Potential issue with back ordered items in EU

[Julian, G4ILO]

It's well known that the FM filter for the K3 is not available yet. What I only discovered yesterday when my box arrived is that the 500Hz 5 pole CW filters are now back ordered, too. Rather than wait I would have upgraded my order to an 8 pole filter, had I known in advance. :(

Although I have paid in full, the invoice shows 0.00 for the back ordered FM filter. This means that I won't have paid tax on it. Presumably a separate invoice will come with the filter when it is sent, and I will pay tax on it then.

That would be all well and good except that the postal service charges a hefty tax collection fee which is a fixed amount irrespective of the tax to be collected. Therefore I suspect it is going to be an expensive business receiving these back ordered items. It would have been better, since I had paid in full, for the invoice to declare the full value of the order, then I could have paid all the tax in one go.

If you are in Europe and have yet to receive your order and it contains back ordered items it might be worth your while to ensure that you are invoiced up front for everything you have paid for, including back ordered items.

[Ian Maude]

G4ILO wrote:
> It's well known that the FM filter for the K3 is not available yet. What I
> only discovered yesterday when my box arrived is that the 500Hz 5 pole CW
> filters are now back ordered, too. Rather than wait I would have upgraded my
> order to an 8 pole filter, had I known in advance. :(
>  
It was mentioned a little while back by another lucky recipient.
> Although I have paid in full, the invoice shows 0.00 for the back ordered FM
> filter. This means that I won't have paid tax on it. Presumably a separate
> invoice will come with the filter when it is sent, and I will pay tax on it
> then.
>  
This actually could work in your favour.  If you paid tax on the item
when it had not been shipped, you would probably still have to pay tax
*again* when the item arrived at your door, they would not easily link
the two shipments.  In actuality, a filter will probably be shipped in a
padded bag and be dropped through your door by the nice postman.  My
guess is that you will not pay any tax at all on the filter when it arrives.

Ian

--

Ian J Maude, G0VGS
SysOp GB7MBC DX Cluster
Member RSGB, GQRP
K2 #4044 |K3 #?

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[Julian, G4ILO]

Ian J Maude wrote

This actually could work in your favour.  If you paid tax on the item
when it had not been shipped, you would probably still have to pay tax
*again* when the item arrived at your door, they would not easily link
the two shipments.  In actuality, a filter will probably be shipped in a
padded bag and be dropped through your door by the nice postman.  My
guess is that you will not pay any tax at all on the filter when it arrives.

Well if you get away without paying at all, that's nice, but my experience is that happens less and less often these days.

It certainly should be possible to ship stuff separately without payment. I will be extremely miffed if I have to pay tax on the replacements for the faulty parts I hope Elecraft is sending me.

(I have managed to work around the problem with the faulty shield by filing a hexagonal hole in the shield and forcing a nut into it, but if I ever have to go through the hell that is front panel removal and installation again I'd still like to have the opportunity of installing a good version.)

[AD6XY]

This sort of thing is often a problem in 3rd world countries. A payment needs to be made to the postal service  for the privilege of paying tax. In the UK via the post office this is a percentage of the tax or £8, whichever is the greater. The real problem is that if everything is invoiced in one go, you will pay tax on that amount. Then when a spare or back ordered part is sent, it will have a value and the tax will be due again.

Tax is payable on that value (plus the shipping costs) regardless of whether or not you needed to pay that amount. That is, the tax is due on the declared value, not what you happen to pay for it. This stops you evading tax by say buying a £20 car with a £20000 handbook and avoiding VAT because VAT is not payable on books. It gets worse, if you send back your new K3 for repairs, you may find you have to pay import duty again on it's return. The reasoning being that it had a lower value when you exported it because it did not work than when you re-imported it repaired. You pay tax on the difference. So, you need to be very careful when sending items away for repair and buy a special type of certificate before you export indicating it is only a temporary export and no tax is payable.

Back here in the 3rd world, where the courier is able to charge whatever they like to collect the tax. You have no choice except to use a different courier. Oddly although clearly in competition they all seem to charge about the same amount.

Your best solution is to emigrate or wait until everything is ready. I am seriously considering emigrating myself.

Mike