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Buy equipment in Hong Kong; Any taxes to be paid in Ireland?
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I’d like to buy 2 lenses on ebay – shipping from Hong Kong.
Anybody has an experience with it?
I’m concerned about duties & taxes.
Are they going to be taxed at the border?
If yes, how much?The only advice I can offer is I bought a lens from Ur Galaxy in HK I took delivery of it only yesterday and found him to be quite good and friendly to deal with.
I have also bought gear from Kea Photo
Hope this is of some help.Pat
I got my Nikon SB 600 and sigma 70-200 F2.8 from hk-digi when I was still leaving in Ireland.
They are very good.
allPhoto wrote:
I’d like to buy 2 lenses on ebay – shipping from Hong Kong.
Anybody has an experience with it?
I’m concerned about duties & taxes.
Are they going to be taxed at the border?
If yes, how much?The question is technically yes you should pay 21% of the final price…
But you might get lucky, and the lens might pass with no problems, i had already to pay once i bought a camera from Hong Kong and once a cell phone…basically you should pay taxes if comes out of Europe but they don’t always check also depends of the size of the package and what is written on the paper, sometimes when it says gift they just let it pass other times even saying gift they know its not a gift and make you pay.
When i had to pay for my camera i didn’t have to show them the PO i only said the price over the phone they made some accounts and was only that so good luck if you will order from Hong Kong :)
Duchovny wrote:
The question is technically yes you should pay 21% of the final price…
Don’t forget the import duties which are levied before VAT is levied. Import duties vary depending on the relevant tariff codes, but if I recall correctly, for photographic equipment (other than digital camera bodies) it’s something like 6% (or is it more like 3%). For digital camera bodies it’s 0%. It’s only after the import duty has been levied that the VAT is levied, so you end up paying tax on a tax!
The nice thing about our current exchange rate is that you can now buy totally legit and with good consumer protection and warranty support from the UK for not a whole lot more of what it would cost to buy from HK once shipping charges are taken into account, although this can depend on what one is buying.
And let’s not forget that the Revenue Commissioners can read what’s on this forum and can be alert for any companies that directly or accidently understate value.
On the whole, in recent months I have found little value from HK – and I buy in Sterling. There are a number of grey importers in the UK that must be able to purchase/ship in bulk, because their UK delivered price is very competitive with the equivalent from HK … and if something goes wrong, the return shipping charges are a lot less.
Plus, I just don’t like playing a lottery with imprt duties and VAT. When I purchase soemthing, I expect the payment to be final. If I wanted to be in the import-export business, that would be different: I am an amateur photographer!
i found that buying from hk it seems that roughly 1 in 5 times the item gets caught for vat/excise. it still usually works out cheaper though. only thing is that if you have a problem then you must post it back wait for their responce and then wait to get the item back again, in which case if theyre giving you a replacement it can again get nabbed by customs (happened to me on a lens) so the whole thing takes a month and ends up no cheaper that here. but as i say roughly 1 in 5 times. as the above posts say with the sterling euro relationship its not much dearer to buy n the uk, and its much easier if you have a problem, although quite a few ebay shops claim to be in england but are in hk. buy a camera/lens from hk only if its a canon/nikon as their quality control is so much better than sigma/tamron/tokina. i’ve never bought a sigma lens that didn’t need calibration/exchange- but thats just my experience.
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