K3 price

For shipments within the state. If it's posted to California I presume no sales tax is added (which could be handy since I have a friend in San Francisco who is visiting the UK at Xmas and I have a $100 B&H voucher).

VAT in the USA ? No chance. Just a pure sales tax.

In the early 80's I think Dubia had the best prices anywhere for booze. I believe the staff on KLM used to buy their duty free there as the prices airside were more expensive

At present no. There are some states which are putting in bi-lateral agreements for sales taxes to be applied to some or all mail order items shipped between them. It is in response to the massive on-line sales boom of recent years and the state governments are noticing the decline in tax revenues.

i was just quoting from their website...

No where on their website does it say that VAT has been added. It just does not exist in the USA - except for some companies (B&H included) that ship to the EU regularly and they collect on behalf of the EU governments rather than the shipping agent at point of entry.

No it doesnt, plus I didnt say VAT does exist in the USA but could be an addition, not everyone who purchases from B & H is an american citizen so there are potentially all kinds of taxes involved depending on where in the world you live.

Here is the exact quote.

"We do not collect tax for orders shipped out of New York State. Purchases in our store are subject to an 8.875% local sales tax. This tax is not a VAT, and cannot be recovered by non-USA visitors when returning home."

This implies there is a VAT element which I am guessing is on shipments outside the USA or potentially other US states.

As I am not a resident of the USA I obviously have to rely upon information provided by B & H

There is no way that implies there is any VAT in their prices. The only time that B&H would add VAT is for an export to Europe where teh customer elects to pay on purchase rather than arrival.

I believe that the import VAT and customs duty is paid by the customer. Basically you pay the handler (eg Royal Mail) a fee and they administer the formalities including settlement of fees with HMRC. So VAT would be applied but at the point of import, not dispatch.

As I said before, you can ask B&H to collect it from you which will save the rip off Royal Mail doing it.

Try buying software from some US Companies - they automatically add VAT for UK credit cards. I have had great fun trying to claim it back when the software has been left in the USA and never entered the UK.

RockAuto can do this for car parts too. All the charges inc vat and duty are calculated at checkout and the order then goes straight through Customs and out for delivery.

that's another thing we are lucky with in Aus, import duty/GST is only paid if the purchase is over $1000.which in this case it would apply.

Hi, The best price in Australia at the moment Is $AUS1344.-
which is GBP799.-

link

This includes a 8Mb FLU Card

Regards, Horst

Further to my prior comments relating to corporate cynicism...behold the K3 suddenly emerges amidst a positive plethora of other recent Pentax/Ricoh releases. Pitty then the hapless saps who rushed out and purchased either version of the revamped K5 and or either of the recent K50 variants 'cos it would appear that your latest pride and joy is now suddenly somewhat old technological hat in the energised Rioch corporate scheme of things.

Happless sap eh? Well in the time ive had ny mkii ive had my best ever year photography sales wise and uve got a nightly job in a nightclub and the mkii has made that job relatively easier than the old mki i used with its very poor af in low light.

my mkii has paid for itself many times over in the last nine months so yes i guess it was a very poor purchasing decision and makes me a helpless sap.

i think in the last two years there has been a new body every year, you can either see commercial advantages in technological advancement or you can stay fixed in the past.