Importing kits from US to UK

Anyone here know anything about this, or even done it?

I've been looking at kits from various suppliers and ebay in the US. Prices look good and even the postage rates haven't put me off. But.....am I going to get hit for some big bill for VAT, customs duty, import taxes, etc?

Thanks for any advice.

I've bought quite a few kits on eBay from the States, some for quite a lot (several kits in one package) and have yet to be hit by any tax etc even though the values were correctly declared. However most were decribed on the shipping documents as 'toy - car model kit' or similar, which isn't a terribly inaccurate description! I'm not 100% certain, but I think if it's sent by normal mail (even airmail) rather than a courier / other shipper, then when it's over here, the Royal Mail don't bother to deal with any of that & just deliver it.

The only time I've had to pay tax was on a parcel with £200 worth in, never order from expensive stuff from tower hobbies. However, the other most expensive thing I ordered for £60 from them had no tax to pay, so I think its more random. On the customs and exile site, it says tax must be paid on anything worth more than £18.

I've been importing kits for years - without too much attention from customs. The rule is that anything over £18 ($30ish) in value should attract a VAT charge - and once you get that the other charges follow like the handling fee from the Royal mail. So, if you are sensible and don't have huge shipments coming in can dip under the radar and not get charged. I've bought four Nascar kits in and not paid a penny. I also think if the shipping box is big, you're more likely to get noticed by customs. I paid about $28 postage to ship four kits in - even so you can save a bundle over UK prices.

You must also remember that if the seller does not declare the value of the shipment correctly they can be liable for a 'knock on the door'....so don't expect some sellers to oblige that way. All in all, it pays to import.:)

HTH, Paul

Thanks everyone for the advice. Well the only way I was going to know for sure was to try it - so I did. I ordered an AMT '04 Pontiac GTO from a seller in New York using ebay. It arrived here yesterday. I payed £14.02 in total for the kit and postage. I did NOT have to pay any extra charges or taxes.

I don't know if I got a bargain or not as I haven't seen this kit for sale anywhere in the UK, but I'm happy with my purchase and now I'm off to search ebay again....!

I found importing from the US, I got busted for VAT every time, so I have stopped getting stuff from the US now.

just got hit by my first customs charges from ordering from HLJ this week.
i've got another order being processed so i guess i'd find out if getting stung once now makes me a "target"

saying that, even with the custom charges, the kits still work out cheaper than buying them here.
go figure.

i've got another order being processed so i guess i'd find out if getting stung once now makes me a "target"



It's possible. I had a good run for a couple of years when importing stuff from the States. Then I got stung (IIRC, around the time of 9/11) and subsequently they taxed me every time something was shipped...needless to say I don't bother anymore. The last imports I made were from Japan and Hong Kong - not been taxed on items from there so far.

John S.

Seems like all you Brits should get together, buy a couple of plane tickets off-season and send two guys over to do a ton of shopping for the group, and then fly back with the maximum number of checked bags full of stuff.

My mom's cousin actually used to come over from Ireland once a year to shop for her kids. When you have three pre-teen/teenage daughters to shop for, it does make a difference. We calculated she usually saved about double what her ticket cost.