if i was to buy a dvd from an australian site which would cost £17 and say £3 pp would i be charged import tax on this,as it is over the £18 limit??? i want the kath and kim dvd, i have found it on ezydvd, but dont want to buy it, and then get import chgs on top of the £20.

shame cdwow dont stock it

As I recall it's only the value of the goods, on the customs delaration form when I get items from Amazon US for example, there is a section for goods value only.

Have a look at this document from the Customs website. Go to section 3.3 that should answer your question.

I think that you should be OK.

series 1 of the dvd set is available from hmv australia
for £48.95 (£16.74) here which is slightly cheaper than ABC shop. i've ordered cds from here before and they usually arrive within the week. i trust u have a multi-region dvd player

I have no problems importing $9 Bollywood dvds, but when I brought Malcolm in the Middle into the country, suddenly they needed £7 import tax from me.

I have ordered from EZyDVD and other australian on-line stores
probably about 20 or so orders of varying sizes, never had to pay import tax. They are remarkably quick as well - order to mydoor in as little as 4 days

Im looking at buying dvd's from abroad ie Chicago or Maid in Manhatten that is at the cinema in uk now released on dvd abroad.
Anyone know where to buy region 0 from?

I know they can be available in asia but not found any sites to purchase from

I would imagine that the two movies you mention are only avaliable on Region 0 if they are priate disks. The majority of R0 disk are porn/far eastern titles and specialist movies/Criterion releases.
Both movies are currently on Region1 and can be bought from many online stores in the UK or direct from the US/Canada.

... which include (for completeness in the thread)

www.play.com
www.dvdboxoffice.com

both of which are highly recommended by several million people in this forum and neither will get you lumped with import taxes (dvdboxoffice's dvds are posted from Malmo).

Use other region 1 companies at your peril (he he Future Entertainment anyone).

Richard.

Well, the DVD I bought from play.com required £7 import, which I found out when the post office called me.

PLAY didn't use to stock R1 boxsets mainly because they were over the £18 limit and when single/double disks did get a charge they used to refund it.
Of course any refund means they lose money on the sale so for the last year when you order a R1 disk over the limit there is a disclaimer stating you are personally responsible for any extra charges and giving you the option of cancelling the order.

I've only had a customs charge once in over 5 years of importing R1 DVD's and that was from DVDexpress, nowadays I use Play, FE and DVDBoxoffice for R1 with no worries.

There does seem to be a bit of a lottery about getting stopped. Certainly, I've had stuff from ezydvd (Australia) and Amazon come through untaxed when it's a couple of quid over the limit. That and the fact that some shipments go through Jersey (Play), Germany (some Amazon) etc means that you won't always get stopped. Buying one disc at a time is usually no prob, it's just box sets and expensive (eg. Criterion) stuff which is a hassle (the last one I had stopped meant an extra day's wait, a trip to the post office and an extra seven quid all for a single $27 dvd).

I've experienced the same, usually when Amazon shipped in larger boxes or buying box sets that are more expensive. Remember that if it is sent as a gift, the limit is higher (or at least it was the last time I looked).

movietyme.com is pretty good when it comes to custom charges. They generally get around the charges by importing them in bulk to their warehouse then posting them out from there and even when you do get hit for customs you just need to send them a copy of the customs receipt and they will refund you (I also noticed on my Angel Boxset they marked the pacjage as $17 instead of the $30+ that it was

got the dvd import tax free!!!

the price i was looking at included the "ast" (?) tax, which i didnt have to pay so it took the price down a bit! as the hmce site states that the £18 does not take into account of delivery i was ok.

when the package arrived it was stamped "gift" and valued @ 30aus$ i didnt complain!

why isnt everything as easy as cd-wow??

lullaby - cd-wow has maid in manhattan (but region 1) and if you use their hong kong site (same as uk but valued in hk currency, which you can change to sterling at the end) you pay £12 something for it.

wakey - are the one from derby?

Yeah, Amazon's random box choice for single DVDs is a bit odd (and annoying since the small ones are nice and letterbox-sized). Can't see the pattern. Last single dvd I had from them was $27, big box, no tax.

I noticed that play have now split into play.com and playusa for region 1 dvds.Anyone know if they now ship region 1s direct from the US rather than through Jersey? I did spot the disclaimer,I just ordered season 4 of Sex And The City for £22-99 and have been hit with an £8 customs charge yet got NYPD Blue season 1 for £37.99 with no charge! I tend to collect series on the same region,so presumably if I order subsequent NYPD Blue sets on R1 I'll get hit with the charge each time? And yes I know NYPD is available on region 2 but I don't like the packaging compared to the R1!

Not sure where they are shipping from. Ive never paid any import tax from play in the 3 yrs ive been ordering from them, even when thay started to post the disclaimer. This has included box sets such as 24 and sex and the city. On a slightly different note, how come certain films are released on R3 a lot earlier than R1? For example, i bought The Others for £7 delivered about 3 months prior to R1/2 release. Does anyone know the schedule for upcoming western R3 releases?

I find

www.cd-wow.com

Much cheaper than Play, and have ordered about 40 dvd's off there and a few Cd's arrive normally within 3/4 days

Excellent

Hmm, Play USA - noticed since they opened up that 1. all the new stuff seemed to be back down to 15 quid not the anywhere-from-15-to-18 range, and 2. discs are coming through fast (3-4 days, sometimes better than R2) and still with Belgium on the envelope I think. It's still the same good old cheap fast Play but with a red website...