Leica MP/MA shipped to the US ... import duty?

[startover]

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I am curious if I would incur an import duty if I bought a new MP or MA from the UK and had it shipped to New York.  There is a substantial price saving after VAT, relative to buying the US.  I purchased a 28 Summaron a couple of years ago from a Leica dealer in London and had to pay $140 in import duty.  Not sure if that applies to new cameras.

Thank you.

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[lykaman]

Just now, startover said:

I am curious if I would incur an import duty if I bought a new MP or MA from the UK and had it shipped to New York.  There is a substantial price saving after VAT, relative to buying the US.  I purchased a 28 Summaron a couple of years ago from a Leica dealer in London and had to pay $140 in import duty.  Not sure if that applies to new cameras.

Thank you.

The Same -- You Pay Duty... Study your local Leica Dealer... L

[Viv]

Of course import duty is applicable to new cameras.

[sblitz]

I have purchased used items from Europe, leicashop in Vienna mostly (Reddot in London charges for shipping, Leicashop does not if its over 500 euro, not hard to reach with Leica products). Anyway I can think of one time where I was hit with a duty which was a pain because I was out of town and the doorman had to come up with the cash. Anyway, point is, I tried to figure out exactly what the duty would be on a camera or lens of $X and then figure whether x-Vat and the dollar at 1.22 to sterling and 1.11 to the Euro whether it would still be cheaper than a store in NY. Without tariff, absolutely cheaper. But, I went to the website and for the life of me could not figure out the simple answer to the question -- n% of x value. IF you can find that out, let us know, it would make these price comparisons a lot easier to calculate. MY guess is, even with the customs duty, it is still cheaper to bring it in because Leica doesn't recalibrate the price to the exchange rate except occasionally (those "sales"), and where they have it even with Europe is a lot higher vs euro than it is right now.

[startover]

I checked that the so-called harmonized tariff schedule code for SLR and non-SLR cameras would suggest there would be no import duty into the US.  But there are so many hand-offs from the dealer to the local courier that it is hard to ensure the code doesn't get lost along the way.  The whole chain is unnecessarily complicated.  Honestly, if I didn't bug my local Leica store or try out their cameras, I have no qualms about taking advantage of a price arbitrage opportunity ... if I could.

[sblitz]

can always buy something and find out .... if there is no shipping charge and no sales tax on this end plus the currency differential hard to see how the duty, if applied, would make it not worthwhile

 

[mikeamosau]

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Unless you get very lucky when it passes through customs, you will pay import duty. 

 

[startover]

Hi, thanks.  All cameras shipped to the US are duty free (not so for lenses).  I just got mine yesterday.