Richard Jernigan -> RE: Bringing a guitar to Spain (Mar. 2 2015 16:24:40)
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You might convince them that a single guitar was for personal use. Two would probably make them far more suspicious. The guitar I usually travel with has "1967" on the label, and shows a respectable but not excessive amount of wear, so I haven't had much trouble convincing customs agents. My impression is that the guitar industry in Spain is rather concerned about foreign competition, especially from China, so the customs people might be pushed to be strict about collecting import duties. When I bought my Contreras "doble tapa" in 1991, Manuel Sr. had a fictitious receipt made showing a much lower price than I actually paid for it. He did it without being asked. I was always careful to declare full value and pay the import duty when I came into the USA with a new guitar. I think the last time anyone looked in my luggage was in 2003 at Mexico City. There they had one of those setups where you push a button and a computer randomly flashes a red or green light. When the red light flashes, your stuff gets searched. The young woman who looked at my stuff was very respectful and let me take the guitar out of its case and hand it to her. Recently the U.S. TSA people seem to be paying more attention to guitars. They must have gotten a tip about someone putting a bomb in a guitar case. If I check the guitar in its flight case, I hang around the X-ray machine until it goes through. If they decide to look in the case, they let me unlock the case and help handle the instrument. The last time anyone looked was at least 10 years ago. When Spain first went went from the peseta over to the euro and started collecting the Value Added Tax, guitars were exempt from the sales tax. I don't know whether this is still the case, or whether it would apply to guitars made outside of Spain. RNJ
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