Les Paul Standard 2010 Limited
Rock n Roll! This blog post will delight guitar maniacs: guitars are one of hottest products on the DutyCalculator.
Electric and acoustic guitars are what people search from the USA and, let’s admit that, finding import calculations for a Gibson Les Paul with a value of £ 3,500 or a Fender Stratocaster for £ 1,500 is no surprise to us. We all share the dream.
So what are the pros of buying a guitar in the USA?
Cheaper prices make it cheaper to buy a guitar from the USA, and this holds true even if we include shipping, import duty and VAT costs. Not to mention the fact that Music123 and Musician’s Friend broadcast daily bargains and their discount coupons are scattered all over the Web.
Last but not least, guitar enthusiasts get a brand new boxed guitar. One that no one else has ever played with. Priceless.
Let’s be pragmatic and iron out the cons as well. You cannot try your brand new guitar before the purchase and you have no after-sale service. Also, what if your beloved guitar gets broken on its way to its final destination? Returning a guitar from UK to the USA could be a real pain.
On this, guitar lovers might consider BundleBox repack service and return insurance. The repack service ensures that the guitar is extra protected during transit and the return insurance provides a free of charge return. Indeed you can buy with confidence. This is melody to our ears!
Rock n Roll!
Import duty and VAT tax code and calculation
Moving away from the melodic tunes, guitars have different HS import duty codes.
9207901000 is the HS code for an electric guitar, 9202903000 is for an acoustic guitar and, last but not least, 9207901000 categorizes a bass.
3.7% is the import duty tax rate for an electric guitar and a bass. The acoustic guitar enjoys a lower import duty rate of 3.2%.
Let’s now spec out how to calculate import duty and VAT with an example.
Let’s suppose we want to buy an electric guitar for $ 2,000. Delivery cost from the USA to UK is around £ 100. Let’s suppose the repack service and the return insurance amount is £ 20.
First, we will convert $ 2,000 into £ by using the official exchange rate for import duty and VAT calculations at 1.5402 USD to 1 GBP (calculation made on May 2010). Therefore $ 2,000 convert into £ 1,299. To compute the customs value we add the price of the guitar, the shipping cost and the insurance cost: £ 1,298 + £ 100 + £ 20 = £ 1,418 . We then multiply the customs value by the import duty rate for electric guitars, that is 3.7% : £ 1,418 x 3.7% = £ 52.5
We then calculate the import VAT to UK by adding the customs value and the import duty : £ 1,418 + £ 52.5 = £ 1,471 . Import VAT rate to UK is 17.5% (as of May 2010), therefore the import VAT is £ 1,471 x 17.5% = £ 257.
The landed cost of an electric guitar from the USA to UK with repack service and return insurance is £ 1,708 (£ 1,418 + £ 52.5 + £ 257).
Happy playing
A (metal) DutyCalculator Team
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