Import and VAT charges from Japan

[Dave_petrucci]

Hi. I was just wondering whether you guys knew what types of charges I would run into if I ordered an Iaito from Japan. My Sensei usually brings them back for us from Japan but he wont be back untill December, and that's alot of time to wait.

If it's a reasonable price like 40 quid or something I might go for it but if it's something bigger I might just wait. I once ordered a Tshirt from a Japanese video game company, the Tshirt itself cost 10 pounds, the shipping and VAT increased the price by 40 quid. Yes, 50 pounds for a Tshirt.

I con only imagine that the costs would increase for a larger item like a sword, so do you guys have any idea how much it would cost?

Thanks for your time.

[Andy_Watson]

Dave

There is a way around paying vat and duty when bringing swords in and I will PM it to you for obvious reasons.

[gaarhaar]

Andy can you pm me that too, I am expecting a tozando blade in the next week or two.

Cheers
Tim.

[Felix]

Hi Andy,

I am ordering a bulk order for my dojo from Tozando in a few days (mainly Uniforms and little gadgets, no bogu, so nothing sooo serious)... But the overall value of the shipment is going to be quite high. I totally did not think about import taxes on that one. So it would be great if you could pm me as well. I havent posted a lot of posts yet in the forum, I don´t like to write a lot, just reading, so I hope you don´t mind telling me ;)

So thank you very much in advance. And many greetings from rainy Germany
Felix

[Budo Angel]

Felix
I think Andy was referring to "experience" from INSIDE UK...not Germany, I recommend you look at your own country's customs duty/tax regulations.

[Andy_Watson]

Okay, let me put this to bed.

If you are carrying an iaito or a shinken into the UK and you state that it is for your own personal use and you have no intention to sell it on, then you may bring it into the UK without paying any tax.

If you decide to do the above and are lying (and I assume you wouldn't lie if you had more than one sword) then that is entirely up to you but what you would be doing would be illegal.

I had this experience myself, got stung for £600 bringing a shinken in and then found out that I shouldn't have been charged. I wrote to HMRC and got a full refund.

Hope that's settled.

Love

[Felix]

Arrrrr, got me on this one. Sorry should have though this a little bit more over...But preparing for exams always makes one dizzy in the head. Too much dry theory from textbooks.

But thanks for the reply.
Greetings
Felix