In this corner of the Great European Dictatorship, you can figure on adding 50% to the cost of the khuk. This covers import duty, VAT (go figure) and "administration charges". Same goes for anything imported from the USA. (I don't know if the situation is the same in mainland Europe, or whether it's a purely British rip-off. Apologies to mainlanders if I've tarred them with the British brush)
Another cunning trick used by British excise is to take the stated value of the item in US dollars and 'misread' the label as though it was stated in UK pounds. Thus, a hundred dollar item on which 25% tax is payable gets stung for 25 UK *pounds*; in effect, tax at 35%. It's possible to appeal against these 'errors', in theory, but the expense of time and money involved makes it impractical; and we've been hit with these assessments so often, it's fairly obviously not a 'mistake' but a deliberate policy designed to discriminate against goods of American origin.
Anybody with one active brain cell ought to realise that these taxes are in fact a typically sneaky way of penalising imports from non-EU countries, with special reference to the States; and we're going to carry on being ripped off in this disgraceful manner until the USA imposes similar hostile tariffs on imports from Europe, and forces the Europeans to play fair. Europe, after all, needs the States far more than you need us.
Fortunately, evil British excise law is administered by the incompetent British Customs & Excise and Royal Mail; which means that about a third of consignments from the States come through without paying a dime. (Large metal objects, however, nearly always get stopped) This is just as well for my wife's business, which imports all its stock (mostly textiles, paper products &c) from the USA. Otherwise, quite simply, she'd be forced out of business.
Apologies for OT rant; but for obvious reasons this bugs me...
