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Parts & Stuff Entering Australia


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Hi, planning on ordering some parts and different bits and pieces from USA from time to time and was wondering how hard you get hit with duties etc, ordering from overseas and bringing stuff into australia. Have other aussies here had heaps whacked on or is it pretty reasonable? At present, looking at ordering some stuff that only comes to about $150 AUD

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Check out Http:// www.customs.gov.au

I made this enquiry to customs some time ago and they told me that anything over $250 by sea or air freight or $1000 by post will incure import duties.

They told me 5%+10% GST + fees.

Check out their site its pretty informative.

Regards

Greg

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All looks about right

Just incase though, I would urge you to check out http://www.warmoth.com/common/International/Austrailia.htm for some testimonials from epople getting guitar necks and bodies from warmoth. I know its a bit different when your talking about bringing timber in (even though it is fully dried ect ect), but its worth noting if u catch customs on a bad day with something like that you can end up with very large extra fees which they name very creatively on their bill.

:D

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I just got hit today, with $170 USD dollars worth of parts, generated $88 in fees, plus $31 USD in postage, so, a $170 US order, costs in real terms $375 AUD, rather than the $242 ($170 USD x exchange rate) it initially appears to be.

Customs = $48.95 customs charge, Plus 5% import duty (guitar parts and hardware), plus 10% GST.

If you get a free t-shirt or something thrown in, you WILL get charged an extra 25% import duties, regardless of what you paid for it (market value vs actual value)

If you import wood, and there is any type of infection, bark, outer casing, gum, wood borer holes, spalt, etc etc etc, they (quarantine) will want to heat the wood to destroy any bacteria/disease/fungus/borers/bugs. This costs you $49 to oven it, $49 to return it to the sender, or $49 to destroy the wood and do no further processing!! If the wood is not EXTREMELY kiln dried, or air dried over many years, it will warp/split/cup/twist, when they put it into the decontamination oven (100 degrees for 8 hours). Be extremely careful, as the sender doesnt care less, and ive lost a lot of wood this way...

I however, can claim all of those charges back (customs, quarantine,GST, import duties, etc), as i operate a business (selling guitar parts over the web in Oz), so the duties/taxes/charges arent a bother to me, as i get a big lump sump back periodically.

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Thanks to all who posted messages re my post. I went to the customs site and sent them an email listing some of my questions to them. Hopefully they'll reply. I could phone them but you end up with some goose on the line that doesnt give a **** and they'll tell you anything. I prefer something in writing even an email, as the writer is more likely to cover his arse if he has to write something.

Yeah Perry, it became an expensive exercise by the looks of it mate.

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Thanks to all who posted messages re my post. I went to the customs site and sent them an email listing some of my questions to them. Hopefully they'll reply. I could phone them but you end up with some goose on the line that doesnt give a **** and they'll tell you anything. I prefer something in writing even an email, as the writer is more likely to cover his arse if he has to write something.

Yeah Perry, it became an expensive exercise by the looks of it mate.

Nope, you'll get a cookie cutter, cut and paste email, that doesnt answer your query. Check out the website, and downlad the importation guidelines and pdf files. There are hundreds of them, and im not goign to give you direct links, because you will understand and learn more by searching for them yourself.

Funnily enough, Accoustic fretboards, and Electric fretboards, even of the same material and scale length, attract different amounts of duty. That goes to show how silly it can get :D

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  • 4 years later...

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