Is there an option to get it shipped from the local warehouse? 'Cause I'm in Singapore, and there's a warehouse here with most of the products on the roadtest page. Seems a waste of time and resources to get it all the way from the US! (sorry if you do this anyway)
Just to be clear: no Road Tester should pay VAT - we have an arrangement with the shipping company whereby we pay the import taxes on the Road Tester's behalf. If the shipping company says otherwise, please contact me via private message immediately.
In my case I don't have to pay VAT but because E14 sends roadtest items by UPS I have to pay their Import Fees. on last year Summer Of Design Competition UPS wanted to charged me $50 to give me my XL_Star Board that I was supposed to get for free. In the end it made more sense to reject that package and just buy it for full price by including it on my next order.
Again, other companies manage to get it right, and even Farnell sometimes get it right - so it must be an administrative issue at Farnell/Element-14.
And, again, if Farnell intend it to be "subject to local taxes", that's no big deal; just so long as they make it clear that this is what they intend - and are consistent about it.
I think, to be fair, that for some countries there is no way around paying VAT or import duties. If I recall correctly a sample or gift over GBP 36.00 is subject to duty and VAT and then to complicate matters, if it is less than GBP 18.00 it is free of duty and VAT.
Where I currently live, I am fortunate that anything less than AU$ 1000 is GST free (privately imported), though that may change.
