Shipping film to Europe and dealing with VAT

[soeren]

This is not a solution. The VAT still becomes payable when you enter the EU from, for instance, Norway or Switzerland.
Note that 21% is not a standard rate but is fixed by national legislation: for Denmark it is 25%.

Well if having the stuff send to a country outside EU and picking them up there before driving over the border to EU, wouldn't that work or would he have to pay some import tax there?

[MartinP]

The reason for sending the film by post was to avoid the inconvenience of carrying so many boxes, and the higher european cost, wasn't it? So the simplest solution is to repack all the necessary film inner-packages, bought in USA at the low price, in to one box (a photo-paper box, or a couple of old 50-sheet boxes, for example) and have it hand-checked as carry-on baggage in the US airport. There is no x-ray scanning on leaving the european airport when the OP arrives, though there could be further checks in hotels and landmarks during the trip of course. Is there any reason why that wouldn't work? (and stay legal).

[djdister]

The reason for sending the film by post was to avoid the inconvenience of carrying so many boxes, and the higher european cost, wasn't it? So the simplest solution is to repack all the necessary film inner-packages, bought in USA at the low price, in to one box (a photo-paper box, or a couple of old 50-sheet boxes, for example) and have it hand-checked as carry-on baggage in the US airport.

This approach has been suggested several times and the OP rejected this suggestion...

[Jim Andrada]

A while back someone mentioned a Carnet - it might be a very good idea. Think of it as a passport for stuff and evidence of it eventually being re-exported.. I've carried film back and forth US - Japan often - nobody has ever more than glanced at it or paid any attention to the seal or lack thereof (on the other hand they have a sales/consumption tax, but don't have VAT.) I always repack the stupid Kodak 10 sheet boxes to 20 sheet boxes. Nobody ever blinks. Come to think of it I remember once bringing 12 20-sheet boxes of 8 x 10 Fuji Acros back from Japan as carry on. Just packed them in a cardboard box I got from my hotel and checked my regular carry on bag. Weight was not an issue and that was 240 sheets. Or buy a second wheeled carry on bag just for the film and check your clothes.

Where there's a will there's a way. Where there's a won't, there isn't.

[Fred L]

iirc, at least between Canada and the US, carnets are for equipment and doesn't apply to consumables, but I haven't looked into it too deeply so ymmv. I've had different interpretations of why I need or don't need a carnet when I travel across the border, while working for a Canadian employer.

re:OP, I would consider it a part of doing business so to speak and pay the piper and then try to claim it back.