US import duty / tax

I’ve just had a frameset arrive in the UK from the USA. Marked as a gift and currently with customs. I’ll update as to what charges may come my way....

I'm guessing duty and VAT

Did they mark any value on it at all?

Hope not! Got away with nothing to pay on one frame a couple of years ago but 2 others (serotta and landshark) it was around £80 each

Not sure to be honest- knew I missed something!

Theyre doing weird things now...same shit happened to me few weeks back, bought an item in Australia and they charging me more than the item cost i said im not gonna pay that and i said send it back, takes almost a month til i got my money....seller is very upset

Bollocks. Tracking says custom charges raised. I shall await their letter. Bum.

Would I be likely to be charged import fees on a tubeset coming from Russia?

Yes

Bought a vintage Ritchey frameset in the US last week and import fees and VAT raised the price with about 30%...

Anything coming from outside EU gets that VAT after a certain amount...

Anyone got any perception on how wise customs officials are to the true value of bikes? I have some relatives in the US who are able to post a frame over to me as a gift and mark the value at a reduced but plausible value.

Does a generic description like titanium bike frame suffice on the declaration form? I've not had any problems on the frames I've bought from China but it would be pretty easy to google the make of some US frames and get a sense of the retail price...

It'll be fine. They won't open the box if your value is over £100

How much is the import duty and VAT likely to be these days from USA to UK... still 25-30% of package value including postage?

It should be just VAT on the cost of the item and the postage, plus a fee for charging you a fee. I think that was £13 the last time I got something from the US.

Isn't it duty as well as VAT? I thought it was about 24%?

It depends what it is. Use this calculator https://www.simplyduty.com/import-calculator/

(edited as that's more accurate than my estimates)

Is the zero rating new? As I recall there used to be a duty on bike frames, but maybe I remembered wrong?

Yeah when I was looking into this 7 months ago it definitely wasn't zero rated. Full bikes attracted a higher levy than parts and frames but they were all chargeable. I think it's 4.7% for frames and parts.

I'm ordering most of a groupset as a bundle... value approx £1200
Does anyone know if parts in the same category as frames?

So if it's 20% VAT + 4.7% duty then total is roughly 25%?

Bummer!

Have a read through here

I would say so yes.

I bought a £1k frameset from Lynskey just before Christmas and ParcelForce kindly asked me for £286.

Which I am still mad at!

I would love to say you might get lucky but all shipping companies have a good gig going on there. Stop all boxes, check sender, whack £50 handling when value is over £1k, then sprinkle a bit of VAT on that and other random taxes - then make it a nightmare to try to claim any of it back.

I’ve heard it’s 4% duty plus VAT

I mean, how do people think the nhs is funded? Just see it as a charitable donation, tax evasion kills

Agreed, I don't object to paying it. With the exchange rate where it is, I tend to look at the dollar price as the sterling price once VAT and duty are factored in.