Importing bikes

RyanBrook

Does anyone have any experience of importing bikes or buying them at source? For example if your in Taiwan is it possible to get hold of Trek frames and reduced prices?
Or the US for that matter. I presume its fine getting through customs providing its a gift for yourself.

nicklouse

gift value is 50 pounds max iirc.

RyanBrook

Well I can go to the US and buy an Apple computer and other christmas presents and bring them back over here with no problem, we are even encouraged to go there and shop. So why wouldn't this apply to bikes?

nicklouse

nope not just bikes.

it just depends if you get stopped.

andyp

Coming back through customs with an Apple laptop concealed in your bag is a lot different from coming through customs trying to conceal a bike in your bag!

By rights you'll be charged duty and VAT, totaling something like 30% of the original purchase price. However, this'll only happen if you get stopped. It's a risk you can decide to take.

nicklouse

got the figure wrong it is 145 worth of gifts.

info Here

duties Here

redddraggon

andyp wrote:

Coming back through customs with an Apple laptop concealed in your bag is a lot different from coming through customs trying to conceal a bike in your bag!

By rights you'll be charged duty and VAT, totaling something like 30% of the original purchase price. However, this'll only happen if you get stopped. It's a risk you can decide to take.

Why? You can take a bike abroad can't you? How do they know you aren't bringing it back to the UK after taking it out there?

Titanium

There was a shop in the US that would let European buyers ride their bike around the block and take a polaroid of you doing it. So if you got stopped by the customs guys you could flash the photo of you riding with your bike.

Even if you go legal, import duty is ok, you pay under 10% on most things then VAT. The US peso is cheap at the moment.

nicklouse

Titanium wrote:

There was a shop in the US that would let European buyers ride their bike around the block and take a polaroid of you doing it. So if you got stopped by the customs guys you could flash the photo of you riding with your bike.

Even if you go legal, import duty is ok, you pay under 10% on most things then VAT. The US peso is cheap at the moment.

complete bikes is 15% bike parts 4.7%

and for it to class as personal good you have to have owned it for 3 months.

and the ridit and photo dont work if you flew out 2 days before but did not have a bike booked on the outward flight!

andyp

redddraggon wrote:

Why? You can take a bike abroad can't you? How do they know you aren't bringing it back to the UK after taking it out there?

One imagines that your average customs officer is a bit wary of someone coming back from a weekend trip to New York in October with a bike who a) may not have had a bike on the outward journey and b) claimed to have gone to the US on a cycling trip.

I've no idea how feasible it is but I imagine that it's not as easy as some imagine. I used to live in Zurich and returned there after a weekend in London with my winter bike in a bike box. I spent an hour with the customs officers explaining that it wasn't a new bike but my old winter hack whilst they tried to prove it was new and therefore was liable for import duty. Luckily I had the original receipt with me but even then I had to unpack the bike to show that it was the same one covered by the receipt.

amaferanga

Mate of mine took an old bike out to the States and just dumped it. Came back with a shiney new Cervelo (dirtied slightly so as to look used). No problems. Saved a good 40% on UK prices IIRC.

OnTow

A minor issue, however I believe you will also find the brake levers reversed.

Steven Martin

Hello,

If you go to the States and buy the bike and hand carry it back then your limit for purchase price is the equilvalent of £1000. This was changed last year.

If you have the bicycle delivered, or you are stopped and the invoice says over £1000, you will be charged 15% import duty on the purchase price (the full amount) then an additional 17.5% VAT on this new figure.

I have bought bikes in the states and hand carried them back. Most shops will box the bike up for you. I suppose that you could pretend the bike was taken out, but unless the bike is obviously used then the Customs and Excise are within their rights to assume that you have bought it out there and charge the duty they see fit.

My advice is, if you are going over there fill your boots up to the limit, but unless you are a gambling man don't go above it.

However, with the exchange rates you can get a fantastic f&f for $2000.

Steven

PS If you go to the Customs and Excise website they have the limits for each country that you can bring back without being subject to duty and VAT.

Titanium

I travel regularly to the USA, with and without the bike box. I've never booked my bike in for the flight, I check in with my luggage. I've done the journey enough times to have a carbon footprint big enough to be seen from outerspace. Yet at both ends, I've never been stopped by customs.

aracer

Steven Martin wrote:

PS If you go to the Customs and Excise website they have the limits for each country that you can bring back without being subject to duty and VAT.

Just did, and according to http://customs.hmrc.gov.uk/channelsPort ... e=document it's still £145, so you're talking a load of rubbish. I can only assume you've simply walked through the green channel and been lucky not to be stopped - absolutely no idea where you got £1000 from!

tobciocc

I'm intersted in a frame for sale on ebay, the buy it now price is equivalent to £300. As its from the states and they say the won't package it labeled as a gift, what am I likely to pay. As it stands the £300 is a real bargain and the shipping is about £75. Any ideas??

allaction

I'm sure anything over £18 you have to pay import duty on. I used to get lots of American DVDs delivered and that was the threshold. Makes a bloody big difference to price as you have to pay the post office a handling fee on top of import duty.

GeorgeShaw

I seem to remember reading somewhere that import duty on a used bike is nothing, so all you have to do is ride it around Central Park and then come home ...

aracer

I seem to remember reading somewhere that you could legally shoot a Welshman in Chester using a crossbow after sunset.

Steven Martin

http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/budget/bu ... speech.cfm

2005 budget, but it is not in statute yet, needs to go through the EU.

"I have today written to the European Commission proposing that the tax free limit on goods brought into the UK from outside the European Union should rise from £145 to £1000."

That's where I got the £1000 from, crikey thought I was going nuts, still, picked it up wrong at the time. Forgot that we can't change it on our own.

keebo

One of the few perks to living in Northern Ireland is that is common to fly to and from the US from the Irish Republic. Flying into Dublin or Shannon, if you get stopped by customs, as soon as they hear you're from NI, they totally lose interest in you and anything you might be carrying

Kirky

tobciocc wrote:

I'm intersted in a frame for sale on ebay, the buy it now price is equivalent to £300. As its from the states and they say the won't package it labeled as a gift, what am I likely to pay. As it stands the £300 is a real bargain and the shipping is about £75. Any ideas??

Pretty simple to work out, cost of item + cost of shipping + 15% duty comes to £431.25, then add VAT at 17.5% on top of that bring a '£300 bargain' up to £506.72.

At the moment the exchange rate is GREAT and therefore you can still save good money. IMO it can be cheaper to fly over and pick it up!!

With regards to buying at source - yes this can be done, but most manufacturers will want a minimum order quantity of 100 frames!!

aracer

Kirky wrote:

tobciocc wrote:

I'm intersted in a frame for sale on ebay, the buy it now price is equivalent to £300. As its from the states and they say the won't package it labeled as a gift, what am I likely to pay. As it stands the £300 is a real bargain and the shipping is about £75. Any ideas??

Pretty simple to work out, cost of item + cost of shipping + 15% duty comes to £431.25, then add VAT at 17.5% on top of that bring a '£300 bargain' up to £506.72.

Except that the duty on a frame (as has already been mentioned in this thread) is only 4.7%, and I'm fairly sure you don't pay duty on the shipping cost (just VAT).

Kirky

aracer wrote:

Kirky wrote:

tobciocc wrote:

I'm intersted in a frame for sale on ebay, the buy it now price is equivalent to £300. As its from the states and they say the won't package it labeled as a gift, what am I likely to pay. As it stands the £300 is a real bargain and the shipping is about £75. Any ideas??

Pretty simple to work out, cost of item + cost of shipping + 15% duty comes to £431.25, then add VAT at 17.5% on top of that bring a '£300 bargain' up to £506.72.

Except that the duty on a frame (as has already been mentioned in this thread) is only 4.7%, and I'm fairly sure you don't pay duty on the shipping cost (just VAT).

Good spot, missed that!! Have only imported complete bikes before. From experience you pay duty on the cost of the item AND shipping, and then pay VAT on the total amount of that!!

KIRKY

stoomack

Anyone know what kind of cost you'd be looking at to have the shifters and brakes switched over? (ie to UK configuration of front cog/brake on the right, rear on the left) Presumably you'd need new shifters, not just a case of switching the leads over. Going to the states soon, thinking of getting a tarmac off eBay and bringing it back. Depends largely on the cost of this conversion though.

Thanks.

aracer

The levers are the same in the US (they use the right lever to shift the rear cogs too). The only thing you need to get switched are the brake cables, which involves getting the bars retaped too. No idea of costs - it's something I'd do myself if I had to.

Are you planning on paying duty/VAT or smuggling?

Anonymous

aracer wrote:

The levers are the same in the US (they use the right lever to shift the rear cogs too). The only thing you need to get switched are the brake cables, which involves getting the bars retaped too. No idea of costs - it's something I'd do myself if I had to.

Are you planning on paying duty/VAT or smuggling?

Not if Shimano.
You work for the customs and excise office?.

aracer

whitley wrote:

Not if Shimano.
You work for the customs and excise office?.

Is that in reference to retaping the bars? You did notice we're talking brake cables, not gear cables?

No, I just pay taxes and appreciate having the NHS, police and other things they pay for. Always find it strange how people who are presumably pretty law abiding can be discussing methods of tax evasion on an internet forum :?

allaction

No, I just pay taxes and appreciate having the NHS, police and other things they pay for. Always find it strange how people who are presumably pretty law abiding can be discussing methods of tax evasion on an internet forum

And on the seventh day God created aracer!

Hudster

aracer wrote:

No, I just pay taxes and appreciate having the NHS, police and other things they pay for. Always find it strange how people who are presumably pretty law abiding can be discussing methods of tax evasion on an internet forum :?

Agreed. Trying to avoid paying the tax is illegal and this little fact seems to get lost.

Why not avoid paying VED and insurance for your car as well while you're at it? Oh, and council tax. There are plenty of easy ways to avoid both of them...

stoomack

Bikes can be got so much cheaper in the states, especially if buying second hand. If bought carefully, and especially if bringing it back yourself, big savings can be made even if paying import duty.

As an aside, it is annoying that things are so much cheaper there.