As the Duty Calculator approaches 15,000 registered users, we would like to celebrate this by revealing a joyous fact about the roughly 27,000 import duty calculations that we have done so far. For around 40% of the calculations on the Duty Calculator, the result is that the import duty is actually ZERO! Isn’t that great? So in these cases people do not have to pay import duty when they purchase and ship items from abroad. Happy Duty Calculator users!

Why is duty nil? This is because either the total duty amount due is less than £8 (or €10), or the total value of the imported goods is less than £120 (or € 150) or, even better, some items are even duty free!. Here are some popular examples of import duty free items:

• Books
• Software
• Desktop PCs
• Digital camera’s
• Laptops
• Mobile phones (yes, the iPhone is duty free!!!)
• Video Game Consoles

There is of course a catch. On most items still VAT applies. In the UK this currently for most products 15%. But also here there is a ray of light: Neither duty or VAT is payable if the total value of the goods (not including shipping charges or insurance) is less than £18 (or €22).

Happy bundling

Andre