Import tax from US

domforr

Hi, can someone please clarify exactly what sort of charges there would be if buying a guitar from the US?

The offer is -  $1,019.50USD + $250 shipping (£850.45GBP + £208.55 shipping). So would I just add another 20% to that?

prowla

The couriers usually charge a fee (eg. £20) for handling the duties.

GluedtoMusic

First you need to add import duty to the total of the guitar and shipping, duty on acoustic guitars should be 3.2% so based on your £ total of £1,059 the duty would be £33.89,

Then you need to add VAT to the new total of £1,092.89, the VAT amount would be £218.57 giving you a total of £1,311.46 (VAT always includes duty and shipping),

You then need to add the couriers handling fee, Parcelforce would typically charge £25 on items at that cost but other couriers are likely to be more, roughly 3% of the total bill, so in this case another £40 ish (the handling fee does not have additional VAT on it).

So your total cost should be something like £1,337 - £1,352

domforr

Crikey - It's seeming a lot less appealing after that! Thanks for clarifying - very helpful.