i am thoroughly confused on what the import duty will be when buying a clutch kit on ebay from america.

anyone able to shed some light on the ins and outs?

it will be 20% vat and as it's car parts about 6% duty

This may help.

http://www.dutycalculator.com/

Cheers guys

Don't forget that you will also have to pay a handling fee to the carrier - for the PO that's around £8 to £10. Shipping companies such as DHL may charge £30 or more.

When I bought a Megajolt kit from the US I ended up paying import duty, VAT and the handling fee...
AND I had to drive into town to pay the fees and collect my parcel!

So if I ask the seller to quote its value as less than 20 dollars, would I get away with less duty?

I've had good luck getting the seller to mark the package "replacement under warranty", duty is already paid on the original then

I ask my US suppliers to issue an invoice to the customs stating that it is a;

'Manufacturers sample, of no commercial value.
Value for customs purposes $10'

You must put a value on the invoice, or it will never leave the USA.

[Edited on 9-6-11 by designer]

Yeah - I get stuff sent from the US all the time, just get them to put a nice low value on the box, around the same cost as the shipping, and as long as the box is small it should come straight through.

Many reputable US firms won't state anything other than true cost - e.g. Brent Picasso, the boss of Autosport Labs (MegaJolt) states on his website that he won't.

Unfortunately...