How much duty will I pay on imported parts from Germany?

Trying to get parts together for a ground up build & struggling to source parts in the UK. I’ve contacted my LBS, But not yet got a quote & I’m not holding out much hope given the lack of general availability online.

I’ve found what I want, (forks / groupset) in an online retailer well known on here & they are a reasonable price, but with the new import requirements I have no idea what I’ll actually end up paying. I’ve asked the retailer and they could not advise.

The forks are around £600 (RRP around £1000) – does anyone know what I’ll actually pay when DHL turn up? Is it just UK VAT plus nominal handling fee, or can I expect to pay more on top of that?

Any guidance appreciated

Any guidance appreciated

Read one of the other 300 threads on the same subject?

Just bought a sensor for my BMW from Autodoc in Germany and they have the VAT on the invoice they sent me…….

No solid answers yet, I guess nobody’s bought a pair of lyriks from bikediscount recently.

From a thread I started a couple days ago.
Price + 6% duty + 20% vat + courier handling fee.

I guess nobody’s bought a pair of lyriks from bikediscount recently.

maybe in march once they have the model I want in stock, by then I guess it will be a bit more organised

Apologies. I’m new here, had a look but hadn’t seen anything other than the r2 bike thread, which I wasn’t sure was conclusive. I posted a link on it but that wasn’t too clear either

Thanks samualr. That is helpful, wasn’t sure if that was official / guaranteed

Its the best I could find with the information available. The 20% vat is calculated from the price + duty, which seems to be 6% on bike parts.

So quick maths would be
600+36+127=730 plus shipping fees

There seems to be two duty values for bike/parts. One source says 6% and the other 4.7%. I’m not sure which is correct.

Thanks. Do you know if the bay is based on the RRP, or the price paid?

It’ll be based on the price on the commercial invoice. Duty will be on the item alone, VAT will be on the sum of the item price plus duty plus shipping. And then the handling fee.

I’ve had some brakes and a few other components delivered just this week. Ive not been hit by any additional charges – so far.

Previously when I’ve brought stuff in, the shipping company has with held good until the fees were paid.

Does this mean Ive gotten away with it, or will be hit by an invoice in the post later?

my local bike shop just did me a piar of Lyrik Ultimates for £699. So a bit more than the price you will pay assuming you have no import fee’s. Or potentially cheaper if you get hit with the full amount.

Worth asking your local independent bike shop, you never know!

Does this mean Ive gotten away with it, or will be hit by an invoice in the post later?

when i lived in the USA, if i’d not paid prior to delivery, i’d get an invoice after.

that said, as this is all new with imports from europe, it may well have slipped through.

“Does this mean Ive gotten away with it, or will be hit by an invoice in the post later?”

When we deliver via FedEx to the USA I believe the invoice often arrives later. But with our deliveries to the EU this year it seems to be payment before delivery. 50/50!

Just had a delivery from Bikester via UPS. No sign of any extra charges yet. Took a couple of days longer than usual. Someone has opened the commercial invoice for a look. But Bikester website says VAT already included and the invoice says delivery duty paid.

Also returned something to Bike24. Took a few days longer than usual and they wanted a CN23 customs form, but it got there. Most difficult bit was finding out what needed filling in on the form.

@paulmac135r

I don’t think anyone really knows what’s happening, certainly we are ‘supposed’ to be hit with tariffs and charges but its chaotic.

I’ve taken a punt on some brakes from r2bike purely to see what will happen, I am pretty sure even with the application of VAT/duty/handling etc it’ll still work out cheaper than the UK.

My previous experience is that if the courier doesn’t ask for an extra payment before delivery then you have got away with it. Nowadays, who knows?

I had a reverb AXS delivered last week – no charges…

I’ve a AXS rear mech and Shifter from the same shop, currently stuck in customs…..

Roll with the dice..

well bought the forks from BD.de, been dispatched via DHL the tracking says will be handed over to Parcelfarce once in UK so guess I best get the wallet out.

going by my calc’s will still be cheaper than in uk, also not many places have actual stock after me emailing calling a few.

I’ve made 7 orders from the EU since brexit and none of them have had extra charges

In the last week I’ve had 2 x £250 orders from Bike discount and R2 again neither were charged. I’d say due to the late nature of the “deal” they don’t have the systems in place to process 1000’s of small parcels without causing major backlogs or they can’t be arsed as they dont get the cash

I wouldn’t fancy trying it with a bike but who knows at the moment

Edit even if I did get hit one of the orders was for a pair of RSCs and that would have taken them from £240 to £270(ish), which is still cheaper than Wiggle/CRC at £200 an end

I believe a lot of imports are being waved through at the moment with that changing dramatically over the months to come.

I ordered a chair for the home office from Amazon last weekend, not realising it was coming from Germany.

It turned up yesterday, looks like I’ve paid no VAT or duty anywhere. Which should be interesting when I try and claim part of the cost back from my employers- HMRC 😅

Actually, it should all depend who you bought it from – EU companies with sales to the UK of over £70k need to be registered to collect VAT on behalf of HMRC – this is for goods of UNDER £135 value. Goods over £135 value should have the VAT collected at point of delivery….

The duty, if applicable, thing is nice and clear (!) too – goods under €22 are duty and vat free regardless of where made, but only until July 31st. Up to €150 is duty free but will pay VAT on delivery unless already collected by the store as they’re over £70k sales to the UK. Over €150 value should attract both VAT and duty, and is over the €150/£135 threshold above.

To add into confusion, the rules around the banding going UK to EU are different….

Soooo – nice and straight forward, yeah?

The real pain in the arse, if the carrier does decide to charge you, is that they probably don’t have a clue what it is you’ve bought and what commodity code and hence duty rate should be applied. But even then, it’s the handling and other charges they add that are the real killer..

As I discovered the other day, not every company seems to be applying the under £135 rule.
I bought something from Thomann (German music store) for £128. So according to the rules, and their won website, they should have added the VAT to my order at point of sale.
They didn’t!
So then I was expecting the courier to try and charge me.
They didn’t.
I emailed Thomann to ask who I should pay the VAT to, and got a standard reply quoting their website – under £135 we will invoice you the VAT, over the courier will charge you, etc.
But so far no invoice!
I’m wondering whether they just can’t be bothered to collect it 😆

Got a frame coming from Madrid, which was paid for back in October.

Chances of it going through customs smoothly? God help me…

Sounds like it’s still worth giving it a go. Based on the discounted cost, even if I get hit with the full duties I think the cost will still be ok, but availability is much better than uk.

If I get lucky then I’m quids in!

I’ve recently paid 176 euros for some tools from Germany, then realised I had miss-identified the fork so they are the wrong tools. Cancelled the order at 09:00, tried to order the correct tools, then later that day received a detailed note showing the (wrong) tools had been picked at 14:00 and sent.
So, how much duty will I have paid by the time the wrong ones go back, the right ones come and I’ve had a sleep? As I have to Google translate all the emails from Germany I think it’s safest to go full Trump and declare myself bankrupt.

Your parcel is currently with the customs authorities and is being assessed for import duties and local taxes. These will be notified to the addressee and usually need to be paid prior to the parcel being delivered.

😬

So, how much duty will I have paid by the time the wrong ones go back, the right ones come and I’ve had a sleep?

Don’t pay the duty on the ones you don’t want and they’ll go back to the seller after 20days… Then you’ll be refunded…

So if you order some bike parts and get stung for duty, if you refuse to pay will parts just get sent back to supplier and you’ll get refunded?

@burner yes the carrier has to return the item to the sender (as long as they have the sender’s address), this is after 20days of non payment with parcel force / DHl. This is free of charge. So you should then get a refund.

I have a import duty charge, VAT and fee to pay which brings the cost to almost the same as UK. Buts seeing as no one had stock of the forks I wanted at a sensible price I’m okay ish about it.

Not seen the import duty code yet but what code should a set of forks be. The HMRC is pants https://www.trade-tariff.service.gov.uk/chapters/87

My second round of stuff that I mentioned previously has rolled through with no charges.

Bear in mind if you get a refund you’ll pay 3% currency fees both ways with PayPal too

My bike discount order turned up. Value of £200 and no duty or vat.
Looks like they are waving stuff through for now.
Hopefully my forks get the same treatment when they are in stock.

Oh lucky yous, my R2 order…according to my dhl/parcel force tracking , a letter is being sent telling me how to pay charges…5 days later still no letter. Wtf.

Bear in mind if you get a refund you’ll pay 3% currency fees both ways with PayPal too

Not if you can use PayPal with a low fee card (I use Halifax Clarity) and make sure NOT to let PayPal do the currency exchange.

Elite turbo trainer on bike direct less vat so big savings if it gets waved through. Mmm worth the gamble?

Mmm worth the gamble?

I’ve just lost on a handlebar from Germany that, thanks to the exchange rate UPS used, came to £136 + delivery. £30 in VAT plus £11.50 for the privilege of them taking it.

Guy I ride with, who had no idea that taxes etc might get added to orders from the continent, has just had a £280 reverb through, no charge. 🤬