I am curious about buying from the UK and shipping to the USA. Would a U.S buyer have to pay the 20% VAT tax that is included in the price?
Not every shop wants to ship outside UK or EU but many do. Here is something I read from a UK shops delivery page:
"We have to advertise all our prices in £GBP, and we have to show the price including VAT (20% sales tax). If you live inside the European Union (EU), this is the price you will pay. However, if we ship your order to a country outside of the European Union you don’t have to pay VAT, which means the price of the order will come down by 20%. For example: an order that costs £369 to an EU customer, will cost a customer outside the EU £307.50. Sales tax is deducted automatically when you update your delivery country in the checkout.
Please note that if you live outside the EU you will probably have to pay a
local 'import tax' to the courier when your items are delivered. Please ensure that you find out what your local import taxes are going to be before you order.
We use a freight service from UPS which is insured against loss or damage."
Vice versa when I buy in the US I don't pay the local sales tax but have to pay the 19% German VAT and about 2.5% musical instruments import tax on the total price of the item including on the price of the shipment!
A $1000 guitar plus $150 shipment is $1150 + 21.5% = $1400.
When the Euro to Dollar was 1.40 (like last year) such $1400 was Euro 1000, so basically when I bought a $1000 item it was €1000 for me. Today with a 1.11 exchange rate a $1000 item costs me already €1265 ($1400/1.11)...
Ralf
