I’m considering travelling to Zurich to pick up an auction purchase I made today.
I can get flights for less than £200. Or ship it and probably end up paying £650 import tax. Assuming it’s 20%


Has anyone else done/considered this?

 

You dont pay tax if you import it at the airport?

Being in The Great White North, it's never cheap to travel - or import.

 

Call me old fashioned if you will but this suggests tax evasion, which is illegal, as opposed to tax avoidance, which is legal.

Were you to be caught, apart from the general financial penalties, the potential criminal record and the risk that the Revenue would dig into your current and previous financial records, your lawyers fees are likely to run to an hourly rate of the money you're trying to save.

If you can afford the watch, you can undoubtedly afford the tax and the saintly self-satisfaction that you have done the right thing and that the tax you have paid will make a contribution to the benefit of the public.

G*d, I sound sanctimonious!

 

I vote for have fun, take a nice little trip, and enjoy the savings.

 

Morally & ethically, it's wrong. But, VAT & GST is also wrong. So you'd actually be a tax evader if you fly there, enjoy a little break, post the box, receipts & anything else back to your address with a note saying " Hey Palatine old buddy, found these clearing the house & thought you might like to have them, Merry Christmas from Gunther your old Swiss friend!" & take the watch home in a travel case. Oh, and please pay tax on the chocolates you purchase.

 

Do you pay import tax from a European country(assuming you are in UK )?

 

More importantly.......what did you win at the auction?

 

Wait ... Fly over ... Buy the watch. Recover the VAT and fly home. I've bought two new watches in EU. Saved a bundle. Perfectly OK in my book. I bought one vintage, VAT free in Paris.

 

Have I? No. Would I? Sure! I've never been to Switzerland...

 

yes you do
you would pay even if i sent it to a friend in Luxembourg. it doesn't matter if you are in mainland Europe or the UK. everyone pays import duty

 

Entirely up to you whether you fly over and declare it coming back... your moral compass needs to decide on that... although I'm sure all of us have walked through an airport at one point or another with holiday purchases over the limit and not declared them.

For piece of mind, it might be nice to go pick it up rather than have a courier handling it... and fun.

 

I'm not coming down on one side or the other but IF some hypothetical person did decide to do what you're suggesting, it might be as well for them to remember to travel out without a watch of any sort and not to carry any proof of purchase on the way back. Not that one would condone any such thing and all purely for the sake of supposition, of course!

 

Purely for the sake of discussion, what's your reasoning behind not wearing a watch on the way out?

 

There is a tv show about border patrol agents in US, Canada and Australia that my daughter watched for a while.

I remember an episode where a young man was importing an item into Canada via the border crossing near my home. He declared the item (motorcycle I think it was) and the agents thought he’d declared a lower than market price for it. During questioning he got flustered and his story seemed inconsistent. They ended up doing an internet search and found the item listed via a popular website (think it was Ebay). It showed the listing ending and somehow they were able to confirm that he’d lied during his declaration and he ended up paying the owed duty, I believe there was a penalty on top, and knowing our border I’m sure he now has a flag on his file that will make future crossings very painful.

Think through the potential penalties carefully before deciding. If you choose to Import without reporting, don’t post any details on a public forum that could later be tied to you. Also, make sure you have no evidence in your possession that would confirm a purchase took place.

 

of course travel and get it from there.. sightseeing plus savings..

 

I think that he's saying to go there without a watch and to come back with the one you've acquired on the wrist.

 

I like the watch - Skywalker but I have no comment to the travel scheme.
Good luck!

 

Well, I wouldn't say "never"...

Back in 2013 my wife had a conference in Germany, and I tagged along and we made a vacation out of it. Along the way we each bought a Nomos watch to bring back, plus a few other things. Fully declared them at the airport, and when we went through to the customs agent, he looked at the slip with the value, and said "How would you like to not pay any taxes today?" I replied almost before he finished saying it saying "Yes!" and he signed the slip and waived us through.

Personally it's my belief that you never have fewer rights than when you are crossing an international border - even returning home. Customs and border agents have a very wide range of powers typically, and if they want to they can make your life very difficult in that moment and for a long time after (my nephew is a CBSA agent). Even if setting aside the ethics, the fact that you are potentially causing yourself an huge amount of grief down the road, it's simply not worth it.

My wife and I both have Nexus/Trusted traveler status, primarily for travelling back and forth from the US. Any sort of transgression also puts that at risk in addition to all the other issues. It's simply a non-starter for me on many levels.

Cheers, Al

 

I have decided to let my company buy the watch and pay the VAT.
It is a “tool” after all.