ordering U.S. equipment

Dave,

Rumour has it that someone received a $9,000 AP160 refractor from the US without paying a single euro in import duties and taxes!

Now, how it slipped through is beyond me! Of course, who am I to ask or complain.

Thanks Santa, Xmas came early this year. :lol:

Anthony.

I also heard that someone received a 1200 GTO mount recently and wasn't charged Duty . But had to pay the VAT .

The equipment was logged by the shipper as 'hard drives/computer equipment' because the word 'keypad was in the description. How that resulted in no duty is a mystery because I heard that all import items are assigned a TARIC code which determines the Duty to be paid, percentage wise. Unless computer equipment has a 0% TARIC code...

The away it works, from what I heard... is that you get the price of the goods (minuse any local taxes, VAT or whatever - unless its bought it the EU). You then add on shipping, packing, insurance or whatever. This is what you pay the seller.

The shipper then delivers the goods to you. They shipper will accurately charge you for:

Appropriate duty rate on the value of the goods, plus shipping, plus insurance etc (ie everything you paid the seller).

You will then be charged 21% VAT on the whole lot (ie you pay 21% VAT on the import duty, shipping, insurance etc... another double tax rip-off...)

For example:

Goods = $900
Shipping and insurance = $100
Duty (let's say its a 5% TARIC code) = $50
VAT = $220.50

Total to seller = $1000
Total to shipper = $270.50

You can pay the shipper cash or credit card. Ring them before delivery and they will give you the amount. Some shipper may add on a 'handling' fee of something like $20 to $50

Obviously - all numbers are in dollars for ease of reading. Just convert to your favourite currency.

Also note, Duty actually isn't the killer, VAT is. If you can ship to an address in the North, you'll only pay 17.5 (?) %....

Anthony - the person who received the AP160 - did they not pay VAT either? If they didn't then that's a real bargain for them

By the way, for anyone interested, the current TARIC code for telescopes and mounts thereof is 4.3%

Cheers

Dave McD

Anthony - the person who received the AP160 - did they not pay VAT either? If they didn't then that's a real bargain for them
Dave McD

Dave,

NOT a single euro on any aspect of the package. In other words, it went through as if it was a letter weighing 20 grams with a one-page letter enclosed?!

I have a suspicion the arrangements made for 2-day Global Express Guaranteed Delivery may helped quite a bit in this winfall.

Anthony.

The rumoured person you mention is very lucky indeed! That must have amounted to the cost of a good field-flattener and possibly some filters etc! A real bargain from AP - super!

By the way, how are you getting on with your own Starfire? Haven't seen any images yet but I'm dying to get a look. Hopefully I'll be up for mine in the next two years or so

Cheers

Dave McD

The rumoured person you mention is very lucky indeed! That must have amounted to the cost of a good field-flattener and possibly some filters etc! A real bargain from AP - super!

Actually the savings are MUCH more than that since we have an effective tax rate of 30-35% on the $9000 .... I will let you do the math.

By the way, how are you getting on with your own Starfire? Haven't seen any images yet but I'm dying to get a look. Hopefully I'll be up for mine in the next two years or so

I take great pride in our weather but this year has been tremendously uncharacteristic the past two weeks with the incessant rains and clouds (and some dust from the Sahara as well).

We had a clear night on the weekend and I nailed a very stunning M13. I wanted to go back at it again yesterday with some very slight adjustments but the weather did not cooperate (very thin clouds screwing up the transparency).

There was an attempt this evening but it did not materialize. I was on the front cover of one of the major newspapers in Greece as well as a whole page thereafter dedicated to my astrophotography work and I was bombarded with calls and TV interviews which effectively fried me out for this evening.

If things hold tomorrow, I will have something in relation to M13 soon thereafter.

Anthony.