Spot the difference!

My professional hobby is teaching #piano and #viola playing to pupils of all ages.   However on this occasion I can combine my two professions!   Take a look at the two links below and consider the #customs #classification position:

 

http://www.couriernews.com/view/full_story/21616338/article-Bejeweled-violin-a-highlight-at-silent-auction#ixzz2KGS7UXGU

http://www.classicfm.com/music-news/latest-news/fuse-gold-violins/

Consider – a musical instrument is by definition meant to be played and most importantly should be capable of being played.   

What do you think?    Take a second look at the first link – the #violin bow has also been bejewelled – that might well render it unusable.   So is the bow and violin a ‘set’ in customs terms or are they separate?   Is one an artwork (zero duty reduced VAT)?

Customs work is fun isn’t it?!?

www.morley-consulting.co.uk

Super Speed Broom

When teaching the piano I like to keep some topical pieces and so this week I started my pupils on a piece called ‘Witch on a Super Speed Broom’ by Martha Mier.   What fun!  Witches generally ride on besom brooms.  Of course such a description does not appear in the customs tariff.   All you get is a plain description ‘Brooms and brushes, consisting of twigs or other vegetable materials bound together, with or without handles’  Chapter 960310.

 

No fun at all!

www.morley-consulting.co.uk

Juice anyone?

Just walk into any large supermarket in the UK and you will see rows of different cartons and bottles of a variety of fruit juices.   Now how many of you would suppose that for example all cartons or bottles of orange juice are equal in customs terms?   Juice is juice right?

Wrong!   Next time you pick up a fruit juice give a thought to customs tariff classification.  Actual composition is everything and no that doesn’t just mean percentage of actual fruit juice.

Some cartons of ‘juice’ are actually classified as flavoured water!

www.morley-consulting.co.uk

Can you blame them?

I recently came across this excellent description of goods on a shipping invoice: -

‘Ivory 2 meters’

That’s it, that’s all it said – no tariff code, no anything.  

How could anyone be surprised that Customs were interested to find out if they were shipping elephant ivory in contravention of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species  (CITES).    Needless to say the goods stuck in customs and the only one surprised was the shipper.

What was actually being shipped?    2 meters of Ivory coloured cotton fabric.

www.morley-consulting.co.uk

Bejewelled

During my piano lessons this morning (yes I teach piano as well as import / export) it occurred to me to wonder how many of my shipping friends would appreciate the challenge of providing a tariff classification for a functional grand piano that is also a million dollar work of art and contains a player system and electronics.

Take a look at this link to see what I mean ..New York Serenade piano

www.morley-consulting.co.uk