I bought a digital SLR a few months ago and I seriously considered importing it. I'm afraid I don't know what the Customs Duty rate is but, if you haven't done so already, you definitely need to make sure that the camera's warranty extends to the UK. In the end, I bought my digital SLR from the UK so I'd get a full UK warranty.

Does anyone know the Customs Duty rate???

Just out of interest, what camera are you getting? An HVX-200?

Maybe a RED :)

The camera is unveiled at NAB on Monday (though it won't be on sale till next year) but they have said they'll announce a price, so I'm gonna work out how much it'll actually cost to buy and import one (US price + Import Duty + VAT + Delivery).

Which reminds me...
-------------
Stephen
^{www.aefilms.co.uk
www.redcamera.net}

Wow! You might buy a RED Camera?!? Cool. Did I ever mention that I really like you? Seriously... we should get married or something. Just as long as I get to play with your RED.

:)

I'm scared now.

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Stephen
^{www.aefilms.co.uk
www.redcamera.net}

Fair enough :)

But.. back to the original question... does anyone know how much it'll cost to import a big, expensive camera from the US?

Well, word from customs is that Import Duty is likely to be 14%. Add to this VAT at 17.5% and it works out that the camera will cost its Retail Price ($17.5k), plus shipping and insurance, plus 31.5% in taxes.

In English this works out at around £13k - which is still pretty good for a camera that can shoot in 2540p!

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Stephen
^{www.aefilms.co.uk
www.redcamera.net}

Hi Stephen,

Thanks loads for getting back to us with this information. Wow - I'm very excited at how cheap this camera will be! If it really is that cheap then I'd seriously consider buying one for my production company

Are you sure that you'll personally have to import it from the US? I would hope that a handful of UK equipment distributors would stock the camera.

Thanks,
Jack

I was actually trying to get an import contract with them :)

RED will only sell this camera direct, they've stated there will be "no middle-men" in order to keep costs down. The only way I can see this camera being cheaper in the UK that £13k is if they set up a production line somewhere in Europe.

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Stephen
^{www.aefilms.co.uk
www.redcamera.net}

Would it be cheaper to go on holiday in the States? Shouldn't that save a bit on tax?

An interesting and, may I say, cunning suggestion there.

However, you still either have to

a) Declare it at customs on your way back or
b) Hope they don't catch you trying to get through customs without declaring it.

If a) then you have to pay the same in tax, plus the cost of a trip to the States.

If b) then either i) You get through without having your bags checked or, ii) You get a big fine and they confiscate your new camera that you've just been to the States to buy.

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Stephen
^{www.aefilms.co.uk
www.redcamera.net}

If you import it as a VAT-registered company then can you escape having to pay VAT? (a VAT-registered company certainly escapes having to pay VAT on stuff bought from the UK). Do you have a VAT-registered production company?

Again, it isn't quite that simple. As a VAT registered company you still have to pay VAT, you can then claim it under certain conditions.

In this case, if you were a re-seller you'd sell the camera on to the end user, they would have to pay VAT on it and you could then claim your VAT back from Mr Brown ('cause you don't pay VAT twice).

As a production company, I would have to pay VAT on the camera. I may be able to claim some VAT back in the course of my business, but someone somewhere is always paying the VAT whether it's me or another user.

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Stephen
^{www.aefilms.co.uk
www.redcamera.net}

Hmm, good point. Are you definitely planning to act as a "distributor" of the RED ONE? If you were to just buy one camera for use by your production company then could you claim back that VAT?

I was thinking (re my previous comment) of claiming back the US tax and declaring it - but I guess if you're importing it, then you can do that anyway.

I'm not great with tax, but if I knew someone in the states who wanted to lend me their camera, and shipped it to me overseas, and then that (very good) friend chose to give me the camera - and for their birthday I gave them $17.5k - could that avoid some of the tax?

You'll have to ask Customs and Revenue if that's OK :)

Seriously, you either pay the tax or try to dodge it. I'm a good boy so I like to keep things up-front and proper. As for claiming back the US tax, I think the $17.5k quoted is without tax - this is because tax differs from state-to-state so all prices quoted in the US are sans-tax. The locals know just to add on their local rate (I think).

As for buying the camera just for my company's use then claiming back the VAT, the VAT HAS to be paid at some point. I may be able to write it off against other VAT-able income, but somewhere the tax WILL be paid - I leave that to the accountant!

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Stephen
^{www.aefilms.co.uk
www.redcamera.net}

Thanks for all the info, Stephen!

Urg, tax is a pain. Right now I'm thumbing my way through various books and websites trying to get myself up to speed on various tax issues. If only we were all born with an innate knowledge everything HMRC has ever published.

The happy joys of it all

:)

I went to seminar a couple of years back entitled "Freelancing for Creatives" and the guy who gave it made two excellent statements:

1) Even if you're an individual, set yourself up as Ltd. company and register with Companies House (ie. Stephen Webb Ltd.) This will keep you and your personal assets (house etc.) safe if your "business" goes into debt!

2) Employ an accountant. Accountants are brilliant and magical people. They make all the problems go away. They do your tax returns (including self-assessment) and find ways to save you from paying as much tax as possible. A good accountant will save you more money than they cost you, in ways you wouldn't even think of. And the man from the INland Revenue will never come knocking on YOUR door 'cause the accountant will deal with them for you.

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Stephen
^{www.aefilms.co.uk
www.redcamera.net}

Yes, I agree. I had the initial meeting with our first accountant a few weeks ago and I did get the feeling that he worked magic (he made a £2,000 tax bill go away in a perfectly legitimate way). Accountants are essential animals. But I'd feel more comfortable about life if I at least had a basic understanding of what's going on... one concrete reason for this is so I can keep track of my finances in the most efficient way to keep the accountant's bill as low as possible.

While we're on the topic of tax and finances: does anyone know of any good & free accounting package? I'm thinking of building a database in Open Office's Base programme but that's not ideal. GNU Cash looks promising but doesn't run on WinXP (which isn't a major problem because I do have a Linux workstation).

(Wow, this thread really is getting well and truley hijacked!)

Hmm... cool... There's a "taxation in the UK" wikibook... it's in its very early stages but it'll be worth keeping an eye on:

http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Taxation_in_the_United_Kingdom

Jack, you could try Quick Books

Yes, quick books looks nice. I've gotta admit that I have a bit of an fetish for open-source software. I'd be happiest to use an OO accounting package (not only because I'm a geek but also because I'd feel most comfortable using a package like GNU Cash where I know my data is stored in an easy-to-access XML file and I know the package will be developed for the foreseable future).

My current plan is to use GNUcash for day-to-day accounting and then, if I need to do further analysis, I'll export the data to a MySQL database using this and play with the data using Open Office's "Base" programme.