Thread: Buying tools from overseas - Tax and duties

I have just been in contact with Aust Customs regarding importing a CNC machine.
There are different categories of duty depending on what you are buying.
For tools etc. imported by an individual who is not buying for the purpose of reselling:

If the cost of the purchace is under $1.000au and received any day no duty is payable. However, if more than one parcel arrives on the same day to the same importer, the cost is regarded as one import and, if over $1.000 duty and GST in payable.
If the cost is over $1000au, 5% customs duty of the cost of the purchase minus freight is applied.
GST of 10% is applied of the total cost which included the price of the import, shipping and Customs Duty.
Bear in mind that if several people combine their purchase into one shipment, it is treated as a single purchase.

SO
Say you buy a machine that costs $4.999.- you pay $249.95 Import Duty.
Say you pay $630.- Shipping.
GST10% will then be $4.999.- +$630- + $249.95 = $612.89
Total cost of a $4.999 import will be $6.491.74

Add to that the cost of freight from the port where the shipment is landed, which you will have to arrange yourself, so no chance of getting a deal on shipping like some AUS retailers will give you.

When I bought my machinery from Brisbane, I contacted a carrier, the cost was quoted as $1.800+. The retailer gave me a special deal and charged $900.-. When the goods arrived, it was delivered by the same company that I contacted privately.
Figure that one out

Cheers
Wolffie

Hence, before deciding whether it is cheaper to buy overseas than in Australia, weigh up the total cost of importing.
I forgot what the import duty % was for importing as a business.

Hi guys,

I live in Ottawa and in the near future I'll be probbly moving to Oz. I do woodworking as a hobby.
I'm looking for info on the tool situation and wood in Oz.
I'm trying to decide if I should bring my tools over or buy new ones.

I might be able to help with some small items from Lee Valley Tools from here.


I'm also wondering what are the tablesaw brands in there. I don't recognize any of the North American names.


Cheers,
Hadrian

Good Morning Hadrian

I previously lived in Boston, MA but have been in Tasmania for about 30 years now.

Quality tools seem to be quite expensive in Aus - perhaps double the international prices that you are used to. So bring your stuff with you. You can scan Oz tool prices at:

www.carbatec.com.au
Buy Woodworking Tools Online from Australia
www.thewoodworks.com.au
www.vektools.com.au
www.sydneytools.com.au

Electrical system is 230 volt, 50 hertz (used to be 240 volts, but recently changed to European standard.). For 110 volt tools you will need a voltage adaptor and some tools find the frequency difference hard-going. Aus electrical tools seem to be Asian or European derived because of this frequency issue.

Woods here, both pine and hardwoods, tend to be significantly harder than most American species. There is a vast array of both local and imported timbers available and many are extraordinary.

Table saws tend to be Taiwan or Japanese made, with China now controlling the bottom end.

Fair Winds

Graeme

Originally Posted by bsrlee

What Snowy and others have said.

Be aware that if you specify UPS they WILL claim to be charging you 'customs duty', Quarantine inspection fee, GST, Agent's fees, handling fees etc - on top of what you already paid them to deliver the parcel. And if you are not home & waiting at the front gate when they call, a 're-delivery' fee. You may gather from this that I am less than impressed with UPS.

I usually specify Canada Post & don't have any real trouble getting the parcel from Australia Post, no extra fees etc. & a day or two faster than UPS.

They sent me an account for this, it is in effect a cover charge for bringing it into the country IMO. We had a very robust conversation regarding the amount and they agreed to waive it just once. My reply was they would not have to worry about another time as I would not be using their services again. Air freight companies have got more ways of inventing charges than the law profession.

Originally Posted by GraemeCook

Woods here, both pine and hardwoods, tend to be significantly harder than most American species.
Graeme

And considerably more expensive, especially the hardwoods.

Hi Graeme,

Thank you so much for your infomative reply. I'll check out the site you sent me.
I'm checking to see how much would cost for a container. I can get the duty free for all items I had for more than 12 months. It's not clear if the 12 months are calculated from my first entry or when the container reaches the port. That would make a big difference in case I want to buy more tools.

It's kind of hard to compare brands I have not seen before, I understand that some are in efect renaming of North American brands.

I'm looking at the WOOD PRICES AND SO FAR i'M SHAKING MY HEAD IN DISBELIEF.
I can get rough lumber like marple or oak at 2 or 3 $ a board foot from local mills. I found nothing close to this so far.
I'm not even sure where to look. To be honest I'm kind of questioning if I should just give up.

In any case I'll probably bring my hand tools that apparently work very well on 230.


Cheers,
Hadrian

Good Morning Hadrian

A quick phone call to Customs answered your question - goods should have been "owned and used for twelve months" to come in duty free. But duty is only 5% plus GST (read sales tax) of 10%, so with prices here commonly 200 or 250% of America's prices, its still worth doing.

Prices of timber vary tremendously, here. I am in Tasmania and there are still a few small sawmillers and I usually buy direct from them at similar prices to you - but this is for green timber strait off the saw. The two major chains are incredibly expensive, but still seem to prosper.

The British settlers, two hundred years ago, applied European names Australian to very different trees. Queensland maple is not a maple, Tasmanian oak is not an oak - its three different eucalypts, celery top pine is a broad-leaf softwood, the list is endless, but the timbers are fascinating.

I have seen very little rebranded American-made stuff - lots of Taiwanese and Chinese with whatever brand the importer/distributor/retailer thinks might sell. Quality stuff tends to come from Japan & Europe, cheap stuff from Taiwan and China.

Fair Winds

Graeme

Originally Posted by GraemeCook

The two major chains are incredibly expensive, but still seem to prosper.

That, of course, is because for the vast majority of us, there is simply no other choice.

One problem Australia has that you don't have in Canada (and US) is that it doesn't have any effective anti-competition or anti-trust laws. Collusion is rife and, generally speaking, companies are allowed to charge whatever they like. For some reason I have yet to discover, it seems that many Australian companies prefer low volume/high margin sales over high volume/low margin. The former approach is self fulfilling in that,especially in areas like woodworking and other hobbies, the high cost of the products automatically means fewer sales and less people willing to invest in the hobby/past time/whatever - less people - less demand - higher prices, and so it goes.

There is a automagical syndrome here though in that, if you derive any sort of income from a particular field you can right off your purchases to tax, and also pass capital costs on to your customers, so you find that a large percentage of people who have a good home workshop either use it for commissions etc, or otherwise work in the industry - this also helps to keep prices high and drives real (non-wealthy) hobbyists out.

BTW when you get here, you will often hear the excuse for high prices as "the cost of doing business in Australia". Like many scams there is a grain of truth in this but it is blown way out of proportion.

Originally Posted by bsrlee

What Snowy and others have said.

Be aware that if you specify UPS they WILL claim to be charging you 'customs duty', Quarantine inspection fee, GST, Agent's fees, handling fees etc - on top of what you already paid them to deliver the parcel. And if you are not home & waiting at the front gate when they call, a 're-delivery' fee. You may gather from this that I am less than impressed with UPS.

I usually specify Canada Post & don't have any real trouble getting the parcel from Australia Post, no extra fees etc. & a day or two faster than UPS.

Thx bsrlee
Just ordered from Lee Valley today and chose the UPS Option, have since requested the change to surface mail after reading your post. I hope I am not to late....Arghhh

Shocking news about Canada Post:
I ordered some Haida-style wood carving knife blades from Lee Valley.
The blades are made in Vancouver then shipped 3,000 miles east to Ottawa.
My order came from Ottawa, nearly 3,000 miles back west.
Canada Post & Storage delivered a day early!