The iPhone 6 and 6 Plus are currently open for pre-orders in China and are expected to go on sale officially come 17th of October. However we’re sure that many customers in China were reluctant to wait and have probably found some way to get the new iPhones imported from countries where they first went on sale, like the US, for example.
However it seems that officials in China aren’t too pleased with customers purchasing their devices overseas, namely because the country makes no money off the sales tax, and now they are looking to do something about it. According to a report from a Chinese mobile games website (via Kotaku), the country’s General Administration of Custom has started to focus on their residents returning from overseas carrying new iPhones.
It seems that should customs suspect that you went overseas to purchase a new iPhone, residents of China can expect to be slapped with a fine that is around 20% of the value of their new iPhone, although to be fair the China’s VAT is 17%, so technically you’d only be paying 3% more which doesn’t sound too bad.
However it seems that their focus is more on the grey importers who are bringing back phones in bulk, which is a disturbing trend as many scalpers have been spotted in line for the new iPhones, which some believe has ruined the whole experience of lining up. In any case if you were thinking of buying a new iPhone from overseas and going back to China, this is something to think about.
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