Hi,
I'm very tempted to order a cheap Yeti frame from Jenson USA but am unsure about the import duty cost. Has anybody got any experience/knowledge of this that they can share? I'm assuming its VAT plus some sort of import duty on top so reckoning about cost +25%. Anybody know if this is about right?
Cheers!

Hi,

Hope I can give you some help as I've brought a fair bit of stuff into the UK from the US.

As a general rule Royal Mail collect the VAT/Duty and pass this onto HMRC. The current limit for which you don't pay VAT is if the declared value is less than £18 or £40 if a gift, therefore anything over this you'll have to pay. From what I have read if the value of the goods is declared at over £135 you may well end up have to pay Customs Duty's as well as VAT. You will also have to pay RM £8 (if I remeber correctly) Customs Clearance Charges.

I did get a lot of Plastering Equipment (trowels, hawk and stilts) that was over the £135 threshold but I personally didn't get charged Customs Duty's (although I did expect to have to pay them) – perhaps the RM just don't have the manpower (or perhaps inclination) to work out what rates the goods attract and only bother collecting VAT as it makes life much easier for them?

I have found the following links which you should find useful; http://customs.hmrc.gov.uk/channelsPortalWebApp/channelsPortalWebApp.portal?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=pageTravel_ShowContent&id=HMCE_CL_000014&propertyType=document and for Customs Duty's; http://www.businesslink.gov.uk/bdotg/action/tariff?r.l1=1078549103&r.l2=1078549168&furlname=tariff&furlparam=tariff&ref=&domain=www.businesslink.gov.uk

I suppose at the end of the day a quick call to HMRC to work out what catergory the frame will fall into as it depends on what the frame is made from. I think if is made of Aluminium the Duty rate seems to be 6%, but getting back to RM, if on the Customs Declaration Jensons only state "Bike Frame" you may not get charged but no guarantees!!!

A rough guide, as best I can remember (but HMRC can confirm) would be based on a frame that is has a declared value of £500 and shipping of £50, sub total £550, attracts duty of £33, totalling £583 and VAT of £102 and RM CCC of £8 so I belive you'd possibly pay an extra £143.00 on top of what you pay Jenson.

And don't forget you'd be paying by credit card and unfortunately unless you have a good card you'll probably not get a good rate and may end up paying a bit more for the frame than you'd be expecting.

Best of luck

Jules

not being funny but the search function is usually your friend…

http://www.singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/props-to-jensonusacom

has a few peoples experiences. Cant fault Jenson's service.

Hi mark, I have had tones of bike parts from the states from small parts to frames and full bikes. In my experience import duty and vat charges did use to be a hit and miss lottery whether or not you got charged. However in recent years I haven't had a single item without duty so I would assume all parcels are checked now. It would be worth assuming yours will be checked so you can estimate the total cost of the frame to see if it's still such a good deal!
The only way to avoid these charges is to declare a lower value of the item when it is posted. The only problem with this comes when your item is lost or damaged as you will only be able to claim for value declared, which could prove very costly plus it's against the law of course. Although I have to admit I have done it on small expensive items (king hubs) as you can have them sent express airmail which is super quick and reliable!

Thanks for the useful comments-just as I was about to order I found one at Phil Corley cycles for less than half price! Am pretty sure this has worked out cheaper once postage and tax etc has been factored in. They've still got one large frame left if anybody else is interested in a bargain!

Bought a GoPro HD from Jenson at Christmas – ordered after Boxing day, arrived 3rd Jan, which I thought was pretty good.
Got a bill from FedEx for import duty a few day later. Camera (plus delivery) came to £200 – tax was about £20, with £10 'handling charge' – still saved £70 on UK price.