[Closed] Shipping a bike from the US

Yep. VAT on what you bought it for +shipping costs, then import duty.

Other way around duty on it all then vat on top.... Never that cheap

Given vat and duty is on all bikes that enter the country (EU aside) it depends on how cheap the bike is.

I got a great deal on a Turner like this. So a lot rests on excganhe rate too which isn't that great at the moment.

Oh and the cost of your freight.

Do what I did too and fetch it yourself!

You will pay import duty on then purchase price and the shipping. The VAT on the purchase price, shipping and import duty. And usually a nice courier handling charge in top too.

Iirc complete bikes are 14% import tax where as parts are 4.7%

So better to take your bike bag there, have a riding holiday and then bring it back with you. And swear that you took it with you in the first place.............

I did it a few years back, and paid out a few hundred quid in taxes/fees and courier.

I'd only recommend it if the bike is rare or special / not available here.

Thanks everyone....but that sucks!! I thought maybe there would be duty but naively didn't think there would be VAT on second hand goods. And if one_happy_hippy is right about the 14% on bikes then that is ludicrous!

Does anyone please know how they determine the value of the goods? The bike is approx. $3500, but as its second hand how do they know how much I paid for it to set the duty amount? Or do they simply do it from the declared value from the shipping amount?

Thank you

What bugs me is that you always get stung buying from the US, yet i get parts direct from Taiwan/ China / Hong Kong and never seem to get the same import duties, anyone know why the States is worst?

Or do they simply do it from the declared value from the shipping amount?

Think so. So there is an obvious way round it. It’s just getting the seller to agree to do it... especially if he wants to insure the bike while shipping. Plus if HMRC get wind of your ruse (ie, if you massively undervalue it), there’ll be bother.

Don't bother if it's a widely available bike. Used prices here in the UK are pretty reasonable now IMO.

As an interesting experiment, one bored night shift lunch break, I took the US cost of a particular Salsa, and added flights, hire vehicle and walking around/fuel costs and figured that a two week riding holiday in the States, bringing a bike back with me would cost around the same as buying it on the UK. There are obvious problems here, not least that you’d be camping/crashing on floors and ultimately committing a crime with potentially serious repercussions when reentering the UK without declaring your import, but I understand it’s fairly common, and actually the same offence as if you ask the sender to mark something as a ‘gift’ or below the duty-able value.

I'm still looking at this...

Does anyone please know how they set the value of the goods to charge the customs? What I'm thinking here for a second hand bike can't the seller just declare a lower value? I'm not thinking anything crazy here, but if it's a £4K second hand bike, declared by the seller at £2k, how are they going to know I paid £4K for it?

I.e can it ever get to the point where they demand payment evidence?

You will be in a world of pain importing anything from the US at the moment.

My company imports a few things from the US (mainly amps and musical instruments) and the only way we've done it without it getting stuck in customs for weeks on end is to import it through a UPS account. Stuff that got sent by the manufacturer from the US took 4 weeks or more to arrive.

JP

Bigger risk is that bike you just declared at $2k but paid $4k goes missing in transit.

Guess what the courier insurance will pay out for?

I was literally just about to post a topic about the same thing but looking to buy from Canada (?).

One suggestion I've had is to have the bike split into 3 different parcels sent separately and labelled 'used bike parts' and you still pay duty but a lot less.

Anyone else got experience of buying a bike from Canada ?

Thanks all,

Yeah I hear you Jam bo, obviously a risk

If I were the seller, there’s no way I’d undervalue as if it goes missing, it’d be me that’d be on the hook for the higher amount (assuming you’d be paying through PayPal. if not, why not???) but would only be covered for the declared, thus insured, amount. Would you do that for someone in the other side of the world that you had never met?

That and it’s tax evasion, obvs. I guess that it wouldn’t take a lot of research to find out if you’d way undervalued it, (say, by half) by simply googling it. Then once the start asking questions of you, they’ll get to the bottom of it pretty quick.

Is there really no other way of getting the bike you want or is it just a price thing? What is it?

One suggestion I’ve had is to have the bike split into 3 different parcels sent separately and labelled ‘used bike parts’ and you still pay duty but a lot less

what you need to do is quote the actual tarriff code on the labels and invoices/shipping docs as well that way whoever keys the value at entry to UK doesn't just randomly assign a code or a vaguely similar code with a higher duty rate google tarriff codes or taric its an international system that presumably Britain hasn't opted out of yet

think people have covered low balling the value issues no big deal for a 2nd hand seller but companies can be blacklisted / subject permanent delays if caught doing it

False declaration can also result in being charged penalty duties - I took some stuff to Switzerland on a business trip and my colleague had given me a customs invoice with declared value at effectively RRP not cost - Swiss customs took great delight in charging me duties on twice the full consignment value.