I fancy a Nimble 9 from the USA and it turns out my wife is going there for a week with her mother in a couple of months. my wife wants to buy me a present for my birthday so if she buys a frame and sends it to me as a gift, hypothetically can I / she escape paying import duty and VAT? Alternatively could she mark the value as less than £250, although I assume that would be illegal.

if she buys a frame and sends it to me as a gift, hypothetically can I / she escape paying import duty and VAT?

Yes if it’s worth less than £36

Ah. That would be a no then.

Why doesn’t she just bring it back with her on the flight?

Too many bags of her own to manage a big frame. She just laughed when I asked her to.

You could take a chance and put false sender details on it (Bike co.), then mark as a warranty replacement. 😉

Why doesn’t she just bring it back with her on the flight?

Unless she’s into smuggling it makes no difference to the tax costs.

Is tax avoidance morally right or wrong?

It’s not worth the hassle or the expense; I have bought bits twice from the USA and it ended up costing me the same as if I’d bought them here but for a lot more stress and waiting.