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Duty on a bike


bikemad's picture

By bikemad - Posted on 05 October 2014

Has anyone here ever bought a bike from overseas,and if so what sort of costs are incurred when it arrives?I thought you might pay 10% on it which would still make it reasonable,just wondering if there are any hidden extras,cheers

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Rob's picture

I know 'a friend' that has bought a bike from the US (JensonUSA I believe). They were completely happy to pay duty + GST so factored that in and it was still a great deal. Then the box arrived without any customs paperwork. Seems customs don't open or inspect everything. Read the rules on their site then think of it as a lottery is what I'm saying.

hawkeye's picture

I haven't myself, but a lot of others at bicycles.net.au have. Their advice is that no duty is payable on importation of complete bikes, only GST.

However (and it's a big however) is you need to know the right tax codes to apply to the purchase. It is up to you to know them, customs will not help you.

So do your research first.

Different situation for bike components. Then the $1,000 limit applies.

Rob's picture

Yes... That's the other option. Order your parts so they ship in different boxes, keep each under $1000 and bingo. Personally, I like to do this as find spec'ing, buying & then building exactly what I want lots of fun.

bikemad's picture

and Hawkeye-I thought you might know.I tried the customs page with their duty import thingy but the second time i tried to calculate it it was telling me i had to join and pay for the privelege-and they wonder why people sometimes do the dodgy...So if i was to buy say a cube fritzz 160 from chaingang for $2350 id maybe only have to pay $230 ish bucks on top of it?not to unreasonable really.But when i did the first calculation it added nearly a grand to the original cost with duty processing etc...

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