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Australian Red Owners, Tax Amounts When Receiving Your Camera

Craig Charlton

Craig Charlton

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Hey i was wondering if anyone can help me who is from australia and has bought a red camera before. This is my first time buying a red camera i have chosen the Red scarlet W. My question is when your camera ships to you, does anyone know how much extra cash i will need to pay for the shipping taxes from the US to Australia? Anyone who can give me an estimate figure, that would be awesome!
 
I can't remember exactly what it is but I think it's around 15% of the total purchase.. There's online calculators and info if you look into customs and import tax.. It's nearly cheaper to fly to the states and carry it home in s back pack.. Except I think you also need to dodge a few US state tax..

With our weak dollar and greedy government it's tough for Aussies to buy Red!
 
13-15% of what you paid (in AUD) sounds about right for safe budgeting. Which is 10% GST and 3-5% customs duties and a bunch of other obscure (eg. brokerage) fees that often don't even get itemized for you.

Depending on how you're converting your AUD to USD, foreign exchange bank fees can be 3% or so as well.

If you're converting 10K or more AUD, you can do so here for free at competitive exchange rates - https://www.ofx.com/en-au/

Should add too that the taxes and duties are applied to the item (including postage) after its value has been converted to AUD by Customs, which may be calculated at a different USD/AUD conversion rate than the rate you actually used to pay for the item, so it's hard to know exactly how much you'll be charged.
 
It's 10% on the total purchase price including shipping. The way it works is FedEx will contact you and ask for GST payment when paid they will ship the camera to you . ( FedEx handles the entire process) .

Remember because it's GST related as a business/ company you are entitled to claim it all back or offset against GST already collected.

PS. Also remember if it's under 20k this automatically comes off your income for this fin. year under the "small business" incentive .
 
Mike Garrick said:
It's 10% on the total purchase price including shipping. The way it works is FedEx will contact you and ask for GST payment when paid they will ship the camera to you . ( FedEx handles the entire process) .

Remember because it's GST related as a business/ company you are entitled to claim it all back or offset against GST already collected.

PS. Also remember if it's under 20k this automatically comes off your income for this fin. year under the "small business" incentive .
Click to expand...

Pretty sure it's more than 10%.. I don't usually pay attention but I remember handing over my credit card details to Fed ex and being very angry everytime as its always a lot more than I was expecting....(and I use to expect 10%)
 
Was curious about this myself, so I looked a bit further into it.


The GST is 10% and is calculated (in AUD) as 10% of -

The price paid for the goods (in AUD).
Plus the Import Duty.
Plus the cost of freight and insurance (No currency conversion applied to this from what I can tell).

------------------------------------------

The Import Duty on all goods is between 0%(free) and 10%, depending on the Import Tariff category they're in (with most goods being free or 5%).

RED camera's would (I assume) be in either of these two Import Tariff categories -

9006 Photographic (other than cinematographic) cameras...
9007 Cinematographic cameras and projectors, whether or not incorporating sound recording or reproducing apparatus...

As you can see here, both of those categories are free from Import Duties -

http://www.border.gov.au/Tariffclassificationofgoods/Documents/ht90aw2012.pdf

I think from experience that's correct, as an extra 5% would definitely have been noticeable if it had been applied.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So, apart from the GST, that just leaves courier/freight and Customs processing fees.

Here's an example of some extra fees and charges that could be applied, depending on the circumstances (most of the time these would add up to around $100-$200) -

Brokerage Fee.
Disbursement Fee.
Security & Handling Fee.
Carrier Surcharge.
AQIS Entry Charge.
Import Declaration N10 Air Charge.
Advance payment surcharge.
Credit Card Surcharge (payment options can be limited).

Here's a rough example of costs for a Scarlet-W package.

SCARLET-W V-Lock I/O Package - $14,500.00 (USD)/ $19248.75 (AUD) @ curent AUD/USD exchange rate (0.75/1.00).
Shipping - approx $190USD/$237.50AUD
GST - $1943.88 ($19248.75 AUD + $190 AUD x 10%)
Customs Processing Fees - Approx. $200AUD
Total = Approx. $21630AUD

Which means, roughly $2400AUD in shipping, taxes & import fees. Could be more, could be less.
 
Owen Rennie said:
I can't remember exactly what it is but I think it's around 15% of the total purchase.. There's online calculators and info if you look into customs and import tax.. It's nearly cheaper to fly to the states and carry it home in s back pack..
Click to expand...

What would be the odds of being picked up at the airport for not stating about the new RED once you land in Oz?? Hmmm....

I've wondered about this, but you're running potentially a big risk? Maybe stick a few battered stickers too it! ;-)

Les Hillis said:
The GST is 10% and is calculated (in AUD) as 10% of -

The price paid for the goods (in AUD).
Plus the Import Duty.
Plus the cost of freight and insurance (No currency conversion applied to this from what I can tell).
Click to expand...

It is absolutely nuts that the government thinks it is appropriate to apply a tax (GST) on top of a tax (duty)!!! Taxing tax?? WTF
 
Yeh there's a risk.... And I guess the risk continues every time you take it out international and bring it back without a carnet... But personally this is how I'll be buying a weapon

fly to states- have it shipped out of Cali to another state (I believe there's tax laws, don't know details off hand)
take it out of box and throw or post all that back to sydney
shoot in the states and have a holiday with the 17k I'll save on tax :)
fly back with it as carry on
declare nothing
be happy with my weapon

So in other words I'm going to illegally smuggle a Weapon out of the states into Australia :)
 
I've been wondering the same thing. Does anyone have experience of going through Dragon Image? I'm interested to know if they can land a camera any cheaper than going the official import duty GST route?

to clarify I have asked, but while I wait for a response i figured it couldn't hurt to ask.
 
Alastair Duffield said:
I've been wondering the same thing. Does anyone have experience of going through Dragon Image? I'm interested to know if they can land a camera any cheaper than going the official import duty GST route?

to clarify I have asked, but while I wait for a response i figured it couldn't hurt to ask.
Click to expand...


Dragon image will cost you the same I think. I bought a monitor off them and I think it was pretty much spot on what red store would of been..
 
Owen Rennie said:
Yeh there's a risk.... And I guess the risk continues every time you take it out international and bring it back without a carnet... But personally this is how I'll be buying a weapon

fly to states- have it shipped out of Cali to another state (I believe there's tax laws, don't know details off hand)
take it out of box and throw or post all that back to sydney
shoot in the states and have a holiday with the 17k I'll save on tax :)
fly back with it as carry on
declare nothing
be happy with my weapon

So in other words I'm going to illegally smuggle a Weapon out of the states into Australia :)
Click to expand...

hehe, I've been mildly thinking about the exact same plan but with a Terra camera from China to AKL ;-)
 
You Aussies are lucky with your 10 to 15%. In Brazil we have to pay 100% in import taxes to have it shipped. If I go to the States and bring it back and declare it, then I ONLY have to pay 50%. My first Scarlet cost was about 15k USD plus.all travel expenses. And one more thing, one USD can buy 4 of my money. And minimum wage here is about 200 USD per month. And we work 5 months per year just to pay taxes. So, it's all about perspective. I'm sorry, rant's over.
 
RE: Australian Red Owners, Tax Amounts When Receiving Your Camera

Actually, it all depends on product size, weight and from/to. The most basic way to begin calculating shipping is to take measurements of the products. Measure the weight and dimensions of the package. From there, the shipping charge is automatically calculated based on the packages measurements and your location. ACC customs clearance in Brisbane will then need your shipment papers and will have to quarantine as it is a procedure your camera have to take.
 
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