for taxes, $500 wont break them but depending on what the item is it may cop a goods tax.

You relise they probably wont let you bring $500 worth of porn into the country minux

aZk.

[minux]

Depends on what the item is for it to be imported!

Usually, there is a threshold for taxes, $500 wont break them but depending on what the item is it may cop a goods tax.

You relise they probably wont let you bring $500 worth of porn into the country minux

aZk.

crap, really? I wanted this porn so bad.

Seriously though, it is just an RC Car.

[Troy711]

what sort of RC car? the tamiya off roady you were asking about before?

[Troy711]

oh, and if you want porn... one of the shops here has DVDs for 5 bucks. and they are not all 60s junk with pubic sideburns either

[Reaper]

crap, really? I wanted this porn so bad.

Seriously though, it is just an RC Car.

Get them to mark it as a personal gift on the import papers and you should be right. Worst case you might get hit with the GST (unlikely).

Reaper

[Spaced]

Pretty sure you pay import tax on anything over $100. When they released the psp in asia 6 months before australia, a few guys bought them off ebay and invoice was like $99 so they didn't have to pay tax.

[hsvpunk]

short answer, NO u do not have to pay any import tax.
My mum has relatives in the UK, and we get some parcels every few months, and we send them stuff. and have never been stung anymore , and vise versa.

[crazyspoon05]

I've imported a couple of karaoke decks from the UK and never had to pay duty

[vy_storm]

Duties/GST kick in at $1000AUD. Anything under that is the discretion of customs. They shouldn't charge VAT on export items.

The limit was raised after they realised they were processing too many entries for small amounts and the duty collected was bugger all. There also used to be a different amount for courier and postal deliveries.

[Shortstuff]

You shouldn't have to pay anything. If it's a business you're buying from they shouldn't charge you VAT either as you're exporting it (so that makes it 17.5% cheaper),and a private sale won't include VAT anyway. My mum sends me stuff from the UK all the time and never had to pay anything. Same when i've bought stuff off eBay from the UK up to about $300.

If by any chance you do get charged VAT, then you can still claim it back once your item arrives here. Not sure exactly of the process though.

[minux]

Thanks guys, not buying from there now anyway as they want to charge me 100 pounds postage....it now ends up cheaper to buy here.

[Shortstuff]

That sounds a rip off! Was that air mail? Surface mail takes about 6 weeks from the UK!

[minux]

Not sure they gave me price of everything i was buying + 100 pounds for postage...so i said no way lol.

[AttaBoy]

100 pounds!! Thats like 200 something aussie dollars!!!

[ClairBear]

100 pounds!! Thats like 200 something aussie dollars!!!

$227.52 at the moment to be exact

C.