Cost of Gov Duty ?

[Mark Dougherty]

What is the percent of value charged to bring items into the Bahamas ? Does it differ among differnt products ? Boats for instance versus electronics ? Is there a Government site with info ?

[jdm]

There is a paperback available almost everywhere called The Bahamas Handbook that has a section listing duty. It varies from item to itme and even within categories. Boats vary by length, cars by appraised value, etc. Many agents also include the cost of shipping as part of the item cost!
There is also a 7% stamp tax.

[dp]

Right. And that book is a couple of inches thick. And dynamic. Your best course is to contact an agent, like Arawak in MHH (242-367-2089) and expect the worst ...:) (!)

[bellavista]

Perry at Arawak was great for us. Best rule of thumb is that most things are 35% duty, rest 25% or less. Not many in last two categories. Add 7% stamp tax, freight and small customs brokerage fee and you get an unfortunate but accurate average of 50% over the US price. They want invoices for new items. They seem to be pretty tolerant of the depreciated value you place on used items.

Nowhere does bring have as much stuff and twice as much money ring truer than shipping things over from states.