Read this:- it's in French, but it gives you the answer about temporary imports and the exoneration of taxation by the customs.

Admission temporaire de marchandises

If you make a declaration to the customs for second hand merchandise which will be leaving the country the chances are you will get total exoneration, but you will need to contact the French customs for their application form. See the bottom of the page for the link to the CERFA document for Customs application

Good luck.

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Thanks for that Michael. One less thing to worry about, I sure hope to make a go of a larger trip this year (EU/UK/Iceland or AUS???…hmm)

Hi,

I can now shed some light on my experience, so if anyone in the future runs into this problem they will have some idea of the procedure.

Yes indeed my concern was the VAT and duty as I was not accompanying my luggage, at a value of $10,000AUD. The tax and duty would have been enormous. After contacting UK customs they pretty much had no idea which forms I had to use, my freight company suggested I fill out a C3 customs form before I sent it.

My boxes then shipped, that was pretty much the last I heard from the freight company. I tracked the AWB number they supplied and saw it was shipped with Singapore airlines to Heathrow. After a few days, it said it was now ready for pick-up at Swissport cargo services next to Heathrow. I went there, they had no idea what I was talking about, they sent me down the road to the next Swissport company. After arriving there, they too had no idea what I was talking about, but suggested I try 'World Flight Services' around the corner. I arrived there, there were a number of warehouses with shed doors all down there, with airline names above each door.

Once I found Singapore airlines, I went into the WFS reception next to Singapore airlines. They said they had my stuff, they then contacted an 'agent', I spoke to the agent on the phone, he said he would send the documents through to the office. The next hour was them doing paperwork and customs stuff, he asked me on the phone if anything was new, if there was any tobacco or alcohol etc. After an hour, they charged me 45 pound for a terminal fee, and then 35 pound as a handling fee, which worked out to another $160AUD, fml.

They also asked me to fill out another C3 form, as they didn't have the one I originally filled out. It is very important to note that these terminals charge a fee, and a storage fee typically 24 hours after your baggage arrives. I had no idea about this so had to spend $100 to change my flight to go to London much earlier, otherwise it would have cost me $60 a day in storage fees.

No VAT or duty was charged at all.

I have to admit, I did have new products in the boxes, I had just photoshopped all the dates to show they were over a year old. I don't advocate for this kind of deception but f#@$ paying VAT on that.

All in all, it was a little bit more costly with the terminal fees and having to change my flight, but once I found the place it was a relatively pain-free process.

The C3 form for the UK was only to state that I was a temporary visitor who will be removing my goods from the EC within 6 months.