Customs and taxes? Not today thank you.

[Rade]

Hello there everyone!

I'll be ordering a camcorder in the near future and would prefer the dvx100, with a burning intensity I might add...
Problem is, living in the EU, Sweden even, I wont afford one unless I import one and find a way to evade our taxes. So there you have it... People I've talked to recommend getting the package gift-wrapped on the presumtion that customs wont open the package then. Can someone verify this? All ideas are welcome!

/Poor wannabe filmmaker

 

[Monglane]

Re: Customs and taxes? Not today thank you.

Hey Rade,

Don't fool yourself... With the kind of times we live in, customs will open and inspect each and every package, giftwrapped or not. A few years back, I used to mail order a lot of stuff from the U.S. and I "evaded" duties and VAT almost every time, not because I intended to but because the customs guys were lazy. Not so now. I don't know about Sweden, but French customs used to be pretty lax, as I said, but in the past few months I had to order film accessories in the U.S. and none of my shipments went unchecked...

I have an upcoming shipment of Tiffen filters (impossible to find in the EU !) coming through next week from B+H Photo. It will be a very small and light package, but I bet I'll have to give the UPS man a check for duties and VAT anyway... That's why I gave up on the idea of buying my DVX from abroad : I did several calculations and it's just not worth the hassle. It you're prepared to face some problems with warranty service in case something goes wrong with your cam, I'm sure you can find outlets in Sweden that do parallel imports, with prices (before VAT) around 3,200-3,400 euros.

Good luck !