European Import Duties (was: Multirig Pro)

[Zsolt Gordos]

From the website of the Multirig makers:

"There are no import taxes or customs charges on importing our products to the US and Europe."

http://dvmultirig.com/store/index.html

I have no idea where these folks get their info on EU taxing, my USD 445 priced bunch of metal pieces are sitting now at the customs office, waiting for me to pay 40% over the price mentioned (20% import tax and 20% VAT to be clear).
So it will give me another USD 178 to cough up, since they were smart enough to ship the "goods" straight from Israel, instead of some European warehouse that I expected when reading their statement about the tax free delivery.

So guys, just be careful when ordering. The money you pay altogether would buy a cool PAG Orbitor, that is a great piece of gear, with some quality finishing. I only wanted this Multirig as it looked lighter for traveling. But its getting a little "pocket-heavy" now.

[Danny Natovich]

Zsolt,

As I wrote in my mail to you, If you find that we misled you in anyway and would like to cancell your order, we will fully refund you as soon as we get the unit back.

We ship a lot from Israel to the US and EU countries, to companies and individuals, Never had any complaint. there are NO IMPORT TAXES on our products in EU and US countries

If you bought the Multi or any other equipment in Hungary or anywhere else, You always pay VAT.

The store massage has been modified and is now:

"Except for local VAT (Sales Tax), There are no import taxes or customs charges on importing our products to the US and EU countries".

[Patrick Bower]

Just for information, I can post the costs of importing the Multrig Pro into the UK. Import duties to the UK are complicated, so one piece of kit might be duty free, while another isn't. In general there are three charges:

1) VAT on the total, including shipping, at 17.5%
2) Flat rate clearance fee for collecting VAT and duty = £13.50
3) Import duty

The Multirig pro cost $445 (£227) including shipping.

On top of that, I had to pay £40.96 VAT, £13.50 clearance, £8.35 import duty, total £62.81

So total UK price was £290 ($569)

By comparison, the PAG orbiter retails for £450 including VAT.

Having experienced the genius of Danny's design, I would never even look at a shoulder mount that did not include a spring loaded waist support. The PAG does not. So, despite the duty, I think I have a bargain.

Patrick

[Raymond Toussaint]

So, you do pay more then just the sales tax ( local VAT) in EUROPE you pay IMPORT TAX too and a clearance fee. (it is in Hungary, England, Netherlands etc.)

btw Patrick: The PAG Orbitor has an support rod too...

[Danny Natovich]

[QUOTE=Raymond Toussaint;694507]So, you do pay more then just the sales tax ( local VAT) in EUROPE you pay IMPORT TAX too and a clearance fee. (it is in Hungary, England, Netherlands etc.)

Its interesting, Most of our EU clients didn't pay anything except refundable local VAT. Some where asked to pay different additional fees.

We (Israel) have a free trade agreement on goods manufactured in Israel and
an origin of goods declaration is printed on the invoice. If you show this invoice when clearing post office customs, They should not charge you extra.

[Raymond Toussaint]

Although you are right ( EU trade agreement for free industrial goods, import fee=0 %) it looks like it is going wrong in some circumstances. (see above, Hongary is since 2004 part of EU, as is England from the start). But I was to pessimistic, you are following the rules, you should indeed not pay import tax for industrial goods coming from Israel with a clear written statement from origin.

[Zsolt Gordos]

Originally Posted by Raymond Toussaint

btw Patrick: The PAG Orbitor has an support rod too...

Not only a spring rod, but a custom design belt too with a solid hard plastic base for the rod.

Multirig only has a pocket with a belt clip, you have to buy some kind of a belt separately.

[Piotr Wozniacki]

And what's more, the PAG offers an all-degrees-of-freedom camera mount. You can pan/tilt with the camera, not necesserily you body. Interestingly, the DvRigPro info web page says you can with the DvRigPro, as well;)

[Jonathan MacDonald]

[QUOTE=Danny Natovich;694541]

Originally Posted by Raymond Toussaint

So, you do pay more then just the sales tax ( local VAT) in EUROPE you pay IMPORT TAX too and a clearance fee. (it is in Hungary, England, Netherlands etc.)

Its interesting, Most of our EU clients didn't pay anything except refundable local VAT. Some where asked to pay different additional fees.

We (Israel) have a free trade agreement on goods manufactured in Israel and
an origin of goods declaration is printed on the invoice. If you show this invoice when clearing post office customs, They should not charge you extra.

Is this still the case? I'm considering buying a couple of Multirig items but unsure how much extra customs/import duty I'll have to pay, especially considering Sterling versus the Dollar is so bad at the moment :-/

[Mike Beckett]

I got hit with excise and VAT charges when I ordered somer DVDs from DigitalJuice last year. The order was around $150, and I had to pay £29 ($50 at the time) to FedEx, who sent an invoice a few weeks after the package arrived. A second order at $130 hit me with £25 charges.

There was a £6 fee to FedEx, the rest was the VAT and Excise.

Recently, the limits were changed, so you can import £105 or less without Excise charges - but you still get hit by VAT. See: BBC NEWS | Business | Internet shoppers get duty break

At today's exchange rates, $1000 is about £730. Add on 14% Excise and 15% VAT, and that comes to about £200 extra, before any handling fee - so $1000 is £930. And that's before any handling rates from your bank for the credit card foreign currency transation, which could very well result in $1000 being £1000.

Ouch.

FedEx (and proably other couriers) will automatically invoice, it seems, based on the value declared on the package. Royal Mail is a bit more hit and miss - sometimes you get lucky - but they divert things to somewhere like the Mount Pleasant mail centre in London where it sits for a fortnight before they decide how much to charge for it.

It doesn't half make you want to avoid ordering from the US.

(Disclaimer: my maths might be a bit off, and the %ages may have changed slightly since the BBC article, but it's not going to make that much difference)

Edit: A bit of light reading later - http://www.digitaljuice.com/communit...e=1&key=excise - from the Digital Juice fourms, suggests that FedEx are ripping us off a bit with their charges. I understand that we legally have to pay both VAT and Import Duty either way. I'd love to be proved wrong!

[Danny Natovich]

[QUOTE=Jonathan MacDonald;1000665]

Originally Posted by Danny Natovich

Is this still the case? I'm considering buying a couple of Multirig items but unsure how much extra customs/import duty I'll have to pay, especially considering Sterling versus the Dollar is so bad at the moment :-/

There are no taxes and or duties on importing MultiRigs to the UK.

However you will pay the deductible VAT and additional 10-20 Pounds fee to UPS for preparing the import documents for you and for the labor of clearing customs for you.

If you want to clear customs yourself, and save this fee, Let us know and UPS will keep the box for you in their office, once you clear customs with the invoice we will mail you, you can have your order free of extra charges.

You can place an order, we will mail you the invoice and hold shipping until you make sure exactly what you have to do.

To make sure, call UPS in your area and verify all this before shipping.

[Jonathan MacDonald]

[QUOTE=Danny Natovich;1000699]

Originally Posted by Jonathan MacDonald

There are no taxes and or duties on importing MultiRigs to the UK.

However you will pay the deductible VAT and additional 10-20 Pounds fee to UPS for preparing the import documents for you and for the labor of clearing customs for you.

If you want to clear customs yourself, and save this fee, Let us know and UPS will keep the box for you in their office, once you clear customs with the invoice we will mail you, you can have your order free of extra charges.

You can place an order, we will mail you the invoice and hold shipping until you make sure exactly what you have to do.

To make sure, call UPS in your area and verify all this before shipping.

Hi Guys,

Thanks for the responses. Danny, I'll be in touch soon.

Jonathan