USA imports...I know I know

[Harryburgundy]

Its been talked over and over
http://www.retrobike.co.uk/forum/viewto ... import+tax
but I'm still a wee confused
By my adding up...using the formulas above, the cost of buying a certain frame I'm looking at :roll: would be
Frame, fork and custom stem $1685
Shipping $200 max
Call it £980
PLUS
Import duty £137
VAT £171
Total cost £1288
Does that seem right? Seems like one-hell-of-a-lot-money to me.
Cheers, HB

 

[retrobikeguy]

Yep - sounds about right

just got a frame through - insured for $300 and $60 to post and ended up paying £42

 

[Bear-Chan]

my kahuna came through with a declared value of $700 and shipping was $72. had to pay about £58 i think...
have you considered sending it by UPS or similar? its pretty cheap state-side with the exhange rate, and that way you could probably lower the declared value without the risk of it going walk about. we get a lot of UPS/fedex stuff arrive here, and if we do get clobbered, the charges usually seem lower than parcelfarce etc.

 

[elite504]

value in pounds, plus 4.9 % duty. Giving a number.
Add on the shipping figure.
then you pay an additional 17.5% for vat on this big number.

plus probably asomething like a £8 handling fee for royal mail. And potentially £15 for x rays if customs xray the box.
Basic, rule of thumb add 25% to your converted price to pounds figure. It normally works out that with duty and clearance, you add about 25 % to the shipped cost.

 

[The Ken]

I thought bikes/bike parts from the US were 15% duty?

 

[Andy R]

Complete bikes are something like 15%, but components are 4.9% as far as I know.