Digitalrev

Probably one of the largest in terms of sourcing abroad but don't you dare think about claiming anything against your expenses!
But as Ian said, there's no VAT, it's marked as gift (although they do have an honest John option)
It's entirely up to you where you would like to go with purchasing, but yes, you will be breaking the law if you don't send HMRC a cheque for duty etc. I've never had trouble with buying things from them and they usually post within 24 hours on a 3 day run time so you'll be happy on that part!
 
There is also the added risk of needing warranty service and finding it isn't quite as good as having a real UK warranty.

Ask Ricardodaforce about having to deal with DigitalRev when the product has a warranty problem...;)
 
or horney (who's goods got impounded by customs for non payment of duty/ needing to produce a purchase receipt that tallied with the described price - or something , leading to a paypal claim and at last count still no refund from D/R .)

He wound up buy a second user camera from MPB instead (who delivered next day)

If you are running a business , there's also the added risk that if HMRC stop your parcel they may decide to audit all your tax affairs - one of my previous employers got audited by HMRC after a similar discrepancy, and it was a massive ball ache for all concerned
 
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In general, you as the importer are responsible for vat and duty.
Some time they have offered to pay this in their promotion.
Their web site make every thing perfecty clear.
I have bought equipment from them with out any problems at all.
 
Terrywoodenpic said:
In general, you as the importer are responsible for vat and duty.
Some time they have offered to pay this in their promotion.
Their web site make every thing perfecty clear.
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One thing they don't make perfectly clear is whether they are prepared to tolerate customers being honest.

If you buy from DR (or any other 'grey' supplier) and HMRC overlooks charging VAT and import duty, the law-abiding thing to do is to make a voluntary declaration. Will DR refund this if you pay it voluntarily? It would be interesting to find out. If they will, then from the customer's point of view you can have your cake and eat it: you're getting the equipment at VAT-free prices but it's 100% legal.

But if they won't, it's effectively an admission that their business model only works if people are willing to break the law.
 
Couldn't say that better myself! As you're posting on the business section I'm assuming you're trying to save money. In this instance, Don't. Full stop. Keep your business in the UK or buy second hand :)
 
Flightphoto said:
Couldn't say that better myself! As you're posting on the business section I'm assuming you're trying to save money. In this instance, Don't. Full stop. Keep your business in the UK or buy second hand :)
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Buying the odd bit of kit from the uk wont help the country the government will just give the money to smack heads or imports of the human kind. Save ya self the money n use digital rev.
 
in this instance its nothing to do with the uk economy - flight photos advice relates purely to saving yourself hassle.

If you're in business you'll be putting your purchases against pretax income - this may mean having to provide receipts to HMRC (if they chose to check)... how do you think they feel about someone claiming against pretax income for a purchase made overseas and imported without paying appropriate duty ?
 
barratt1988 said:
Buying the odd bit of kit from the uk wont help the country the government will just give the money to smack heads or imports of the human kind. Save ya self the money n use digital rev.
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Could you write that up eloquently to attach to my tax return, because the whole point is that if you're buying goods without paying duty, you're unable to put that down as a business expense. Perhaps you could help sort that out for us all.

That's without the inconvenience of the warranty meaning you could be without kit.
 
and if you can't put it against pretax income you are implicitly making it cost about 20% more in real terms, thus negating the benefit of importing anyway

So you might as well buy it in the UK , get the manufacturer warranty , and get your purchase with no hassle.
 
StewartR said:
... their business model only works if people are willing to break the law.
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That, is where it's at. If you subscribe to the selfish society, carry on. They only succeed here because Customs & Excise are under-resourced. And it's unfair competition to legitimate UK dealers.
 
There are some people who appear to have gone out of their way lately to prove my dad was so right when he said:

"Sometimes it's better to keep your gob shut and have some people believe you're an idiot than to open it and prove to everyone that you are"

:D
 
Phil V said:
Could you write that up eloquently to attach to my tax return, because the whole point is that if you're buying goods without paying duty, you're unable to put that down as a business expense. Perhaps you could help sort that out for us all.

That's without the inconvenience of the warranty meaning you could be without kit.
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That is only an issue if you have a business and some gear is £100's cheaper from there.
 
Phil V said:
:bang: :bang:
You have seen the header on the page?
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Business talk.. meaning the discussing of a business.. this doesnt imply your own business it implys a business and digital rev is a business. And you are discussing the ways in which digital rev does its business hence the opening statement of this discussion
 
its been moved - it was in the business section which is for (Discuss the business and financial side of professional photography) , its now in suppliers which is an appropriate place to discuss anything to do with digital rev

but completely confuses the points made above which all relate to using them as a supplier if you're a proffesional - which was what the thread was about

If your not a proffesional it treads the well worn path of whether you chose to evade tax or not (which i can't be arsed to go into yet again) , if you are running a business however its a really bad idea as you'll wind up having to provide the tax with paperwork that proves you didnt pay tax... Why that is a bad idea ought to be self explanatory.

(also if you're a VAT registered business you'll be able to reclaim vat anyway - which makes evading it an exercise in futility)


Also regardless of all the tax situation the service recieved by ricardo and horney would deter me from using DR even if i was then going to buy grey
 
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barratt1988 said:
Business talk.. meaning the discussing of a business.. this doesnt imply your own business it implys a business and digital rev is a business. And you are discussing the ways in which digital rev does its business hence the opening statement of this discussion
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Nope. It's this...
big soft moose said:
its been moved - it was in the business section which is for (Discuss the business and financial side of professional photography) , its now in suppliers which is an appropriate place to discuss anything to do with digital rev

but completely confuses the points made above which all relate to using them as a supplier if you're a proffesional - which was what the thread was about
...y
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Not 'discuss suppliers' which is an entirely different issue...

**** knows why the mods have moved it though, like Pete said, it makes the entire gist of the thread pointless, as if it hadn't become futile enough.
 
It's not only customs but now private companies are looking into both the import of non duty paid items and fake items, anything marked "gift" would arouse suspicion, the 1st you'll know of it when a letter arrives in the post, you can hardly hide as the "gift" package will have your name and address in nice big letters.
It's big business that is trying to Be stopped and rightly so IMO.
 
Just to be aware while it lasted with digital rev it was fine for me,over the past few months i have spent a small fortune with them. I decided to purchase a Canon 5d mk3 from them and i apparently failed some sort of internal risk assessment which involved them pre-authorsing my credit card for the amount of £2030.00 and some other checks. It took at least three emails and a phone call to work out why they were not processing my order. This has now resulted in the per-authorisation amount still remaining on my account i have been told it will take ten days until this is released back to my card.

I have now learnt my lesson and will now always purchase all of my equipment from uk sources,it may be more expensive but at least i know they will process my order on time and provide a level of customer service and warranty iam comfortable with.
 
Martyn D said:
It's not only customs but now private companies are looking into both the import of non duty paid items and fake items, anything marked "gift" would arouse suspicion, the 1st you'll know of it when a letter arrives in the post, you can hardly hide as the "gift" package will have your name and address in nice big letters.
It's big business that is trying to Be stopped and rightly so IMO.
Click to expand...

Can you expand on "private companies are looking into both the import of non duty paid items and fake items" ?
 
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