[Mike Halliday]

I know we live in a global market and most things available in the USA or also available here, but I'm in the USA end of the month and was looking at   buying some items  while I'm there.

mainly looking at x-jets, foamers etc and items for softwashing

anyone got any suggestions of kit available there that is not here or is substantially cheaper in the USA?

[Kev Martin]

Mike

You need to be very careful with bringing in commercial goods personally from the USA.  If you hit the wrong customs guy they will make you either fill out a shed load of forms or confiscate the goods until you engage an import agent to do all the paperwork.  So what appears to be free carriage to you because you bring it back on an aircraft free or just for  excess baggage cost can turn into a nightmare.

Kev

[Smudger]

As said above,

But I think everything is cheap there, reels seem to cost half in dollars than it is here in pounds Stirling

Darran

[Smurf]

If you are only going to buy just a few bits for yourself then you should be ok. Just remember coming back in not to go through the nothing to declare and pay whatever duty is due. Keep all the receipts as customs will want to see theses too.

If in any doubt before flying out phone them first just to make sure of the procedure in buying goods in the states to bring back to the UK including expected import duty costs and that the goods that you intend to buy can be brought onto the flight you intend to fly back on.




   

[Matt.]

Worse case, u will be given the option to pay duty on it or they take it off u, but u have a £400 levy on goods for personal used from USA

If it was me I would take all item out of packaging and this way ur friend who u stayed over with gave u them, so no duty to be paid.

[Kev Martin]

This is not a laptop, iPad or a handbag here we are talking about and it is not about an odd item.  Importing goods for commercial use is different.  Commercial imports regardless of value can attract Commodity Tax which means they will have a code to refer to on which a certain % is payable.  If you meet the right guy or lady from HMRC they may just let you through or deduct a personal allowance and or charge you a bit of VAT and if that happens all is well.  However, if you meet the Guy or Lady who has had a bad day, is a jobsworth etc they will not spend hours looking up a commodity code , adding that % and then adding VAT.  It  is not their job it comes under commercial HMRC department.   I am not discouraging any of you but it can be a nightmare trying to save a few quid but nobody has to believe me either.

If you want to go down this route my advice is buy the goods then have them shipped by the seller, sure you pay the postage, the tax and import duty but all the paperwork is taken care of by the shipping / courier / post office.  You have no hassle coming back in to the UK, you still import your personal allowance goods and you claim / offset the purchase price and import duties against your business and the only extra is the shipping cost and your offsetting that anyway.
Kev

[Mike Halliday]

Anyone know what items would be good to bring over? What is not Available here.

I was thinking of an xjet, can you buy them in the uk I have not seen any.

Of course I will declare anything I buy as I come back

[Kev Martin]

Anyone know what items would be good to bring over? What is not Available here.

I was thinking of an xjet, can you buy them in the uk I have not seen any.

Of course I will declare anything I buy as I come back

Mike

What I am trying to explain to you is  very often they won't let you!  They confiscate it and make you commercially import it!!!

[Smurf]

Anyone know what items would be good to bring over? What is not Available here.

I was thinking of an xjet, can you buy them in the uk I have not seen any.

Of course I will declare anything I buy as I come back

Mike

What I am trying to explain to you is  very often they won't let you!  They confiscate it and make you commercially import it!!!

Are you talking from first hand experience here ?
If so tell us more

[Kev Martin]

Anyone know what items would be good to bring over? What is not Available here.

I was thinking of an xjet, can you buy them in the uk I have not seen any.

Of course I will declare anything I buy as I come back

Mike

What I am trying to explain to you is  very often they won't let you!  They confiscate it and make you commercially import it!!!

Are you talking from first hand experience here ?
If so tell us more

Everything I post is based on 1st hand experience and real life I don't quote anything from books or hearsay!  I would have thought you had realised that by now

[Smudger]

Be interesting the security reaction to an X-jet wrapped up in your undies ... 

Darran

[Smurf]

So Kev what did you buy and how many times were the products you bought confiscated.

[Smurf]

Be interesting the security reaction to an X-jet wrapped up in your undies ... 

Darran

I got pulled coming back from Barcelona whilst on a contract as had my tools with me including a Makita drill in a box.
Thank goodness no rubber gloves where put on 

[Smurf]

Anyone know what items would be good to bring over? What is not Available here.

I was thinking of an xjet, can you buy them in the uk I have not seen any.

Of course I will declare anything I buy as I come back

You can buy x-jet M5 in the UK now at http://www.softwashxjet.co.uk/
Personally I don't like the look of them as going by the vids I've seen creates way to much overspray drift for my liking.
Say say soft washing using a pressure washer and an x-jet is not my idea of what I would call soft washing at all.

[Kev Martin]

So Kev what did you buy and how many times were the products you bought confiscated.

What difference does that make?  The allowance for importing into the UK is around £400 of goods for personal use. So if you bring an X Jet in they will ask for an invoice and if it is under £400 they may let you through but the chances are I am assuming Mike intends to go through Red to Declare then they will ask

1.  Do you understand your personal allowances?
2.  Why have you come through Red.

Because I bought an X Jet, and a couple of various Gun Nozzles and 9 connectors etc

What are they for?
My pressure washer
What do you do for a living?
I clean carpets, pressure wash drives, and clean the odd winda
So these goods are for commercial use then Sir?

You said you understood your Personal import allowance?  These goods are not personal are they?

Get the picture?  This is not Barcelona which is in the EU this is the USA and it's not in the EU.

I bought my Daughter an IPAD on my last visit to the USA which saved her over £200 on UK price.  I had room in my suitcase for about 40 of them!   Why do you think I didn't buy them?  Because that would have been a commercial import or Smuggling if I had tried to get through without declaring them.

I import goods from all over the World especially from th USA trust me when I tell you I know what I am alking about.  But hey ho it doesn't bother me one jot what anyone tries to import

For further bedtime reading here you go

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/importing-goods-from-outside-the-eu

[Smurf]

So the question is Kev did you go through red or green with the ipad in your baggage that you bought your daughter?

If it's just a few bit's & bobs you want to buy for a pressure washer for personal use I can't see any real issue here to be honest. Most yanks own a decent type petrol pressure washer so is not a big deal as we are not talking trying to smuggle  or importing loads of goods here to sell for a profit like you Kev.

[Kev Martin]

So the question is Kev did you go through red or green with the ipad in your baggage that you bought your daughter?

If it's just a few bit's & bobs you want to buy for a pressure washer for personal use I can't see any real issue here to be honest. Most yanks own a decent type petrol pressure washer so is not a big deal as we are not talking trying to smuggle  or importing loads of goods here to sell for a profit like you Kev.

s

I never break the law.  I went through green the IPAD cost less than £400 and was for personal use or a gift job done!  My goods are totally different they come in containers and I use a shipping agent.  I order them and then they appear in Birmingham.

As you seem determined to know I collected 860 Grout Pens from Miracle and put them in a suitcase  on a return trip from the USA.  That i thought saved me $600 airfreight.  I went through Red and declared them along with correct commodity codes an asked to pay the CC Tax and VAT they told me Tax and VAT could only be paid on items for personal use and that as the pens were a commercial import i needed special forms filling out by an import agent so they confiscated them and told me to get the correct forms filled out. Luckily there was an import agent there importing some precious stones for someone else.  He had a spare set of forms which he completed for me there and then and even that took 4 hours because his office had to pay the import duty and vat and I had to transfer the money to his office.  Oh!  And it cost nearly £200 for them to do it so it cost me 5 hours extra messing around and I saved about £140 that's  around 16p  a pen.  Never again!!!

[Smurf]

So the question is Kev did you go through red or green with the ipad in your baggage that you bought your daughter?

If it's just a few bit's & bobs you want to buy for a pressure washer for personal use I can't see any real issue here to be honest. Most yanks own a decent type petrol pressure washer so is not a big deal as we are not talking trying to smuggle  or importing loads of goods here to sell for a profit like you Kev.

s

I never break the law.  I went through green the IPAD cost less than £400 and was for personal use or a gift job done!  My goods are totally different they come in containers and I use a shipping agent.  I order them and then they appear in Birmingham.

As you seem determined to know I collected 860 Grout Pens from Miracle and put them in a suitcase  on a return trip from the USA.  That i thought saved me $600 airfreight.  I went through Red and declared them along with correct commodity codes an asked to pay the CC Tax and VAT they told me Tax and VAT could only be paid on items for personal use and that as the pens were a commercial import i needed special forms filling out by an import agent so they confiscated them and told me to get the correct forms filled out. Luckily there was an import agent there importing some precious stones for someone else.  He had a spare set of forms which he completed for me there and then and even that took 4 hours because his office had to pay the import duty and vat and I had to transfer the money to his office.  Oh!  And it cost nearly £200 for them to do it so it cost me 5 hours extra messing around and I saved about £140 that's  around 16p  a pen.  Never again!!!

Many thanks Kev...That did make me chuckle 

[Kev Martin]

So the question is Kev did you go through red or green with the ipad in your baggage that you bought your daughter?

If it's just a few bit's & bobs you want to buy for a pressure washer for personal use I can't see any real issue here to be honest. Most yanks own a decent type petrol pressure washer so is not a big deal as we are not talking trying to smuggle  or importing loads of goods here to sell for a profit like you Kev.

s

I never break the law.  I went through green the IPAD cost less than £400 and was for personal use or a gift job done!  My goods are totally different they come in containers and I use a shipping agent.  I order them and then they appear in Birmingham.

As you seem determined to know I collected 860 Grout Pens from Miracle and put them in a suitcase  on a return trip from the USA.  That i thought saved me $600 airfreight.  I went through Red and declared them along with correct commodity codes an asked to pay the CC Tax and VAT they told me Tax and VAT could only be paid on items for personal use and that as the pens were a commercial import i needed special forms filling out by an import agent so they confiscated them and told me to get the correct forms filled out. Luckily there was an import agent there importing some precious stones for someone else.  He had a spare set of forms which he completed for me there and then and even that took 4 hours because his office had to pay the import duty and vat and I had to transfer the money to his office.  Oh!  And it cost nearly £200 for them to do it so it cost me 5 hours extra messing around and I saved about £140 that's  around 16p  a pen.  Never again!!!

Many thanks Kev...That did make me chuckle 

I'm bored and fancied a laugh with you!   It's Saturday Afternoon with rare weekend off we are having a new kitchen installed so all I can do is sit here and watch my sales on Amazon, EBAY and the Website climb and count the days, hours and minutes until the Janitorial Supplier disappears 

[Smurf]

So the question is Kev did you go through red or green with the ipad in your baggage that you bought your daughter?

If it's just a few bit's & bobs you want to buy for a pressure washer for personal use I can't see any real issue here to be honest. Most yanks own a decent type petrol pressure washer so is not a big deal as we are not talking trying to smuggle  or importing loads of goods here to sell for a profit like you Kev.

s

I never break the law.  I went through green the IPAD cost less than £400 and was for personal use or a gift job done!  My goods are totally different they come in containers and I use a shipping agent.  I order them and then they appear in Birmingham.

As you seem determined to know I collected 860 Grout Pens from Miracle and put them in a suitcase  on a return trip from the USA.  That i thought saved me $600 airfreight.  I went through Red and declared them along with correct commodity codes an asked to pay the CC Tax and VAT they told me Tax and VAT could only be paid on items for personal use and that as the pens were a commercial import i needed special forms filling out by an import agent so they confiscated them and told me to get the correct forms filled out. Luckily there was an import agent there importing some precious stones for someone else.  He had a spare set of forms which he completed for me there and then and even that took 4 hours because his office had to pay the import duty and vat and I had to transfer the money to his office.  Oh!  And it cost nearly £200 for them to do it so it cost me 5 hours extra messing around and I saved about £140 that's  around 16p  a pen.  Never again!!!

Many thanks Kev...That did make me chuckle 

I'm bored and fancied a laugh with you!   It's Saturday Afternoon with rare weekend off we are having a new kitchen installed so all I can do is sit here and watch my sales on Amazon, EBAY and the Website climb and count the days, hours and minutes until the Janitorial Supplier disappears 

 I take it you don't sell x-jets then?