I live in the UK. I was thinking of buying a used flute (but not an antique) from a seller in the USA. HM Revenue and Customs say they would impose 3.2% import duty on the selling price plus shipping, and then a further 17.5% VAT on the total. 
Can this be true, if the flute is used and I am buying it from a private person (not a retail outlet)?
Does anyone have recent experience of this? 
Hi Mike,
I am based down in west sussex, and have had the same problem, and also paid 5 percent duty plus VAT.
there is no way round the issue new/used/antique, it makes no difference the uk customs will sting you, also watch out for the Parcel force charges.
I bought a flute from Paddy Ward, I knew that the vat and duty would be charged, so I was prepared and budgeted it in, it was sent USPS from the states, Parcelforce are the carriers for all USPS shipments, it was then held in Customs at Coventry for 4 days as they said they had a back log, it was then sent to Parcelforce, an additional charge of Ā£ 20 pounds was added for the admin fee, this is variable, I phoned them twice to find out what was happening, and I must admit the guy was on the ball, he said they had held the parcel over as it was awaiting charges to be added, and I would recieve a letter in the next day or so, I had the parcel sent usps
express which is a joke because it took well over 14 days to arrive, anyway instead of waiting for the non existent letter to arrive I paid the charges by debit card and it was finally released to my local depot in worthing, Parcelforce have a depot in Coventry which believe it or not is on the same site as the customs office, so the parcels dont go anywhere to be checked and charges added its all on the same site, I questioned the charge and its still in dispute, they get away with it most times as when you recieve your item there charge is added to the Vat and duty and not billed separatly.
One other thing, make sure when you ring customs and excise you get an exact code/classification number for your duty charge as they will tell you one percentage on the phone and when it hits customs at coventry they apply a higher code.
Sometime, just sometimes one might slip through there beedy eyes and you will get away with it but not often, they tend to check private couriers parcel without fail, like UPS, FEDEX.
The only way round it is to under insure which is a risk, even if you have a tracked service, if it goes walkabout, you can only get the insured value back, and I bet that would require jumping through hoops.
I only meant to write a short post.
Hope that helps
sponge 
last post for a few weeks, off to Cornwall for a weeks hols and then Stanton in the USA for a weeks work, then Switzerland for a weeks work
There seems to have been some recent changes with the UK customs in this regard. I have been sending flute parcels by USPS airmail to the UK for some time. I usually declare a value of $50, and this value has been below the threshold where duty begins to be charged. The usual delivery time with standard airmail was 5-10 days. However, in the last few months it has been taking longer than that, and customers are asking, āWhereās my flute?ā Also, the threshold for where they start to access duty is now 18 pounds (correct me if I am wrong), well below the value I have been declaring. My last couple of customers have had to pay some fees to receive the package, but, still, products from the USA are a very good value at the current monetary exchange rate.
Iāve heard that if you mark the package as āreturned goodsā on the customs form they wonāt charge you import duties on itās trip ābackā to the UK. Does anyone know if this is true?
Apart from being fraud, most customs officers are wise to this and would want to see some documentary evidence backing this up. For example, attempting to claim that the flute is coming back from the maker after having some warranty work done (i.e. it has already been imported once) will only work in Germany if you can show the documentary evidence of either the first import or of the returning.
However some parcels just donāt get opened. If youāre very lucky.
And going down the road of forging documentary evidence just makes things worse. Far better to try to find someone trustworthy to hand carry (āsmuggleā) the flute for you and find some way of rewarding them accordingly. Or even, for higher value flutes, flying out and collecting them in person can even be cheaper.
Parcel Force charged me Ā£12.50 admin last year. Royal Mail charged Ā£8.00 admin for collecting the VAT on Tipple a few weeks ago (and the postman says it will have taken a 10 day trip via Ireland to have the admin done !). Donāt know what checks they do but I may have been charged VAT on the Tipple because I am VAT reqistered for business at the delivery address (I normally save by that).
I returned a flute to England a few years ago and included the original receipt in the box. I marked the declaration as returned goods, which it was. The duty charged at the receiving end was almost a third of the flute cost. The maker refused shipment and I was forced to sell it in the U.S. at a loss. A warranty to return to England means nothing. I was told the local post master can charge what they deem appropriate, hence the differing charges around the country for similar items.
Returned goods charged import duty? Thatās just wrong. Did you appeal?
I recently (July) bought a Sam Murray flute, it travelled from California to southern Sweden. A letter came from the Swedish post/customs in Stockholm asking about verification as to the value of the flute. The seller had stated āGiftā on the customs form and the flute was insured for itĀ“s full value. I wrote a letter back to the customs explaining the situation, that the flute was second-hand, 8 months old, originally made in an EU country, Ireland, and that it was for my own private use, not to be resold for a profit. I had to pay custom duties, taxes etc. anyway, 369 USD. I happened to have the extra money and this particular flute is worth every penny, so some you win some you lose.
On the other hand in 2003, a Wilkes which came from New Hampshire, with āReturned for repairsā on the customs form, came through without extra expense. It did, however, get stuck at the UPS carrier for ten days here in Sweden and I had to go to the depot to get it. Just remembered a Wooff chanter came from Australia to Sweden without incurring any duties, so I canĀ“t complain
Seems like things have tightened up now as regards imports from countries outside the EU. So prehaps if youĀ“re lucky a parcel will slip through, but you canĀ“t count on it. As someone mentioned it could be worth the trouble going to get the flute yourself or have someone bring the flute, or if itĀ“s an instrument you really want and intend to keep, then pay the extra duties. IĀ“ll be keeping this Murray for as long as I can play so the extra expense wonĀ“t mean so much in the long term
As far as appealing th decision, I did not. I didnāt feel there would be much of a chance of any change since it was never accepted on the other end. The whole transaction, getting it back into my own hands, from the time it left my hands and returned took about six months as I recall. I really didnāt feel like investing a year into a returned item. For me, unless I know I am going to keep the item I would never venture into getting an instrument from England, even with the possibility of a return, unless I was absolutely sure I would keep it.
Kurt
Since I started buying flutes to fix up off eBay etc. just over a year ago, Iāve had about 12-15 items in from the USA. Without checking back through my paperwork (canāt - away from home) I seem to recall getting hit for import duties and Post Office handling fees for collecting said duties, 3-4 times - so, a less than 25% strike rate. The rest have sailed through unhindered, regardless of what has been on the Customs Declaration form on the parcel, either value or item status. I have not and would not ask vendors to lie on such forms, though I do usually ask them to describe the item as ā2nd hand flute - for repairā. Whether this has made any difference, who knows. When I have been charged, the rate of tax and the admin fee have been consistent and in line with the rules available online on Royal Mail and HMRC websites. My recollection of reading some of that documentation is that there are dispensations for returned goods etc., but I donāt recall the details. As for straight-forward purchases on which duty is indisputably due, I believe it all comes down to sampling rates. British tax-payers are not prepared to pay enough taxes to employ sufficiently large official work forces to thoroughly and consistently administrate our own rules (in all sorts of areas - Health & Safety, drinks and tobacco licensing, drug enforcement, food hygiene, immigration and border controls, etc. etc.) so the admin works on a basis of hitting a sufficient percentage to be a disincentive to malfeasance - and doesnāt hit a high enough percentage for that to work adequately. On import duties on postal items, they just randomly sample incoming consignments - if your parcel is on the wrong flight/pallet or in the wrong bag, youāll get hit, but if itās in the next one along, it wonāt. Pure luck! So far, Iāve had significantly more escapes than hits. I budget in for being hit in my calculations about what is a viable bid/purchase price on any item. Hearsay suggests that, regarding the USA, using USPS is less likely to incur such problems than using independent private couriers like UPS.
I also recently got stung to the tune of 80 pounds gbp. Get the seller to put a birthday card in with the flute, stating this is a birthday present from a relative sometimes this can work.
David
i had several flutes sent to the UK for legitimate repairs/work done, each time UK customs slammed a huge import duty on them and it took many days and correspondences to reverse it. Itās a huge tax revenue scam by the authorities.
The process is arbitrary and always stacked in favor of the authorites.
If tax were spent wisely and efficiently by the government iād be much more to a debate here, but they are not, so neither am I.
Itās an undemocratic scam, they should be ashamed.
Oh and for good measure I imported an antique flute from the UK to the US and US customs slapped me with a multi hundred dollar import duty via Fedex even though antique instruments are clearly excempt, but no worry after 6 months of arguing the took 75% of the fee of, but the remaining 25%. They kept it, US law be damned.
What triggers their systems is the amount of insurance you put on it. Insure it well and you are screwed. Nice eh?
Do these problems only occur between the U.K. and other countries or do they exist between say.. .the U.S and Australia? I got a flute a few years ago from Terry McGee and I didnāt get any import duties at all. Was I just lucky?
Kurt
German customs work in the same way as UK customs, i.e. stopping a proportion of parcels. I have the feeling that, in Germany, the proportion of parcels stopped is much higher than in Britain. Inside the EU there are no problems, but they seem to have been tightening up the enforcement of non-EU imports over the last few years. Maybe there is some EU country with weak enforcement with a friendly flute player who could act as a smuggling intermediary and post parcels on? (for some unspecified ācompensationā.)
Chris.
I recently had a customer complain about the flute being held up in German customs, and blaming me for this, and other matters. Said that Customs was āsuspiciousā of the package, etc. Well I am not required to include an invoice as the 6 duplicate form the Post Office provides is supposed to be adequate and straightforward. You say who it is from and who it is going to, list the package contents honestly and declare the actual value, and then check the box as āMerchandiseā meaning they bought it and should pay whatever duties or taxes are required. Perhaps this customer bothered Customs enough that they became suspicious of him.
This customer then says I should have marked it as āGiftā and then also include an invoice. Why would there be an invoice in a gift? This doesnāt make sense to me. I keep a hard and fast policy to declare everything full value and if my clients canāt accept this policy they can take their business elsewhere (but donāt expect a refund from an order already placed!).
I have no control over customs agents and duties and if my clients want they can get into arguments with their own governments. I have barely enough time and energy for flute making. I frequently get asked to mark packages as āGiftā but then to do so is really a mild form of mail fraud. Before packages go overseas they actually get inspected here by our own postal inspectors etc. to make sure the paperwork is all in order (as cargo capacity is precious on flights, not to mention making sure that these are flutes, not assistance to a Galician terrorist group called El Gaita) and they would see a pattern of fraud emerge and eventually haul my petard off to jail. This is not good for business.
I hate paying customs and duties as much as the next person and at the border the custom agents like to play god and commonly make up their own rules to line their own pockets, or just be mean. Iāve had my share of nasty encounters heading into Canada at the ironically named so-called āPeace Archā. Imagine being on a frugal bicycling trip where you cook your organic oatmeal over a Svea stove every morning only to have the greasy hands of a border inspector open the package and feel around inside for contraband. Did this to all of our food. Then refused us entry as we didnāt have the $50 a day they required. What did we need to buy? Gasoline?
I hate them.
Worst was selling flutes at the Vancouver Folk Festival one year - and the only year I tried. They nailed me for 9.7% excise taxes for the entire inventory - as I was being honest. Then nothing sold (BC was in Another Bad Recession). On the way out of the country they wouldnāt give me my money back, gave me the wrong forms to get it back, which then took nearly a year with threats from a local American consulateās office. I was not impressed and applaud it when some clients come down from there and then smuggle their instruments back home. I hope to do that some day with the guitar of my dreams, made just north of me.
Just back from 8 days in the Redwoods at Lark Camp. Had very little to do with flutes (that is my 9 to 5. This can be Your musical obsession, not mine. I just make the hardware.) Instead, played tons of Galician Gaita with my amigoes and amigas as well as a bunch of Swing Guitar. Back to flute makingā¦
Casey
Asking a supplier to mislabel something to try and fool customs is asking the supplier to put their entire business and indeed their own person (smuggling is a crime) on the line for you. If they offer to do it themselves, then you can accept graciously, but donāt ask/demand it of them.
And anyway in my experience of the last five years and German/UK customs (about fifteen packages over that period, not all flutesā¦) is that labelling things as a gift doesnāt make any difference since gifts are due the duty and VAT too. Same with ārepair under warranty being returned from makerā unless you have paperwork to prove it. The only lie with any concrete effect is the lie about total value of the package - usually tied up with the insurance value and an obvious risk if the package does go missing/get damaged.
Some parcels go through unchecked and this is luck and a gift from the gods when it happens. From my fifteen parcels over $500, two came through unchecked. One got held up for 2 months before they got round to processing it and asking me for money. The real scum are the additional parasites such as the postal companies that then charge you extra on top of the duty as āhandling chargesā.
If you want round the duty then the simplest way to smuggle flutes is hand carrying them as your personal instrument. And in that case they should look like they have been played at least a bit (i.e. no obvious makerās packaging present) and/or the carrier (āmuleā) should be able to get a note or two out of them. The duty and VAT on most new keyed flutes these days easily covers the cost of a flight to pick them up. (19% VAT in Germany plus another couple of percent duty as an extra slap in the faceā¦)
And as another aside, smuggled goods are usually liable to be impounded by the customs if caught. That could in the worst case mean they keep your fluteā¦
All that said, the current dollar exhange rate still makes it worth seriously considering buying from the states for use in Europe. Certainly when paying in Euros.
Does anyone have any experience with customs-free zones? In Hamburg, a large part of the harbour is a customs free zone (Freihafen) - goods can come in, leave, be stored or transferred in transit without technically having entered Germany for customs purposes. What happens if you have a friend with an address in this zone and you arrange for something to be sent there - that would just leave the hand smuggling to be carried out over the boundary of the Freihafen?
Obviously the Customs people know this, but I donāt know how stringently they check things. Be too furtive and I suspect youād fall into the hands of those who are watching for drugs or weapons.
(The legitimate use of this facility would be e.g. storing lots of Persian carpets without the duty being paid on them and only moving a small sample to a shop outside when needed (and paying duty at that pointā¦) - an obvious help to cash flow, as Casey can testify with his Vancouver folk festival anecdote.)
I received an email from a UK customer today. I mailed the new pvc flute in question by USPS airmail and declared a value of $50 USD. The flute was in transit for 16 days, and a 12.60 pound fee was charged on delivery (4.69 pound VAT and the rest was a handling fee from Royal Mail).
That is $23.00 by the way, almost 50% of the declared value.
Kurt