Cycling UK Forum

JBoneXC wrote: ↑2 Mar 2024, 11:18am Hi there

I've been following this thread as I too am interested in a Radon Deft 10. How far have you got Scu11y?

I have done countless winter seasons, bought and replaced snowboards, and come home with them, without thinking about taxes, etc. So, I really don't see what the problem is with going to Germany, buying a bike, and bringing it back.

Why can't you just go to your relatives to get the bike and bring it back? I would build it up, ride it and not clean it too much, and put it in the boot. You've just been on an MTB trip! I have friends in France and was thinking of doing this.

To my knowledge, you don't have to provide an inventory of the items you're taking (or not taking in this instance), nor will they document the contents of your car.

Of course, duty, taxes etc are carried out by multimillion pound/euro/dollar import/exporters with ships full of containers with products shipped to sell in the UK, but Joe Public with a bike?

I'm just waiting on a bit of my crypto to boost a little then heading ordering it, I'm more than happy to pay the German vat and claim it back, just waiting on the right time to cash out a chunk of money..

So it Looks like I'll be paying for the bike so it is legitimately mine, getting them to deliver it to my friend in Rotterdam, me going to collect it, paying any fees/tax/duty/VAT on my return to the uk then claim the German VAT back once my paperwork is stamped, seems pretty simple, I just need to find somebody to help me with the German papers..
So it's Going to be a bit of a mission but I believe totally worth it, I've been hunting for a same spec bike here in the UK for the same total value and there's nothing remotely close. So now it's time to stop looking and get doing...

Happydays..

So I've had a reply from discount-bikes and there's no way that they will let me purchase the bike and arrange shipment, so it looks like I'll be buying the bike and having it shipped to Rotterdam for me to collect and bring back in to the UK (through the red channel) I'm happy to pay whatever fees/tax on top, as I mentioned before it still financially worth it, my friend is going to pay for my ferry too as they wants a bit of painting done at their home and I'm a decorator, so it's a fair deal..
I'll be putting it through as a work expense so I should be able to claim some or all of it back when my self assessment is next done.

On a side note looks like I might have the only radon deft in the UK
Thank you for all of your input, I know it got a little political, but I appreciate it all.

Happy riding guys n gals...

Looking at the numbers it doesn't look too bad, ive been on the calculator and if I got it right it looks like I'd just have to pay the VAT on the bike on arrive back to the uk, so somewhere around £7k in total, which would be still well within the bang for buck comparison to anything available over here.
I've emailed the store to see if there's any chance of me purchasing and arranging the shipment, so look like islta going to be a case of waiting for a reply and doing it that way or pay for it and ship it to Rotterdam for me to collect personally and pay the vat on entry back to the UK..

This is the actual bike..

https://www.radon-bikes.de/en/e-bike/mo ... -750-2023/

As for warranty/returns I'm not worried about that.
I've owned a radon since 2017 and other than the normal mechanical wear n tear they're solid.
Also I have a good relationship with my local bike shop who are registered Bosch repair shop so it'll just be serviced as normal.

I see where you're coming from, but I'm not asking for a way to dodge taxes at all, I'd be happy to pay full whack including import, vat and fees, I was just seeing if there's a legal loophole as such.
The bikes value is £6k and spec'd as good as a s-works, so even if I had to throw on the vat and import fees and fery it would still be a tonne cheaper than any bike of a similar spec as I'd be able to buy over here.
The sticking point is they won't ship to the UK, so me arranging to collect it from the Netherlands is fine by me, but just need to know what to expect..

Thanks for the link, I did read that prior to my post, but that looks like he was going to buy the bike new from a store himself and bring it back to the UK which would be the looks of things 100% incur import taxes and vat.
My purchase would be slightly different I think as it would be a eu resident buying a eu bike and me a none EU resident buying the bike from them.
It's a tricky one..

So I was about to pull the trigger on treating myself to a Ebike, currently I own a radon slide carbon 10.0 enduro bike, I purchased it in 2017 from discount-bikes.de, it was a fantastic buy fully loaded and extremely well priced so I looked into their new Ebike range and instantly fell for the radon deft 10.0MS, it againnis fully loaded and rated extremely high in Europe and the price again is spot on, there's nothing available here in the UK in the same price range with anywhere close to it's spec..

Here's the bad news though, since Brexit discount-bikes.de do not import to the UK due to import taxes etc etc, which was a bit of a kick in the balls.

Now having a think about options I thought about a workaround, which goes a like this..

I have a family member that lives in Rotterdam, so I was thinking of asking them to order the bike for me, then once they've received it I book a ferry and drive over to pay for it and collect it, spend a long weekend with them hit a few local trails and then bring the bike back with me to the UK.
Essentially the bike in my opinion would be classed as 2nd hand as I would be buying it from them as they had paid for it and would be registered as his bike, so would I be able to get it back to the UK without being hit with all the import tax and vat.
Obviously I don't want to break any laws or risk loosing the bike at customs so I'm looking for some solid advice/information.
To be honest even if I do have to pay the import taxes and ferry costs the bikes bang for a buck is still way above anything I'd be able to purchase in the UK...

I appreciate your input and any thoughts on this ..