Gear Import vs Bring Back

yeah, in my experince if France, Spain and Italy you'll wander around
looking at bikes and frames and thinking, "I can get that cheaper in
Australia" or more commonly "I am sure I saw that cheaper on the net"

Once again IME only, I found bikes and frames at retail stores in
Europe to be generally about the same or a bit more than in Australia.

Go over armed with prices
If you can find a bargain beforehand, the only thing that might be a hurdle is possibly getting slugged with tax/duty/whatever on return
The easiest way to avoid this is, box up a [censored] and take with you. return with shiny goodness instead 😄

or jsut stick it in your boogie board bag. They_never_look_there! 🙄

Thanks lads.

Dutch ... do they record if you take a bike over? How do they know not to
charge duties etc?

Before you go, ask Customs what are the duties on whole bikes, or
frames, or parts. I do believe whole bikes aren't dutiable, but parts
might be. Not that they asked about my groupset!

Marc said:

Thanks lads.

Dutch ... do they record if you take a bike over? How do they know not to
charge duties etc?

The box it's in will have Oz stickers all over it for a start.
If it looks kosher and youre a returning ozzy they arent likely to look.
even if they do, just place some of the componenets from the ol' donga i the box and explain you took your bike over to tour/ride/race and are now coming back. My father-in-law does it once a year to Switzerland for the last 6 years and has bought back 10 bikes this way for himself and mates

For post and air cargo - if the Customs Value is less than $1000, then
the duty rate for the import is "free", and it is classified as a
non-taxable import for GST purposes.

For passenger baggage - the duty free concession is also $1000. There
is a catch though - if you go over $1000, you are charged duty/GST on
the ENTIRE value of goods (not just the amount over $1000).

The safe way is to get your gear posted to you from overseas, in lots
less than $1000 in value.

Abby (talking about work again....!!)

Absent Husband said:

For post and air cargo - if the Customs Value is less than $1000, then
the duty rate for the import is "free", and it is classified as a
non-taxable import for GST purposes.

For passenger baggage - the duty free concession is also $1000. There
is a catch though - if you go over $1000, you are charged duty/GST on
the ENTIRE value of goods (not just the amount over $1000).

The safe way is to get your gear posted to you from overseas, in lots
less than $1000 in value.

Abby (talking about work again....!!)

yeah, but that's all based on the 'supposed to work that way'.
In reality, they check only a percentage of stuff and depends what mood they are in

In Feb i bought back a new suitcase with iPod, DSLR, Powerbook, PolarHRM, lots of other stuff, approx worth $8K. didnt pay a cent of duty. Either did any other local they were too busy being distracted by the loud yank with motogp tyres. sucka
🙄

flyingdutch said:

yeah, but that's all based on the 'supposed to work that way'.
In reality, they check only a percentage of stuff and depends what mood they are in

In Feb i bought back a new suitcase with iPod, DSLR, Powerbook, PolarHRM, lots of other stuff, approx worth $8K. didnt pay a cent of duty. Either did any other local they were too busy being distracted by the loud yank with motogp tyres. sucka
🙄

mmmmmm I wont put into print the value of what I came back with!
Fly via the US on the way back and arrange to pick up what ever you want from there. The mailorder places will send via overnight if the best price isn't from a bikeshop near a major airport. If you are questioned when you come through customs, just say that you bought it cheap on Ebay.

Cheers

Geoff