I’m based in the UK and have limited my searches to UK sellers because I’m not sure what sort of duty hit I might expect if I import something. Should I be worried about this? Is the charge high as a percentage of the value of the item?

Thank you

 

Hi,

as far as I know you have to pay VAT when importing something in the UK, should be 20% right now

As long the UK is still in the EU you can buy watches from countires within the EU without paying VAT.

What will happen after Brexit is unshure right now...

Hope that helps

 

IF Brexit happens is the real question.

 

A somewhat related question:

I live in the USA. If I send my watch to the UK to be serviced by a watchmaker there, do I pay duty fees?

 

There's another discussion on this very question going on in another thread that I can't seem to find. IIRC, the gist is that you should only be paying taxes on the value of the service.

 

I have bought several pieces from Canadian dealers as a rule of thumb what they price the watch in dollars is roughly what you end up
Paying in pounds once you have paid all the duty

 

To import to the uk from outside the EU you're generally looking at around 22% once everything's including.

HMRC are very keen so it's uncommon to not have to pay it.

 

Funny. That's even higher then the Netherlands.

 

I did send some watches from Switzerland to the UK for service. I only had to pay VAT and duty fees on the service and replacement parts.