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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

UK import duty thread

I'm sure you will find that is known as fraud. C and E are serious dudes and you don't want them on your back! If you really want to go down this route go and collect, do the repacking yourself and let us know how you get on!

Mike C
 
ericyoung said:
Maybe Paul Clements or Rory Hinds can comment as they were among the first in the UK.
Click to expand...

Not sure Paul has got his yet, have PM'd Rory to try to get the beta on this, will let you know.

Mike C:shiftyph34r:
 
Hi Guys
The percentages I quoted on first page of thread are right. Make sure you get in contact with fedex when your goods are in the UK. Before they charge you they can talk to customs customs and negotiate the right tariff. Initially I was being charged far more until I quoted the tarriffs I had been given by the custom and exise tariff line.
Cheers Colm
 
Hi,

You could always try what I'm going to do. I have taken a job in Portland USA, Oregon state has no sales tax! After a year i'll be able to ship my Red to the UK with no import duty to pay.

I should point out that this is not the reason I took the job in the states, but its a pretty cool bonus.
 
Phil D said:
Hi,

You could always try what I'm going to do. I have taken a job in Portland USA, Oregon state has no sales tax! After a year i'll be able to ship my Red to the UK with no import duty to pay.

I should point out that this is not the reason I took the job in the states, but its a pretty cool bonus.
Click to expand...

My business partner, Frank, is off to Portland as well - guess that would be Mr Selick you're working for? If so, hope you meet up - Frank 'el passo' Passingham, DOP. Say hello to Harry Linden for me!


I'm not waiting a year for Frank to bring back our cameras, I want them now!

Good Luck
 
Mike,

Your powers of deduction are quite phenomenal, or is it just a very small world!

I will indeed say hello to Harry and Frank.

Can I ask how will you be employing your cameras when they arrive in the UK?
 
Phil

Assuming that I can pay the UK import duty, our cameras are going to be thoroughly tested in the world of trickfilm and stopframe.

If all goes well I will try to get the cameras to mate and produce offspring, because if they work out ok we might need 30 of them!
 
Cool. I just posted about how great it would be to have a stop frame function on the RED. All the best with your trinkering on that front.
 
Columbus said:
Hi Guys
The percentages I quoted on first page of thread are right. Make sure you get in contact with fedex when your goods are in the UK. Before they charge you they can talk to customs customs and negotiate the right tariff. Initially I was being charged far more until I quoted the tarriffs I had been given by the custom and exise tariff line.
Cheers Colm
Click to expand...

Very interesting Columbus. Im curious, are you saying Customs gave fedex completely different codes than they gave you based on the same information? If you challenge them did you have to prove somehow that your codes were correct?

Finally can you give me an idea as to how much Red charged you for shipping? I asked on another thread but had no joy.

My camera 'should' ship in the next batch and I'm trying to at least get a ballpark of all these rates. Depending on whether they get all their accessories in stock I may well be paying multiple shipping costs over time.
 
Sorry to interrupt....

Sorry to interrupt....

Sorry to interrupt the flow of the conversation here but...

One thing I'd like to know is - Once you have paid the import duty do you still have the UK 17.5 % sales tax to pay on top of that too?

As an example the RED 18-50mm F2.8 CF LENS costs $6500, in pounds (as on Jan08 ) that is £3324 + 6.7% on lenses = £3546.71. Is that all I will end up paying or is there a whopping 17.5% VAT to go on top on that making it £4167.38?

Slave1
 
Red One £11030.31

Red One £11030.31

Unless you a film student, dreamer - would-be-start-up then your screwed.

$17500 RED ONE = £8,949 + 4.9% + 17.5% = £11030.31 + P&P

I wonder if there any tax concessions for film makers in the UK either start-ups or professional?

Slave1
 
As long as you plan to make an income from the activity you can register for VAT.
 
slave1 said:
Unless you a film student, dreamer - would-be-start-up then your screwed.

$17500 RED ONE = £8,949 + 4.9% + 17.5% = £11030.31 + P&P

I wonder if there any tax concessions for film makers in the UK either start-ups or professional?

Slave1
Click to expand...


The UK government has pledged to help the ailing british film industry for years, they do this by doing absolutely nothing. Thats politics. I think its generally a good idea to assume nothing.
I had been under the impression, quite a few years ago, that there were tax breaks coming for people producing films for export, but I think I imagined this, or it never happened. I did look into it. If it is true, and my tax office is ignorant, you`d probably have to be VAT registered to benefit. Some enlightenment by someone knowledgable would be nice.
I`m all for paying less tax to the morons. Unlike America, in Britain, paying tax doesn`t necessarily mean you can vote either if you`re under 18 (although you can pay tax for two years, get married, smoke and go to Iraq). I imagine it must be nice to know your opinion matters. Mind you, I heard in California many black people had the same restrictions.
 
Bumping the thread...

Any updates on the duty, now I suspect more units have been shipped to the UK?

I had a recent run-in with Fedex, who managed to charge us 90% duty on two T-Shirts from the US, so I'm keen to be armed with the right facts.

Is there any difference between multiple shipments (if Red don't have in stock, I understand they ship separately)? Split-shipments should be catered for if they're on one invoice, but if the invoice gets split, does the "Camera Accessory" status get deferred to another band, or is it a case of arguing that the bits are camera accessories?
 
Adthrawn said:
I had a recent run-in with Fedex, who managed to charge us 90% duty on two T-Shirts from the US, so I'm keen to be armed with the right facts.
Click to expand...

Hi,

I think you will find there was a fixed administration charge in addition you were paying, not 90% duty.

Stephen
 
Adthrawn said:
Bumping the thread...

Any updates on the duty, now I suspect more units have been shipped to the UK?

I had a recent run-in with Fedex, who managed to charge us 90% duty on two T-Shirts from the US, so I'm keen to be armed with the right facts.

Is there any difference between multiple shipments (if Red don't have in stock, I understand they ship separately)? Split-shipments should be catered for if they're on one invoice, but if the invoice gets split, does the "Camera Accessory" status get deferred to another band, or is it a case of arguing that the bits are camera accessories?
Click to expand...

The duty codes in the early part of this thread will apply to whatever turns up in your package, no matter whether split or not. Red have to supply a shipping invoice detailing what is in the package and what they have received for it as payment. If your EVF, for instance, is not in the box it will not be on the docket and you will not pay duty or VAT on it until it arrives.

However, the duty rate does depend on who is actually looking at the package and deciding what is in it. They may call the EVF an optical device, a camera accessory, a lense or whatever, and charge the duty at whatever rate is applicable for this particular description. They can, and do, get it wrong. You can opt to pay. or argue, or pay and argue later, although this is a little more difficult.

I have been charged the right duty, the wrong duty and no duty depending on what, when, where and who without any consistency whatsoever! Suffice it to say that this is not like going down to the local video shop and buying a Z1, HVX200 or the like. BTW you would pay VAT on that also. Talk to the C and E and ask them to advise you on VAT, they are actually very good and only penalise you if you are trying to avoid paying tax altogether. If this seems a little serious any accountant should give you at least one free hour of their time in order to get your business and will end up saving you money in the long term.

The figures in this thread concerning a Red Camera costing $17,500 or £11k don't make any sense at all. If you are serious about owning and usefully operating a Red Camera the figures are much higher than that. To put a package together to make a usable unit for any serious venture which will require minimal camera accessories inc lenses, grip, monitoring and data management I would budget for about £20k. There will always be the exeptions to this who manage on Nikons, one CF card and a laptop and good luck to them I look forward to seeing the results. I'm invested about £60k in putting together a set-up for low budget film making, taking into account Camera and accessories, data management and editing and backup solutions. This is without lenses, any significant grip or monitoring solutions which I will have to hire in when needed. This to me is a bare bones solution. Have a look at Sonic to see what a complete solution really entails and what you have to invest for a full kit.

Still it certainly beats paying £60k for an HDCam!

Mike C
 
Stephen Williams said:
Hi,

I think you will find there was a fixed administration charge in addition you were paying, not 90% duty.

Stephen
Click to expand...

You'd think wouldn't you... They claimed (proxying the HMRC inspector's statement) that the cost of shipping was a dutiable service. Seriously, we where charged duty of about £35, and Fedex charges making up the difference.
 
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