Frame arriving tomorrow, was wondering if any of the number crunching buffs out there could figure out what I am going to get stung for, for import duty etc.

£880 for the frame.

Answers on a postcard please 😉

I wouldn’t be surprised at £300

As a guide,last month i placed an order with a 400 dollar value and got stung for £74 in total with fed-ex.So get ready for some serious wallet bashing i rek.

You’re not getting stung, you’re simply paying what is due. You’re liable to pay 4.7% duty and 17.5% VAT, plus a deferment charge from UPS for having them pay it in advance for you.

On £880 plus shipping you’ll be in the region of £240

Try here

http://www.dutycalculator.com/new-import-tax-calculation/

Depending on how much they charge for handling, I’d expect it to be around £210

Well over 200£ – the main item will be the VAT and they will normally charge that on frame + posting. On top of that you are looking for 5% import duty and whatever UPS decides to charge you for their trouble in dealing with HMRC.

Cool, still £300-£400 cheaper than the UK option 🙂

How does this work with second hand items?

Dosen’t the import duty vary a lot if the sender declares the item as a bicycle frame instead of bicycle spare parts?
I’m sure they have different rates of duty.

i bought a frame for $600 a few months ago. total charges were just over £100. rough estimate, you’ll pay about £150.

I’ve been told VAT does not apply to s/h items (well, jewellery).

was going to ask about 2nd hand… frame arriving tomorrow (hopefully) from the US, wondering if I’ll get hit with VAT (it’s a ‘vintage’ frame…)

That’s quite a confidence-in-bike-bling-distributors-sapping difference!!

What frame is it? And are you paying the regular USA rrp or is it in the sales?

Often when this sort of thing comes up here, we find the uk importer sells it at about 10-15% more than the total cost/shipping/tax from usa, which i suppose is an understandable premnium for local advice/backup and a warranty you can sort out in the UK.

Although I would love to know how that compares to UK VAT and import tax getting it shipped over in bulk as opposed to one at a time. I certainly know and know of people who have paid mates rates not far off 60% of rrp for north american-made frames from a UK distributor.