Has anyone ordered from bikediscount in 2021 and were you charged import tax when the goods arrived in the UK?

Thanks

Are they actually shipping to the UK at the moment?

I see they have a minimum order amount of £170 or something. As for import duty on that I don’t know or even if the delivery service is going to the uk now.

My order was 380 Inc delivery charge, the question was an after thought. Will drop them a line see what they. Brexit is bollocks on every front.

Depends where the thing you bought was made, and if you were charged VAT.

But probably, yeah.

I still haven’t been able to find much definitive tbh. There is a lot of speculation out there but relatively little that tells you what you will actually pay. The only option is to go for it and see. I think you can refuse the delivery if it turns out to be unpalatable…

I bought an AXS Reverb for £445 inc delivery and ex VAT.

Dispatched with DHL and then handled / delivered by ParcelForce when landed in UK. I wasn’t charged any import duty or VAT – the documents on the parcel weren’t even opened.

I see they have a minimum order amount of £170

I’m not 100% sure, but I think that under a certain amount they are meant to register for vat in the UK to sell by mail order, which they clearly are not going to do. So they will set a minimum amount above that limit, where it becomes your/the couriers responsibility.

If there is tax to be payed, there will also likely be an administrative charge by the delivery company to collect it. Quite possibly the UK end of operations are not up and running yet, so there is probably a window of opportunity to get stuff through without being charged if you want to take a gamble.

I received an order about a week ago – I added some bits on to get to their minimum order (approx £170), and then paid about £14 for shipping. It took about 4 days to arrive, but I didn’t have any extra charges. On the whole, I was happy (my main reason for ordering there was because they sell original Hayes pads for the stoker gram, which I have on an old bike, and they’re hard to find now).

Sunlit uplands.

Plan for the worst (VAT + Duty + fees), hope for the best (courier/hmrc CBA) is my plan for the next 6 or so months.

Can you update this thread OP when you get news ta.

That’s a very good price on an AXS reverb. I’ve never been one for gambling but it could be good fun 😀

I bought a new Garmin a couple of weeks ago. No issues. Received in 3-4 days and no surcharges

Is it just going to be the hit and miss approach that has existed for years when buying anything from outside the UK. I have bought stuff from US, Hong Kong etc, with no charges and I have also bought stuff from those countries and got hit with charges. Seems fairly random.

Ive got some stuff due today from them, out for delivery with parcelforce.
Ordered on the 21st about £195 worth. I didnt notice at the time their price was ex vat.
Will see if I get a bill from parcelforce later, can’t remember how these things work, its been a while since I imported goods from america so I assume it will be the same rules.

And just delivered, or rather dumped on the doorstep!
Nothing extra to pay, so far.
Including the expensive postage it was £195, would have been £240 in the uk.
Its likely a bit of a gamble at the moment if you get hit with vat or not.
Fortunately I have now have enough chains, cassettes & brake pads to last me the year.

That’s a very good price on an AXS reverb. I’ve never been one for gambling but it could be good fun 😀

Exactly – roll the dice!

To be fair to bike-discount, they provided all the necessary documents on the parcel including country of origin, total price, indicated no VAT has paid etc – obviously the parcel (and many others by the sound) has just completely by passed customs.

They’ll be over whelmed now…. the warehouse is probably full!

I’d wait a few months for everyone to sort their stuff out. Should be paying UK duties/vat upfront then it will be seamless.

rockauto.com have done this for years and years with sales from US to UK, getting car parts to me faster and cheaper than eurocarparts.

I thought I’d balls’d up and exceeded the customs limit (think its £135) with an order from DeportVillage in Spain last week. Anyway delivered by DHL in 2 days with nothing additional to pay.

Is there any risk the taxes and duties are charged at a later date? Or, if it is delivered without extra payment required to release the parcel you are “in the clear” so to speak?

Is there any risk the taxes and duties are charged at a later date?

I’ve had this when ordering spare parts from USA (when not available in Europe)… letter explaining and requesting the charges followed 6 weeks being the package being delivered.

Is there any risk the taxes and duties are charged at a later date?

Yep, I’ve also had this in the past ups delivered the item, I then had a bill 2 weeks later for the customs charges – it was buisness to buisness rather than a domestic purchase though.

Looking at bike discounts web site they specifically say that UK customers are liable for any duty….

Deliveries to Great Britain are net, i.e. without national sales tax. This tax is then due on import. If United Kingdom is selected as the country of delivery, the prices are displayed in the shop without sales tax.

In addition to the shipping costs calculated by Bike-Discount, additional import costs may apply. These are usually about any import duties and national sales tax.

I have to say I have a wee chuckle when folk put HMRC & ‘CBA’ into the mix on a topic like this. As if whatever their staff want to do with the problem plays any part in the process… In a shrinking civil service under Bojo & his cronies, where on earth does anyone think that HMRC are going to magic up the additional staff needed to police an entire new system for postal goods and levy the charges? It’s largely in effect contracted out to the private sector, by requesting that the courier firms police it (and make a profit on charges along the way..!).

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2021/jan/25/mastercard-to-raise-fees-to-eu-firms-by-500-percent-for-online-sales-to-uk-shoppers It just gets better all the time!

@wzzzz what yank are you running?

This mostly explains it

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-55752541

Rough guide – Over £150 for bike parts add £15 + 25% and you’re probably about there.

This mostly explains it

I’m glad you said mostly!

I’m just looking into this as I want some tyres and no UK distos have them. Depor Village have them and state they will be shipped via GLS. Had a little google and found this..

GLS Brexit Info

Am I reading correct when I say I won’t be charged for anything shipped via GLS under £135?

Yes, but only if the seller has sorted things their end… which is why you’ll find a £135 minimum order with many EU shops for UK shipments.

Including Bike Discount….

The minimum order value is 175.- €

m I reading correct when I say I won’t be charged for anything shipped via GLS under £135?

in theory. What I don’t know, if a seller doesn’t register for uk VAT and sends goods under the threshold, what happens? I assume the courier will hit you with a charge????

I run a small store in Munich. This is how it works (from Germany).

Orders under £135:
UK 20% VAT included in selling price
Import Duty added to this if goods not made in EU/UK. Courier will invoice for this.
Courier will add Handling Fee for doing this. Courier will invoice for this.

Orders Over £135:
German VAT not included in selling price.Import Duty added to this if goods not made in EU/UK (rate depends on what the goods are). Courier will invoice for this.
UK VAT of 20% added to Cost + Duty. Courier will invoice for this.
Courier will add Handling Fee for doing this. Courier will invoice for this.

This extras are normally charged before delivery. At the moment it seems the Courier companies (UPS, DHL, etc) are quite on it as good money to be made. Post Offices don’t seem to be as on it.

We won’t sell goods to UK for under £135 as we would have to register with HMRC, adjust our TAX rate for these orders from 19% to 20%, collect this money and then do a yearly UK VAT Return. Just not worth it for us at present.

To Jonswhite – is this magic 135 the price with tax, or without. If I buy something with a cost of 135.01, and toggle on ‘deliver to UK’, does the price drop to the tax less price? I guess you could setup your online show to show a taxless cost to UK customers

@jonswhite you also have to pay HMRC a hefty sum for the privilege IIRC of registering an EU company??? If so I can’t see a lot of incentive for an EU business to sell orders under £135 even in the future unless they find themselves suddenly missing a massive amount of UK orders.

@wbo – that is a damn good question and I am afraid I don’t know! Can’t get a definitive answer in any of the information I’ve found.
For us, we are showing all of our UK customers a VAT free price as our website system can’t currently show VAT on some products/basket values and not on others.
We also deal in Euros so there is the issue of exchange rate fluctuations changing what costs £135….
Which has reminded me that at today’s rates I need to change the Euro cut-off for UK orders from €150 to €160.
What a b-ache.

What a b-ache.

All these threads could just be reduced to this.

So is the general consensus, that hmrc WANT to charge us 15-20% extra, but that it’s pretty hit and miss as to whether they actually have the manpower to do it? Because I am not really bonding with my Ohlins fork and a Lyrik Ultimate works out about 600 delivered…..

So is the general consensus, that hmrc WANT to charge us 15-20% extra, but that it’s pretty hit and miss as to whether they actually have the manpower to do it?

Ultimately yes, this is a cost of brexit. If you don’t want to shop local (UK) then add 20% + fees.
& it seems from peoples experience on here and cirtainly in my local community it’s very hit and miss at the moment.
However I’m sure that in 6months time euro purchasing will incur addition vat and admin fees every time.