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Thread: Tax and import duty buying a mandolin from the UK?

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    Default Tax and import duty buying a mandolin from the UK?

    I live in the U.S. and am hoping to buy an octave mandolin from Paul Hathway in the U.K. In addition to the price and shipping, which I got in an email from Paul, I understand I will have to pay import duty and tax upon arrival of the instrument in the U.S. I have tried unsuccessfully through numerous Internet searches to get some estimate of how much that will cost. Can anyone help me or point me in the right direction? Much appreciated!

    Secondly, anyone who can comment on Paul's instruments?
    Last edited by Jerchap2; Aug-03-2022 at 6:45pm.
    2003 Ratliff R5 #0927
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    Default Re: Tax and import duty buying a mandolin from the UK?

    This may be of some help, although the other link inside it doesn't seem to work for me:

    https://help.cbp.gov/s/article/Artic...language=en_US
    Bren

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    Default Re: Tax and import duty buying a mandolin from the UK?

    Quote Originally Posted by Bren View Post
    This may be of some help, although the other link inside it doesn't seem to work for me:

    https://help.cbp.gov/s/article/Artic...language=en_US
    Bren, thanks. I went down the CBP rabbit hole once and still could not figure it out for sure. But maybe I will try it again. It does look like duty is a maximum of 6% for the U.K. if I am reading it correctly, but still not sure about any taxes.

    To be clear, I am not asking someone else to research it for me, just thought we might have some Café members with recent experience.
    2003 Ratliff R5 #0927
    1955 Martin 2-15
    2006 Custom Daunt Lee Minstrel Octave mandolin
    1929 Weymann mandolin banjo

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    Default Re: Tax and import duty buying a mandolin from the UK?

    ebay charges neccessary customs and VAT so you could try and find a "buy it now" from UK at a similar price, put it in your basket and see how much ebay charges
    Kentucky KM-805..........2 Hora M1086 Portuguese II(1 in car)
    Hora M1088 Mandola.....
    Richmond RMA-110..... .Noname Bearclaw
    Pochette Franz Janisch...5 Pocket............Alfredo Privitera pocket
    Puglisi Pocket 1908........Puglisi 1912.......Puglisi 1917
    3 Mandolinetto ..............C.Garozzo
    1 Mandriola...................Cannelo G. Mandriola...Böhm Waldzither 1921
    Johs Møller 1945............Luigi Embergher Studio 1933
    Marma Seashell back......Luigi Embergher 5bis 1909

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    Default Re: Tax and import duty buying a mandolin from the UK?

    Quote Originally Posted by poul hansen View Post
    ebay charges neccessary customs and VAT so you could try and find a "buy it now" from UK at a similar price, put it in your basket and see how much ebay charges
    Thanks for that genius idea! I did that and Ebay listed the price, shipping, and "U.S. import charges," which amounted to 25% of the cost of the instrument. Yikes! That plus international shipping really add up, with the impact of adding a lot of cost but not value. Unfortunate. But now I know and so does anyone else who reads this.
    2003 Ratliff R5 #0927
    1955 Martin 2-15
    2006 Custom Daunt Lee Minstrel Octave mandolin
    1929 Weymann mandolin banjo

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    Default Re: Tax and import duty buying a mandolin from the UK?

    Kentucky KM-805..........2 Hora M1086 Portuguese II(1 in car)
    Hora M1088 Mandola.....
    Richmond RMA-110..... .Noname Bearclaw
    Pochette Franz Janisch...5 Pocket............Alfredo Privitera pocket
    Puglisi Pocket 1908........Puglisi 1912.......Puglisi 1917
    3 Mandolinetto ..............C.Garozzo
    1 Mandriola...................Cannelo G. Mandriola...Böhm Waldzither 1921
    Johs Møller 1945............Luigi Embergher Studio 1933
    Marma Seashell back......Luigi Embergher 5bis 1909

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    Default Re: Tax and import duty buying a mandolin from the UK?

    Quote Originally Posted by Jerchap2 View Post
    "U.S. import charges," which amounted to 25% of the cost of the instrument. Yikes! That plus international shipping really add up
    If it makes you feel any better, the total cost of privately importing a mandolin from USA to UK (which I have looked at many times) , is about 50% higher than the US shop retail price (not to mention the US dollar's recent surge making the retail price higher in GBP£££ than it was).

    We pay international freight costs and then duty, which is small, around 5%, then 20% VAT, then "handling charges" plus 20% VAT on those (for the freight company paying duty & VAT and doing the paperwork etc), then local delivery. You can get estimates, but the final price often is not known until you actually pay the fees at your door or local collection point.

    It's cheaper to travel over there and hand-carry it back.

    Makes you appreciate those few local dealers who actually stocked American mandolins (TAMCO RIP :-( )
    Bren

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    Default Re: Tax and import duty buying a mandolin from the UK?

    ebay and a few others wil handle customs, so that exorbitant handling charge which is 24USD here, is saved.
    Kentucky KM-805..........2 Hora M1086 Portuguese II(1 in car)
    Hora M1088 Mandola.....
    Richmond RMA-110..... .Noname Bearclaw
    Pochette Franz Janisch...5 Pocket............Alfredo Privitera pocket
    Puglisi Pocket 1908........Puglisi 1912.......Puglisi 1917
    3 Mandolinetto ..............C.Garozzo
    1 Mandriola...................Cannelo G. Mandriola...Böhm Waldzither 1921
    Johs Møller 1945............Luigi Embergher Studio 1933
    Marma Seashell back......Luigi Embergher 5bis 1909

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    Default Re: Tax and import duty buying a mandolin from the UK?

    Last edited by Jerchap2; Aug-04-2022 at 11:39am. Reason: replaced
    2003 Ratliff R5 #0927
    1955 Martin 2-15
    2006 Custom Daunt Lee Minstrel Octave mandolin
    1929 Weymann mandolin banjo

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    Default Re: Tax and import duty buying a mandolin from the UK?

    FYI, this is from EBAY UK. Note the import charge ($230). Actually shipping ($48) is less than I would have thought. But the bottom line is that together they add almost $300 to the price of the instrument...

    Click image for larger version. 

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    2003 Ratliff R5 #0927
    1955 Martin 2-15
    2006 Custom Daunt Lee Minstrel Octave mandolin
    1929 Weymann mandolin banjo

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    Default Re: Tax and import duty buying a mandolin from the UK?

    Quote Originally Posted by Bren View Post
    If it makes you feel any better, the total cost of privately importing a mandolin from USA to UK (which I have looked at many times) , is about 50% higher than the US shop retail price (not to mention the US dollar's recent surge making the retail price higher in GBP£££ than it was).

    We pay international freight costs and then duty, which is small, around 5%, then 20% VAT, then "handling charges" plus 20% VAT on those (for the freight company paying duty & VAT and doing the paperwork etc), then local delivery. You can get estimates, but the final price often is not known until you actually pay the fees at your door or local collection point.

    It's cheaper to travel over there and hand-carry it back.

    Makes you appreciate those few local dealers who actually stocked American mandolins (TAMCO RIP :-( )
    I’ll echo the RIP for TAMCO. The other problem importing into the UK is that you simply receive an emailed bill from the shipping company. You pay it and, eventually/hopefully whatever you’ve ordered arrives. Nothing in the bill itemises how much you’ve paid for what and the shipping companies are completely uncontactable once you’ve paid up.

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    Default Re: Tax and import duty buying a mandolin from the UK?

    Quote Originally Posted by Ray(T) View Post
    I’ll echo the RIP for TAMCO. The other problem importing into the UK is that you simply receive an emailed bill from the shipping company. You pay it and, eventually/hopefully whatever you’ve ordered arrives. Nothing in the bill itemises how much you’ve paid for what and the shipping companies are completely uncontactable once you’ve paid up.
    That's was my experience as well: basically "wire some money to this account, and you might get your parcel", it's a totally shocking way to run a business.

    To reply to the original poster: the tax bill (sales tax) will vary by state and should be easy enough to look up if you don't know it already, import duty if you pay any at all, should be small. But there is a more pressing problem: you cannot import anything containing products of animal origin into the US without special (as in very complex and expensive) handling. Bone doesn't count apparently, but MOP is a big no-go. For that reason all my instruments have brass dot markers - unless you can commission Paul to do something similar I personally wouldn't take the risk. BTW you can get "fake" MOP of course, but the samples I tried just didn't do it for me, plus if they look too good then you run the risk of the instrument being seized irrespective of what the material actually is. Oh and US customs has no meaningful appeals process for seized goods which is why it's best to play this one safe! And finally.... postage charges are all over the shop at present, they used to be a fairly reliable £60-70 for UK -> US shipping, recently I've been quoted anything from £120 to over £1K for US shipping, seems to be complete madness at present!

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    Default Re: Tax and import duty buying a mandolin from the UK?

    Quote Originally Posted by Tavy View Post
    To reply to the original poster: the tax bill (sales tax) will vary by state and should be easy enough to look up if you don't know it already, import duty if you pay any at all, should be small.
    That is what I thought as well, but as you can see from the screen shot from Ebay a couple posts above, it quotes the import duty to be ~25% of the purchase price for a similar musical instrument bought through them and shipped to me in the U.S.

    Quote Originally Posted by Tavy View Post
    And finally.... postage charges are all over the shop at present, they used to be a fairly reliable £60-70 for UK -> US shipping, recently I've been quoted anything from £120 to over £1K for US shipping, seems to be complete madness at present!
    Agreed! Paul quoted me £165.

    Taking all that into consideration, sadly I have chosen not to make the purchase as much a I would like one of his instruments.
    2003 Ratliff R5 #0927
    1955 Martin 2-15
    2006 Custom Daunt Lee Minstrel Octave mandolin
    1929 Weymann mandolin banjo

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    Default Re: Tax and import duty buying a mandolin from the UK?

    Well, it would make that long planned Europe trip a lot cheaper, especially if someone in the UK wants something from the US. Maybe the Luthier? Just bring a worn case ;-)

    PS:You can't quote me on this. I'll deny everything
    Kentucky KM-805..........2 Hora M1086 Portuguese II(1 in car)
    Hora M1088 Mandola.....
    Richmond RMA-110..... .Noname Bearclaw
    Pochette Franz Janisch...5 Pocket............Alfredo Privitera pocket
    Puglisi Pocket 1908........Puglisi 1912.......Puglisi 1917
    3 Mandolinetto ..............C.Garozzo
    1 Mandriola...................Cannelo G. Mandriola...Böhm Waldzither 1921
    Johs Møller 1945............Luigi Embergher Studio 1933
    Marma Seashell back......Luigi Embergher 5bis 1909

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    Default Re: Tax and import duty buying a mandolin from the UK?

    Quote Originally Posted by poul hansen View Post
    Well, it would make that long planned Europe trip a lot cheaper, especially if someone in the UK wants something from the US. Maybe the Luthier? Just bring a worn case ;-)

    PS:You can't quote me on this. I'll deny everything
    I think I just quoted you, but only in this private forum...

    2003 Ratliff R5 #0927
    1955 Martin 2-15
    2006 Custom Daunt Lee Minstrel Octave mandolin
    1929 Weymann mandolin banjo

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    Default Re: Tax and import duty buying a mandolin from the UK?

    If you have not done so already, you could head over to the CBOM section in the classifieds here and see if anything is of interest to you...

    https://www.mandolincafe.com/cgi-bin...rmat=headlines
    Charley

    A bunch of stuff with four strings

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    Default Re: Tax and import duty buying a mandolin from the UK?

    Quote Originally Posted by Jerchap2 View Post
    I think I just quoted you, but only in this private forum...

    I've never said that. It wasn't me. My cat walked on the keyboard
    Kentucky KM-805..........2 Hora M1086 Portuguese II(1 in car)
    Hora M1088 Mandola.....
    Richmond RMA-110..... .Noname Bearclaw
    Pochette Franz Janisch...5 Pocket............Alfredo Privitera pocket
    Puglisi Pocket 1908........Puglisi 1912.......Puglisi 1917
    3 Mandolinetto ..............C.Garozzo
    1 Mandriola...................Cannelo G. Mandriola...Böhm Waldzither 1921
    Johs Møller 1945............Luigi Embergher Studio 1933
    Marma Seashell back......Luigi Embergher 5bis 1909

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    Default Re: Tax and import duty buying a mandolin from the UK?


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    Default Re: Tax and import duty buying a mandolin from the UK?

    A worn case eh? A luthier friend of mine was apalled at the cost of importing a case from the US for a customer of his but he apparently insisted.

    Whilst we’ve mentioned TAMCO, Trevor refused for many years to ship instruments to the US. That should tell us something.

  23. #20

    Default Re: Tax and import duty buying a mandolin from the UK?

    TAMCO, gone now.

    Dave H
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    Default Re: Tax and import duty buying a mandolin from the UK?

    Quote Originally Posted by Charles E. View Post
    If you have not done so already, you could head over to the CBOM section in the classifieds here and see if anything is of interest to you...

    https://www.mandolincafe.com/cgi-bin...rmat=headlines
    Thanks. Yes, I check it regularly for something that meets my wishes and is in my price range...
    2003 Ratliff R5 #0927
    1955 Martin 2-15
    2006 Custom Daunt Lee Minstrel Octave mandolin
    1929 Weymann mandolin banjo

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