Anyone tried or know of places that sell duty free sails etc. Am flying from and to Brisbane?

I see the customs give 900 bucks of goods including "sporting gear", or does this just refer to what you bring in from OS shops?

HOw much tax is on our sailing gear anyway, maybe not worth the trouble?? Any ideas.

Thanks, Phil

Singapore is very cheap and close to Oz...Qantas lets you fly with "1 set" of windsurf gear free. If you bought it new, just take the plastic off and use it once or twice, and say it's used. Nobody even asked me about the gear I brought in, probably because my luggage was so decrepid...

No real luck so far, the duty free stores won't deal with anything "unusual". BUt they did say that you can take virtually anything (up to $1000) out of the country new and get a tax refund on the GST with your reciept once returned. I'm not actually sure if there's any other duties etc on our gear. Surely one of the "site sponsor" guys would have an idea.

I bought a Neil Pryd sail a few years back flying out of Perth. The shop sold it to me as duty free, and I brought it back in after my trip, during which I used it.
Totaly legal, you just have to find a shop willing to do it, no big deal.
There is a 5% import tax on windsurfers, and then 10% GST on the lot
Dont know about sails, they could fall under a higher tax to protect our textile industrie

People travel with surfboards and expensive golf clubs, etc, all the time; do you think they pay import duty every time they enter a country? I doubt it!

quote:

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Originally posted by Pugwash

New vs second hand

A guy told me a few years ago, he used to open the sail bags, chuck in a handful of grass and call 'em secondhand... Can't remember why he did this, but it might be due to duty on new items only...

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I can see quarantine officials would be really impressed with that stunt!
Further once you've used gear even once its hardly new and can't see how you would call this evasion!

I think the point the guy was making when he said "throw in a handful of grass" was make it look like it has been used... Then again, he may not give a sh!t about quarantine.

The main point is, how does duty apply to used sporting equiptment As wet willy says, people travel with sporting gear all the time...