Are iPhones sold in Dubai duty free still without Facetime?

wongataa wrote: »

https://www.trade-tariff.service.gov.uk/trade-tariff/commodities/8517120000?country=¤cy=EUR

Here you can see the import duty is 0%.


The second link you posted also clearly states the import duty of mobile phones is 0%.


Different items will have different import duty rates. The rate for phones does not apply to all electronic goods. VAT is payable on import for most goods.

My second link states the specific duty is 0% BUT the the general duty is 6.7%.

If you're right everyone may as well import all their phones (and, according to the lists I looked at) just about everything else. If I were considering buying a high value phone abroad and bringing it into this counrty I'd check with Customs beforehand (unless intending to take the chance of not declaring it).

wongataa wrote: »

The VAT which is payable may well make importing something from outside the EU not worth it even if the duty is 0%. A 20% charge is a lot.

Strictly & legally speaking, yes of course you have to declare high value goods bought overseas if arriving from outside the EU at UK airports, ie go through the Red Channel instead of the Green Channel. However the reality is most people - either through ignorance or deliberate evasion - will go through the Green Channel so are unlikely to be stopped and therefore charged VAT/import duty. Even if you were stopped by a customs officer for a random check when going through the Green Channel, its highly unlikely they would create much fuss over one iPhone purchased from outside the EU - though if you were carrying 50 iphones, they would look at it differently.. Rightly/wrongly customs officers at UK airports are more interested in stopping people suspected of carrying drugs, guns, weapons, or large quantitities of goods intended to be sold on. They are very unlikely to spend time getting people to fill out customs form for 1 iphone when they have far,far bigger fish to catch.

macman wrote: »

And it'll come with a UAE mains plug.

Believe it or not, the official "UAE mains plug" is probably something you're already familiar with

https://www.iec.ch/worldplugs/typeG.htm