Do I need to declare official laptop and other electronics at UK customs?
- By
- Aparna Patel
- |
- 2 Aug, 2023
- |
Thousands of international business travellers arrive at Heathrow every day. If they had to declare their phones, laptops, etc it would be chaos. In my experience with the red channel at Heathrow, it’s rarely manned, and they get grumpy when you do declare something (like a carnet)
However once when I was getting a Carnet stamped at Manchester I had a grumpy customs officer tell me I should also have a carnet for my laptop.
The bigger problem would be responding to work while on vacation — that may well not be allowed under the conditions of your visa.
No. Everything you are taking to the U.K. you plan to take back with you when your tourist visit finishes. You do not need to pay duties on those items. You aren’t importing them to the U.K.
Declaring goods to customs
You must tell customs (known as ‘declaring’) on arrival in the UK if you have goods:
- over your
duty-free allowance- that are banned or restricted
- that you plan to sell
Use the red channel at customs if you have something to declare.
If there’s no red channel, use the red-point phone to declare goods to customs.
The duty free allowance section lists Alcohol and Tobacco for the limits you mention in the question. It does not seem to include personal use electronics.
Must Read: Bringing goods into the UK
Food for thought: If everybody bringing a laptop/cellphone for use was declaring it then the red channel would always be full. These days there is hardly any traveler without one of those items with them.
Credit:stackoverflow.com‘