Buying from the east

Has anyone ever bought a camera or lens from Japan?

Products are dirt cheap but they talk about "charges and import duties".

Is there anyway of finding this out before buying or is it at the discretion of import officials?

Just google import duties and you'll find links to let you work out how much it will cost. Camera bodies aren't subject to import duty but lenses are, everything has vat added.

Add to that in case you weren't aware, many camera and lens manufacturers will not honour a guarantee on a 'grey import' so if you do go this route factor the return postage to the supplier if you need warranty service.

My *istD was purchased in Japan. I checked with Pentax UK and they confirmed that the guaranteed would be honoured - as it happens, it was not needed.

There is a difference between a Personal Import by an individual - either by mail order or when visiting and a company buying large numbers and shipping them in - the latter are the grey imports.

It is not at their discretion - but occasionally they may miss an item so you need to work on the duty, VAT and a handling fee from either the shipping company or Royal Mail. There are options with some larger companies to prepay the VAT and duty on your behalf and the there is no handling fee.

so lets say its a lens that I am thinking of getting.

I pay the amount on ebay but then I might get a phone call from customs about paying extra?

How much are we talking - big money?

Here is a copy and paste from an example

Shipping:

The item is located in Japan and we use Japan post EMS as our main carrier. It usually takes about three to seven days for the item to arrive, but for European countries it could take longer. Please beware that in some countries the buyer maybe charged taxes or tariffs. We will not be responsible for these extra costs. Since we are selling a lot of items, we tend to wait until several items have been paid and then ship them all together.

We offer a free shipping for this item!

A few years back for a lens that was £270 the handling and duties etc came to £85, that was FedEx that was used that time, had to pay before they would deliver.

I normally add around 30% for VAT, import duties, Royal mail charges and suchlike. If you add that to your purchase price you won't be far out.

Have a read of: https://www.pentaxuser.com/forum/topic/imports-from-japan-47525/p-0#comm_506895

6.7% duty, 20% VAT, £15-25 handling.

So for a £200 lens, £13.40 duty, £43.68 VAT >>>> £57.08 + £15-25

Gives £272.80 - £282.80 or thereabouts.

But is this factored in with the sale when you purchase?

or,,,

do you contact royal mail
do you receive a phone call from royal mail
do you receive a phone call from customs

?
How do you go about paying this levy?

It depends how the supplier sends the item. Couriers like UPS DHL and Fedex will handle the import duty arrangements and will either bill you after delivery or send you an account to pay before. I have in the past had to pay COD which was difficult but I think they've stopped that now.

If it's sent by post it's a lottery whether you'll have to pay at all and how much depends on what value the supplier puts on the package, if it gets stopped by customs you have to pay the duty and charges at the post office before delivery.

Your best bet is to ask the seller what they do and how they send items.

Royal Mail will drop a card through the door. And don't bank on them missing a shipment - the staff are on a "bonus" for every package they identify as VATable or Dutiable.

Couriers may arrive and ask for payment - by credit card or leave a card with you. Shipping agents will phone, write or email you to indicate they have the package, that you are liable to pay and arrange delivery/collection.

Royal Mail usually send you a letter to say they have a parcel that has duty due.

EMS from the Far East if marked as gift or low value usually gets by the duty police. Courier service the seller has to tell the courier the value for insurance purposes so always gets duty added and companies like DHL charge more for handling than Royal Mail do.

If it's anything like in Canada, you might be able to deal with a custom broker before the item is shipped. They handle all the taxes and duties before you receive the good, so you don't have nasty surprises.

The accurate answer to this question is only two clicks on the HMRC web site