As a rule of thumb for costing purposes calculating a rate of 5% is usually reasonably accurate. However, certainty over the rate payable can only be achieved by:
It is therefore recommended that advice on potential duty rates be obtained in advance for large value items on price sensitive projects.
There are a number of duty reliefs available to the University, and sometimes VAT relief too. A summary of the most common ones can be found on the following page - Guidance available on Reliefs [2]