buycycle

canoas

I have used buycycle before, Europe's biggest 2nd hand bike market before Brexit, there are some huge steals out there. Anyway, I have now revisited buycycle after a number of years, I then forgot! Bloody Brexit, bloody import duty? .....................So when you pay, buycycle , they send the seller a box etc and only pay them when the package is picked up by and signed for at the other end (buyer) all insured..............but hey! now with Brexit we have to pay import duty right? I am even thinking of flying to Italy taking an old bike, I have unusable in a bike box, collecting the bike, dump the old one in Italy, and bring back after a few days to avoid duty, if you are buying a £5K bike buy then the duty is a crap load!.......anyone else have any great ideas that would be great! With a limit of £135 on imported goods from the EU I think the only way is to do this to avoid tax, £100 for the flight £100 for bike bag = £200, cheap hotel cycle £80 x 3 nights £240 + 200 = £440 + hire care say £200 = TOTAL = £640 (cook my own food cheaply).........still cheaper than the huge import taxes the consumer now gets, we are completely ripped off.

canoas

+ I can cycle 3 days in Italy on my new bike !

pep.fermi

I bought my current bike via Buycycle. All great.
Zero import duty, but I'm in Germany, the bicycle was in Holland.

canoas

pep.fermi said:

I bought my current bike via Buycycle. All great.
Zero import duty, but I'm in Germany, the bicycle was in Holland.

Hi, lucky you! living in the EU!

Buycycle are brilliant in my past experience of 1 purchase in 2015. Was talking to a friend last night, he said I would pay a lot of duty and he recommends dumping my old bike in Italy and coming back, the only way to avoid and get completely ripped off by the UK government for a 2nd hand bike! It's a real shame this Brexit, not only is it hard to get hold of bike components these days in the UK but the limit of £135 really makes life difficult especially with high inflation. My friend actually had a mate recently who purchased a top end Pinarello for him in Trevisio, had an Italian friend to bring it over in a bike box. He paid for his friend's flight and bike box, still saved over £3,000, we are getting desperate here!

canoas

Does anyone know the import duty on a 2nd hand bicycle from France for example? Is it 20% (VAT) plus courier handling fees out of interest. I will drive over to France anyway dirty it and bring it back without paying a thing, thought I'd ask.............

laurentian

canoas said:

Does anyone know the import duty on a 2nd hand bicycle from France for example? Is it 20% (VAT) plus courier handling fees out of interest. I will drive over to France anyway dirty it and bring it back without paying a thing, thought I'd ask.............

Why don't you drive to the ferry port in UK, park your car there for a couple of days, go as foot passenger to France, go via train or whatever to the selller, buy the bike, ride it/train it back to french ferry port, buy ticket as foot passenger with bike then return, put bike in/on car and go home? Cheaper ferry crossing without the car and no petrol to pay for in France . . .

Tashman

canoas said:

Does anyone know the import duty on a 2nd hand bicycle from France for example? Is it 20% (VAT) plus courier handling fees out of interest. I will drive over to France anyway dirty it and bring it back without paying a thing, thought I'd ask.............

Surely if it's 2nd hand it won't attract duty?

arlowood

Tashman said:

canoas said:

Does anyone know the import duty on a 2nd hand bicycle from France for example? Is it 20% (VAT) plus courier handling fees out of interest. I will drive over to France anyway dirty it and bring it back without paying a thing, thought I'd ask.............

Surely if it's 2nd hand it won't attract duty?

Link below is from the Gov.uk website and clearly states that anything new or used is liable to assessment so that the correct tax and duty is calculated and charged.

https://www.gov.uk/goods-sent-from-abroad