I am not sure if there are not some misunderstandings. European VAT is a type of TAX, each country has different VAT values e.g. Germany 19%, UK 17,5%
If you import something from a non EC country like USA you have to pay your local VAT anyway. IF you import from inside EC there is NO extra VAT because the user price of the article includes the VAT of the country where you buy it. As an Addon you have to pay Custom for some Articles. Custom fee is a method the government uses to defend the own industry against cheap products from the rest of the world. If you must pay custom duty or not for a specific article is defined in the TARIC catalogue. TARIC is a catalogue of declarations which are harmonized for the EC. Most Ham Radio articles are custom free. Of course Elecraft is using the correct harmonized TARIC Numbers for custom classifications. Because we are getting at least 2 Elecraft shipments per month for QRPproject, I check these numbers monthly and I report any change to Elecraft. BUT it very often depends on the today performance of the custom officer. e.g. The KAT 3 is per definition an internal part of the K3, so the TARIC number for Other Parts of a Transmitter is ok and this number says NO Custom, only VAT to pay. But in the big TARIC catalogue you find some numbers belonging to different stuff with the word Antenna in it´s name. Some of this stuff is NOT custom free. If the custom officer has a friendly day, he accepts the Elecraft declaration, he believes them to be honest. An other day, (his personal unfriendly day) he does not believe the declaration, he is sure it´s a part of an Antenna and you have to pay custom fee. To be honest, I must say it´s not easy for the custom officers. The TARIC book is a 30cmx20xcm x5cm, printed in small fonts. I think it contains several thousand product descriptions. I had a lot of funny declarations in the past, the best one: parts for an Elecraft K2 have been declared as parts for a bath room by custom officer J In the mean I accept wrong declaration because it is much more expensive to start a 6 Month war against the custom burocracy then paying the 2-5% custom fee. 73 de Peter, DL2FI www.QRPproject.de Von: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Im Auftrag von David Andrews Gesendet: Montag, 24. November 2008 10:04 An: elecraft@mailman.qth.net Betreff: [Elecraft] Import tax and VAT (UK) VAT on the K3 kit is payable but not import tax. The latter depends on the accuracy of the code numbers supplied by Elecraft, and Ive always found these absolutely right. UK Customs unfortunately often cant be bothered checking the full number in their book (also on the web) and they have charged import tax on two out of three occasions. Its a real slog claiming it back all the paper work is needed bureaucracy at its very worst. David G4CWB >I keep misunderstanding the difference between import tax and VAT. I >"thought" that kits were absolved of one but not the other. Perhaps you >could clarify. >David >G3UNA
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