Buying from Hong Kong ?

[darrenft]

Can anyone give me some advice on buying from hong kong please... i have been told that if the idems are sent as a gift you do not have to paid import tax ... is this true ? can anyone help please ?

many thanks darren

[neo]

It all depends on the kind customs people really. If items are sent via insured post then the item value is usually declared on the label. So even if its a gift, the value can still be seen and charged accordingly. OK, you could ask the seller to declare a lower value, BUT, if it comes to making a claim you will only get the price declared on the shipping label.

 

 

[Tamiyabigstuff]

Bought lots of kits and stuff from HK and Japan - rarely get charged for Customs duty / VAT - maybe 1 in every 20 or 25 packages.

It really is a bit of a lottery !

[tamiya monkey]

i agree it is rare to be charged but i always put alittle money aside incase you do get hit, just ordered myself a high lift and keen hawk from hong kong amd saved a fortune even if i did get charged import tax.

[3doorpete]

I agree with the above. I've done a lot of buying from HK and have saved a lot only getting caught out once with customs on my Brat re-re recently.

Saying that, I think the UK sellers are realising they are losing out to HK sellers, and are bringing prices down to be much more competitive than they were. This only seems to be on-line (as with the sponsors of this site), but with local hobby stores, you still pay loads. An example is with the Brat. UK prices are around the £100 mark delivered - you'd struggle to beat this with HK sellers at the moment. (I only bought mine there to get it quicker as it was release in HK before UK).

HK headline prices are always fantastic, but you do have to factor in expensive postage and the risk of getting caught with duty. You pay VAT on the purchase price + P&P plus an £8 Royal Mail handling fee. You can lie about the cost to reduce the customs fees, but this is obviously illegal, and probably not worth it to save a few pounds...

[HunterZero]

Stick with the established Asian sellers (stellamodels, jr-rc, dinball/rcmart, rainbow ten, rcboyz) and you'll be fine.

- James

[sosidge]

The lowdown on importing packages to the UK from outside the EU...

Gifts over the value of £36 will be liable for customs charges.

Other items over the value of £18 are liable.

Customs will charge VAT at the applicable rate (for RC stuff always 17.5%) and duty (for RC stuff it ranges from 0% to about 4%, commodity codes are very complex). VAT and duty are charged on the complete package value INCLUDING the cost of postage.

On top of that you will normally have to pay a handling charge. Unless you choose a courier like Fedex or UPS, you will pay £8 if Royal Mail apply the charges (smaller packets), £8 if Parcelforce apply the charges (larger, non-express packages) and £13.50 if you use an express service and Parcelforce apply the charges. Royal Mail/Parcelforce have a monopoly on taking customs charges for non-courier services.

It is a bit of a lottery but my feeling is that they are much sharper on customs charging at the moment - probably because it is a profitable source of income for Parcelforce to slap £13.50 admin fee on a parcel for only a few minutes work.

[necronomicon]

Thanks for that clarification sosidge, i have never been hit but now i understand why, never purchased anything over £36 in one go as only ordered parts etc from stella models (who IMO are excellent BTW)

Thanks

Neil

[sosidge]

Have to say I am having a run of bad luck with charges...

Last couple of months I have had three, maybe four packages come in from abroad (US and Japan) and every one of them as been charged by Customs.

I don't mind being charged the VAT and duty, that is only fair and proper, but I really object to the scandalaous £13.50 "handling charge" Parcelforce put on as well for about 5 minutes extra work at their end. The most expensive handling charge in the industry and there is nothing you can do about it.