Import Duties & VAT from US>UK

[RobHague]

I found a great deal on eBay ( note: unlike the one i posted about previously ;) ), a PM G5 2.5Ghz - BRAND NEW! - for $2200 (£1200)

The person selling them has perfect feedback, sells loads of stuff like this, i checked his history and it all seems to look good.

I emailed and the perso is willing to ship to the UK. I have priced up a new 2.3Ghz system and it is at least £1700 for it. The thing is in the message i got back reality hit me...

By the way, we are only responsible for shipping the item with full insurance not responsible for your duties, taxes etc

Thanks,
Robin

:(

This could be a problem. Has anyone got a Powermac/Powerbook or something simular from the US > UK and how much was the dutie/vat extra in addition to the price. Im concerned ill pay $2200 for the comp, $200 for shipping then get hit for $1000 dutie/vat or something daft :mad:.

I have tried to find out by searching the web and all the information is very elusive and never actually seems to get to the main point: the cost.

Reminds me of a game i imported from Japan for my Nintendo DS actually, game was £27, Shipping was £15 (i was in a hurry :o ) and i got stung for £18 when it arrived for dutie/vat.

[Duff-Man]

Duff-Man says....did you try looking at the UK Gov't website? I did a very quick serach and came up with this easy information (http://customs.hmrc.gov.uk/channelsPortalWebApp/channelsPortalWebApp.portal?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=pageTravel_ShowContent&propertyType=document&resetCT=true&id=HMCE_CL_001454) which has a link to a pdf that lists common goods bought over the internet and what duty they may be assessed in addition the VAT - looks like a desktop oir laptop will be VAT only......oh yeah!

[RobHague]

Thanks for that, seems you had much better luck than i did.

Does anyone know if the PowerMac's have a universal powersupply/plug etc? I mean obviously it will be 2-pin 140?v but does it also support 3-pin 240v as well. Im gussing so since that would make the system building for apple more complicated if they had to switch the PSU for each country.

Anyone know for sure? thanks.

[Jaffa Cake]

We covered US/UK import duties on this (http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=137160&highlight=import) thread – there's plenty of advice in there you should find useful. As for the power situation... I'm currently writing this on a 'US' Power Mac that was imported into the UK and all I had to do was use a different plug cable. Just any standard kettle plug should do the trick. The Power Macs (like most recent Macs) are 'auto-switching' so they'll, well, automatically switch to the different voltage.