Import tax on DSLR Camera

[Submolecule]

I am going to London in May and it dawned on me that its pointless spending 20k on a holiday if you cant at least take some good pics of your meanderings there.

Long story short, I am looking at getting a entry level DSLR cam either canon or nikon of course, and my question is - if I purchase a camera from say B&H what amount do I need to add to the original price for import tax/duties? I've heard that it can go as high as 20% while others have been lucky enough to get away with just a small tax amount.

As a side note, purchasing a cam in the UK is not an option as this will be my first DSLR and it will probably take me a couple of days to get used to the feel/lens/settings etc.

 

[swift412]

I paid just under 25% in tax/customs/duties/etc when I imported my (secondhand) DSLR.

It was 14% VAT on the value of the camera PLUS 10% (so, (camera price x 1.10) x 0.14 ) and about 10% import duty on the value of the camera. I don't have the papers here but I can check when I get home.

You could possibly pay less if you're buying it when you're overseas and bringing it home, as opposed to being here and importing it then going overseas. One of our resident jetsetters will probably be able to clear that up

Edit:
As promised:
http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c63/swift412/20100301-Customs-Invoice.png
No idea if it will be of any help though