Selling a bike to Northern Ireland - customs declarations

[UpWrong]

I've had an enquiry from Northern Ireland about one of my bikes I am selling . AIUI, now the transition period has ended it is like selling into Europe. So I'll need to provide a customs declaration with an HS tariff code etc. However, because it's a sale of a personal, used item then it shouldn't get stopped for payment of import duties and VAT. Does the sound right? Should I be concerned that it's some kind of scam?

[rogerzilla]

Where are you selling it? If on eBay or another "online marketplace" they should tell you what to do, and the buyer will pay any charges.

[Tangled Metal]

Ebay has a one stop shop for sellers importing. It's easy and automated.

Other than that be careful which courier you use. Some are hopeless. You pay for your item to go out there (I think, no guarantee it left England), they make some feeble attemp at collecting vat or duty and then after several days with no update it turns up at your address returned with no refund. Iirc DPD do that.

It got so bad with couriers that we considered not selling to the island of Ireland. The reason is both NI and Republic of Ireland are enforcing the rules incredibly strictly. Nowhere that we've sent to is as bad. We've sent to USA, Canada, Germany, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, France, Spain, Portugal and probably other countries too. They got delivered first time every time. Island of Ireland almost always a problem. Either returned or late delivery.

IMHO try not to sell there, you'll probably have problems. I hate sounding negative but it's our experience.

[[XAP]Bob]

The reason is both NI and Republic of Ireland are enforcing the rules incredibly strictly. Nowhere that we've sent to is as bad. We've sent to USA, Canada, Germany, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, France, Spain, Portugal and probably other countries too. They got delivered first time every time. Island of Ireland almost always a problem. Either returned or late delivery.

IMHO try not to sell there, you'll probably have problems. I hate sounding negative but it's our experience.

By incredibly strictly you mean they are actually enforcing the rules (and I'm not sure NI are, the ROI are when things arrive there directly, but NI is a bit of a shambles at the moment)

The USA/Canada are obviously completely different rulesets - so a very odd comparison to put in there.

[UpWrong]

I'm selling on Gumtree. Parcelforce don't charge any extra for delivery in NI and there is no information provided in the quote about customs although elsewhere a CP72 declaration form is mentioned.

[Tangled Metal]

The reason is both NI and Republic of Ireland are enforcing the rules incredibly strictly. Nowhere that we've sent to is as bad. We've sent to USA, Canada, Germany, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, France, Spain, Portugal and probably other countries too. They got delivered first time every time. Island of Ireland almost always a problem. Either returned or late delivery.

IMHO try not to sell there, you'll probably have problems. I hate sounding negative but it's our experience.

By incredibly strictly you mean they are actually enforcing the rules (and I'm not sure NI are, the ROI are when things arrive there directly, but NI is a bit of a shambles at the moment)

The USA/Canada are obviously completely different rulesets - so a very odd comparison to put in there.

I listed some of the places where we send stuff and you edit out the eu countries to make a point?

The point is rules changed for shipping to many areas and there's similarities for shipping small packages to many of them but IME NI and Republic are both equally being strict with the rules post Brexit. But it's more than strict there's other countries that strictly follow the rules. Both NI and Republic have more friction than other EU nations. If that's the NI protocol or other issue doing it I don't know. I just know we are close to turning orders down from that island.

It's one thing to supply documentation, that's no issue at all, it's when the processes of couriers going into there actively make the importation excessively problematic. Fortunately there's some couriers better than others and it's taken trial and error to find the ones with systems that make shipping to Ireland easier. My preferred it's parcelforce. Worst is DPD.

Bear in mind we're shipping into EU countries several times a week and the small orders as and when. We're efficient at it now and rarely have issues. They're almost always with Ireland. You might have different experiences but this is ours.

[Tangled Metal]

I'm selling on Gumtree. Parcelforce don't charge any extra for delivery in NI and there is no information provided in the quote about customs although elsewhere a CP72 declaration form is mentioned.

You'll probably need to give contact details as they'll probably contact the buyer for customs and VAT. With some couriers they're not very persistent and simply return the goods if there's no easy contact with the b recipient. There's a value of goods up to which things are easier AIUI. It's not that high. If you were selling on ebay there's a one stop shop that charges the buyer upfront for that and gives customs a reference to track that payment. It's fairly efficient and hassle free. I have no idea whether gumtree has the equivalent system. If it does then it might make things even easier.

[alexnharvey]

Why would there be any vat or duty payable on a private sale within the UK?

[UpWrong]

Why would there be any vat or duty payable on a private sale within the UK?

I agree. As long as there's a declaration there should not be a problem.