TNAG import duties?

tomjax · November 2020

Has anybody bought a guitar from The North American Guitar Company (in the US, not the UK office) and had it imported to the UK? I’m wondering what happens about import duties and VAT. the US rep In the chat box told me last night there were no tax or duties to pay on used sales, only on new guitars. This seems to contradict the website which says the buyer is liable for all import taxes and duties. Could anybody clarify from their own experience? Many thanks.

Kittyfrisk · November 2020

You'll have to factor in paying about an additional 25% after shipping costs, handling fees, import duty & VAT have been added. You get charged on the grand total of everything, not what the item cost
Regardless of the rep saying there's no tax on second hand items, our customs & excise will still charge.
This is the reason I very rarely buy direct from the US... once bitten & all that

tomjax · November 2020

Thanks, that was my suspicion too. Very much appreciate the quick reply.

Bennyboy-UK · November 2020

As above - new or used duty and VAT apply, plus a handling charge by the UK final leg delivery company - probably Parcelforce.

I had a months delay getting a guitar through and had to chase every step of the way. I have an escalation contact at the Coventry Customs team if needed - just let me know.

In my case I sent paper copies of the documents to them as requested, and over a week later apparently these never arrived - so I sent what was needed by email.

This stuff is getting tightened up on, so it pays to be on top of it.

Cheers,
Ben,

TheMadMick · November 2020

I wanted to buy a Takamine years ago when I was on the West coast. The charges were:

6% tax and then VAT on top of that. If you get it through the good 'ole Post Office they charge another £10.00 for the privilege of letting them collect HMRC's tax.

It worked out about the same price as a discounted one in UK and the US dealer wouldn't discount!

ArchtopDave · November 2020

Have you tried asking the UK shop what they price that want for getting it over to the U.K. and selling it to you?

StormshadowGuitars · November 2020

He is talking about US State Taxes, meaning if they ship out of state or country they don't charge you sales tax.

However, whether its new or used you'll still be liable for 20% VAT when it arrives in the UK on the item value and the shipping costs.

Maybe also a small percentage of duty too (depending if that gets added, it doesn't always) and an import fee if handled by Parcelforce.
Bank on 25% extra to the invoice & shipping values and you'll not be far wrong.

Whitecat · November 2020

TNAG is running things really strangely now though. I think they prepay the import fees/taxes on new items - you’ll pay them at checkout - but that way it gets to you faster (ostensibly - presuming Border Force decides to not inspect...) - but on top of that I’m not sure it’s clear anymore where they are holding stock.

tomjax · November 2020

Whitecat said:

TNAG is running things really strangely now though. I think they prepay the import fees/taxes on new items - you’ll pay them at checkout - but that way it gets to you faster (ostensibly - presuming Border Force decides to not inspect...) - but on top of that I’m not sure it’s clear anymore where they are holding stock.

Yes, they are, it seems that they have moved all their stock and operations to the US store, but it's still not clear how they are handling import duties etc for used to the UK. I tried to call Ben (in UK) over the weekend but couldn't reach them. Sadly the sale they had on has now finished and the guitar I was interested in has gone back up in price by another 2.5K - that was quite some sale price they had!

Whitecat · November 2020

tomjax said:

Whitecat said:

TNAG is running things really strangely now though. I think they prepay the import fees/taxes on new items - you’ll pay them at checkout - but that way it gets to you faster (ostensibly - presuming Border Force decides to not inspect...) - but on top of that I’m not sure it’s clear anymore where they are holding stock.

Yes, they are, it seems that they have moved all their stock and operations to the US store, but it's still not clear how they are handling import duties etc for used to the UK. I tried to call Ben (in UK) over the weekend but couldn't reach them. Sadly the sale they had on has now finished and the guitar I was interested in has gone back up in price by another 2.5K - that was quite some sale price they had!

They are notorious for having sales almost bimonthly though... make sure you are on their mailing list, sometimes they are unadvertised... if what you wanted didn't go, I'd bet a tenner they will have a Black Friday sale and it will be up again. If you are willing to gamble, they also tend to reduce prices as the sale goes on, so wait until the last day for the best deal, unless you are afraid someone else might grab it!

Jalapeno · November 2020

I did it when I bought my Benedetto, that was in the Nashville shop - I paid no additional taxes - however they did want a hefty deposit to get it shipped over. I suspect it is built into the USD$ / £ conversion rate. But again no overt import taxes - that's TNAG's problem.

GTC · November 2020

From my experience it is additional 20% VAT + 3% duty + approx £30 handling charge if it is an acoustic being sold - and not, say, being returned for repair. The VAT and duty are applicable on both the item cost and shipping charge.

As previous mentioned - UK customs are tightening up and if their is a sniff of something not being right with the customs declaration (e.g undeclaring) they will hold the item until you have supplied the invoice so that they can assess the correct charge.

I've had this happen to me recently when the Texas-based shipper didn't include the postage on the customs declaration.

tomjax · November 2020

Whitecat said:

They are notorious for having sales almost bimonthly though... make sure you are on their mailing list, sometimes they are unadvertised... if what you wanted didn't go, I'd bet a tenner they will have a Black Friday sale and it will be up again. If you are willing to gamble, they also tend to reduce prices as the sale goes on, so wait until the last day for the best deal, unless you are afraid someone else might grab it!

Ah, that's useful to know, thanks for the feedback, I'll keep an eye on the website. I wonder if they'd take a sneaky offer as well??

tomjax · November 2020

Jalapeno said:

I did it when I bought my Benedetto, that was in the Nashville shop - I paid no additional taxes - however they did want a hefty deposit to get it shipped over. I suspect it is built into the USD$ / £ conversion rate. But again no overt import taxes - that's TNAG's problem.

That's really useful to hear. I definitely think I need to get hold of the UK rep to clear this up, as it seems really vague from their side at the moment.

tomjax · November 2020

GTC said:

From my experience it is additional 20% VAT + 3% duty + approx £30 handling charge if it is an acoustic being sold - and not, say, being returned for repair. The VAT and duty are applicable on both the item cost and shipping charge.

As previous mentioned - UK customs are tightening up and if their is a sniff of something not being right with the customs declaration (e.g undeclaring) they will hold the item until you have supplied the invoice so that they can assess the correct charge.

I've had this happen to me recently when the Texas-based shipper didn't include the postage on the customs declaration.

Thanks, was that a purchase from the NAGT? Sorry to hear that your guitar ended up impounded for a while. Hope it's all resolved now.

GTC · November 2020

tomjax said:

GTC said:

From my experience it is additional 20% VAT + 3% duty + approx £30 handling charge if it is an acoustic being sold - and not, say, being returned for repair. The VAT and duty are applicable on both the item cost and shipping charge.

As previous mentioned - UK customs are tightening up and if their is a sniff of something not being right with the customs declaration (e.g undeclaring) they will hold the item until you have supplied the invoice so that they can assess the correct charge.

I've had this happen to me recently when the Texas-based shipper didn't include the postage on the customs declaration.

Thanks, was that a purchase from the NAGT? Sorry to hear that your guitar ended up impounded for a while. Hope it's all resolved now.

Yes thanks - all resolved. The guitar was from Calido Guitars in Clute, Texas. it only took three days to reach the UK and then it just sat there until, nearly a week later, I received a letter asking for the invoice.

I replied by e-mail with the info in addition to replying by post and that helped speed things up. Checking with tracking, I could tell when it had cleared customs - and ringing Parcelforce to find the the customs reference enabled me to pay the duty without having to wait for another letter (which arrived a few days later). Overall the process took about two weeks from shipping to receipt.

I believe there are some shipping services where you pay the customs fee up front but I haven't had any experience of them. This might be what NAGT use - but customs duty etc, is payable on imported sold guitars whether new or used.

steveh · November 2020

Whitecat said:

They are notorious for having sales almost bimonthly though... make sure you are on their mailing list, sometimes they are unadvertised... if what you wanted didn't go, I'd bet a tenner they will have a Black Friday sale and it will be up again. If you are willing to gamble, they also tend to reduce prices as the sale goes on, so wait until the last day for the best deal, unless you are afraid someone else might grab it!

^ This. They have a "SALE" at least every ten minutes, possibly even more frequently.
I've never experienced anything quite like it: As a subscriber, I'm deluged by emails announcing this or that "sale". Sales are always "extended" and "final reductions" added...except that there are always more reductions to be had. I thought that Guitar Guitar were bad, but this lot...

TBH, I find this way of doing business extremely frustrating since the net effect is that its very difficult to gauge what the price of a guitar is likely to be. No bad thing since their non-sale prices are excoriatingly high. I'd make an offer if you want something and see what they say.

Now that they have closed their UK shop, it will be very interesting to see what happens to their relationship with the several UK luthiers they have signed up "exclusively", e.g. Taran, Sands, Turnstone. I'd certainly question the logic of commissioning a guitar from a luthier in your own country, who is represented by a dealership in another?

malcolmkindness · November 2020

Jalapeno said:

I did it when I bought my Benedetto, that was in the Nashville shop - I paid no additional taxes - however they did want a hefty deposit to get it shipped over. I suspect it is built into the USD$ / £ conversion rate. But again no overt import taxes - that's TNAG's problem.

This was my experience as well. I don't know how they manage it, perhaps they have found some sort of a loophole.

Jalapeno · November 2020

I assumed it was Intercompany transfer or something ....

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