Import duty on bikes from US?

kevin_stephens

My Girlfriend is buying a Trek Silque from the US because Trek for some reason have decided not to supply the smallest size to the UK. A friend of ours will be buying it over the counter from a US shop (Washington DC) whilst there on business. The shop will then pack it and our friend will post it to the UK.

It would be nice to know how the tax situation works out. As the bike will be purchased by our friend in the US Will we avoid paying VAT on import?
Will there be additional customs/import tax to pay? And if so how?
Will we be able to get a refund or avoidance of local state taxes in the US?

Thanks for any help and suggestions

Monty Dog

There will be duty and vat to pay - I can't remember offhand the duty on bikes, but it'll be something like (price paid+8%)+vat@20%) plus a customs clearance handling charge from the shipper. May get a rebate on local US taxes - depends on state - VA, MD or DW? Shipping on bikes are expensive too - £150 isn't unusual IME

nicklouse

Full bikes is 15%.

unixnerd

Your friend buys the bike. You buy the bike from your friend. It's now a second hand bike so presumably the value is lower. Depends how much your friend sells you this used bike for. He'd be responsible for filling out the value on the customs slip when he posts it. This value would also be the insurance value presumably if it gets lost of damaged in transit.

cattytown

I hope she *really* wants it. Find the price, find the shipping. The Taric code for a bike looks to be 8712003090 which carries a duty rate of 14%. There doesn't seem to be a separate code for components. You may be able to try for 9503001000 but I think you would be very lucky to pull that off - "Tricycles, scooters, pedal cars and similar wheeled toys; dolls' carriages"

So Assuming the 14 %, call it £2,000 for the bike and £100 shipping - total £2100. The taxman won't look to find favourable exchange rates BTW. That's £2100 plus 14 % - £2394. THEN add VAT to the total - £2872.80 then add the couriers charge for doing the customs clearance - £10-15.

It may be possible to lie on the customs declaration. Claim it to be worth £500. If they check it's attempted evasion. If they don't and the bike gets lost or damaged, just try claiming for more than the declared value...

kevin_stephens

Thanks, this is not great news but sort of expected. It's maddening when Trek put effort into developing what is by all accounts a very good women specific bike, including a very small size for petite women, but Trek UK don't see any point in importing the small size to the UK .

barrie h

I friend of mine ordered a Trek from a New York shop and was due for collection whilst he was on holiday,
He hired a bike box and took an old battered wreck to the states with him and dumped it there, rode the new bike round a bit then boxed it when he came home with now problems
All the paper work was sent home via.USPS

Barrie

dulwichiron

Could you buy just the frame and then have it built up with parts bought from over here thus saving some import fees?

kevin_stephens

We've decided (come to our senses) to spend some of the extra money that would have gone on duties and shipping in moving up to a custom build from LBS on an Italian frame which has much wider choice of sizes

beetle1

Kevin Stephens wrote:

We've decided (come to our senses) to spend some of the extra money that would have gone on duties and shipping in moving up to a custom build from LBS on an Italian frame which has much wider choice of sizes

A wise choice I think. I once took an empty bike bag to the States and brought a bike back and saved a fortune when the exchange rate was at it's best but to do it the way you were involves too much expense when Im sure other bike manufactures could supply in the EU. All the best anyway.