Are iPhones sold in Dubai duty free still without Facetime?

jamesbrownontheroad · 14 January 2019 at 7:02PM

Hello all.

I'm in the market for an iPhone XR, and am transiting through Dubai airport very soon.

An Apple iPhone XR 128GB (Product) Red is AED3,134.05 with the 5% pre-order discount, which is about £663 (versus £799 in the UK).

There are a handful of articles and online from circa 2016 about UAE retailers being obliged by law to sell iPhones with Facetime disabled. Since then, there haven't been made posts about this.

Is this still the case?

Many thanks!

pmduk · 14 January 2019 at 7:25PM

AIUI Facetime, Facebook Messenger and Whatsapp are still illegal there, yes.

jamesbrownontheroad · 14 January 2019 at 7:28PM

pmduk wrote: »

AIUI Facetime and Facebook are still illegal there, yes.

Thanks.

I've also discovered that the pre-order cut-off is 48hrs, after my connection in DXB, so I can't benefit from the extra 5% discount. I will, at least, be able to clarify in store before spending any money.

[Deleted User] · 14 January 2019 at 8:59PM

If you were to bring a new phone into the UK, don't forget you would need to pay 20% VAT as well as any duty, so the price difference isn't worth it.

Butch_Dingle · 15 January 2019 at 1:19PM

pmduk wrote: »

AIUI Facebook are still illegal there, yes.

Yeah right :rotfl:
(or was the above a typo?)

wongataa · 16 January 2019 at 10:38AM

camelot1971 wrote: »

If you were to bring a new phone into the UK, don't forget you would need to pay 20% VAT as well as any duty, so the price difference isn't worth it.

No import duty on mobile phones from the UAE, just the VAT is payable on importing.

mobilejunkie · 16 January 2019 at 2:29PM

wongataa wrote: »

No import duty on mobile phones from the UAE, just the VAT is payable on importing.

That doesn't sound logical or credible. Have the UAE suddenly been admitted to the EU?

pmduk · 16 January 2019 at 3:07PM

Butch_Dingle wrote: »

Yeah right :rotfl:
(or was the above a typo?)

Yes, I meant Facebook Messenger, original post corrected and I've added Whatsapp.

wongataa · 16 January 2019 at 3:43PM

mobilejunkie wrote: »

That doesn't sound logical or credible. Have the UAE suddenly been admitted to the EU?

If the UAE was in the EU then no VAT would be payable on importing. Goods have all sorts of different import duty tariffs. The tariff for mobile phone happens to be 0%.

You can look them all up yourself if you would like to: https://www.trade-tariff.service.gov.uk/trade-tariff/sections. Find the category your product fits in and then you can see the import duty, export duty, and VAT rates.

mobilejunkie · 16 January 2019 at 5:10PM

wongataa wrote: »

If the UAE was in the EU then no VAT would be payable on importing. Goods have all sorts of different import duty tariffs. The tariff for mobile phone happens to be 0%.

You can look them all up yourself if you would like to: https://www.trade-tariff.service.gov.uk/trade-tariff/sections. Find the category your product fits in and then you can see the import duty, export duty, and VAT rates.

https://www.trade-tariff.service.gov.uk/trade-tariff/commodities/8517120000?currency=EUR&day=8&month=1&year=2019#overview

Also

https://customsdutyfree.com/customs-or-import-duty-for-mobile-phones-to-united-kingdom/

I always find the Government website extremely hard to navigate when looking for something specific, but the second link suggests there ius a general duty to pay and when I've looked in more detail previously I'm sure there are relatively low limits on items being brought in without tax. If this wasn't the case you could bring in any phone (or other item) from any non-EU country for any value. I don't believe that is possible or no-one would ever buy a phone in the UK.

Your link simply didn't list the relevant section.

wongataa · 16 January 2019 at 10:05PM

mobilejunkie wrote: »

https://www.trade-tariff.service.gov.uk/trade-tariff/commodities/8517120000?currency=EUR&day=8&month=1&year=2019#overview

Also

https://customsdutyfree.com/customs-or-import-duty-for-mobile-phones-to-united-kingdom/

I always find the Government website extremely hard to navigate when looking for something specific, but the second link suggests there ius a general duty to pay and when I've looked in more detail previously I'm sure there are relatively low limits on items being brought in without tax. If this wasn't the case you could bring in any phone (or other item) from any non-EU country for any value. I don't believe that is possible or no-one would ever buy a phone in the UK.

Your link simply didn't list the relevant section.

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.

Are iPhones sold in Dubai duty free still without Facetime?

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