What are the holes in my following plan to buy a Canyon in Europe?
I have a friend in UK/Germany.
I need to travel to either UK or Germany very soon.
I will ship the bike from Canyon to my friend’s address under my name. (Is it necessary to ship under my name? to get the VAT refund?)
I will get the paper work and file it to get the VAT refund.
After I pick it up and travel back to US, I don’t have to pay any import duties in the US, right? Isn’t it same as traveling with my own bike where you don’t pay any import duties.
The last part is wrong. You are supposed to report what you obtained out of the country and pay appropriate tax. (https://help.cbp.gov/app/answers/detail/a_id/454/~/duty-free-exemption,-gifts)
It’s different from bringing a bike you originally bought in the US to there and back. In that case nothing is obtained abroad.
How strict are they? I have no idea.
i thought about doing that this year but the wait on the bike was too long–i was gone from UK before it’d arrive.
take an empty case with you, bring back a bike. even easier with a henhouse bag and a frame.
you could wait to the spring when the start shipping to the US.
I once did the reverse of this about 22 years ago, before i moved to the US. Bought a bike in the US during a long vacation and took it back to the UK.
Got pulled in at LHR Customs and ended up paying (IIRC) 17% VAT, 10% duty and I forget how much as an additional penalty for non-declaration. I still saved money on the purchase overall, but not much, and that was only because I had two receipts, one for my 50% deposit and one for the 50% final payment - they only looked at one and based everything on half the bike’s cost.
in europe you can not get a VAT refund without the appropriate sale tax refund form. You can also not get a VAT refund form in europe unless you purchase in person - you can not be sent one from a mail order company
I’ve bought 4 bikes from canyon and live outside the EU, but have a home there
They have never offered me the VAT refund form
The issue with this - unless it has changed - is that IF you purchase it from Canyon and take it to the US and they query it, you will be hit with import duties and customs charges at port of entry - potentially
have canyon told you they would include a VAT refund form?
By the letter of the law, you are liable for import duties. Of course, in practice, the chance of being held liable for that is hard to discern. I can imagine CBP officers taking a rather dim view if you get sent to secondary and you have failed to declare.
Remember that it’s their discretion for collecting duties, and if the duties they stand to collect aren’t worth the paperwork, they won’t bother. Unfortunately, a bike is the opposite of that…lots of $ for practically no work.
If you’ve got Global Entry or any other trusted traveler program, I ABSOLUTELY WOULD NOT take the risk of skirting the rules as the consequences go beyond the mere duties.
If I put my up-to-no-goodnik hat on, I’d suggest that the more it looks like a shiny new thing that you just bought overseas, the more likely it is you’ll get charged. Should you go to the trouble to build it into a complete bike and make it look like it’s been on a trip or two, the chance of getting called out will likely plummet.
Coming back into SEA from LHR there were several athletes who had bikes (do not know what they were racing or doing, but it was around the time of Ironman UK)… While I was going through the GE customs exit, every one of them was pulled for secondary inspection and I heard the customs guys asking the first guy for his 4457 (registration of goods before leaving the country). Don’t know if they got hit for duties or not as I was through before they got cleared.
I wouldn’t try to skirt US customs. If you do and they catch you, kiss getting GE or PreCheck (they share a database) and as well the financial penalty is equal to the value of the item and they will seize the item until you pay such penalty (19 U.S. Code § 1497). Hauling a bike is going to be really obvious to them.
Just my $0.02.
EDIT: In a scan of HTS database, looks like bike rates from normalized trade relations countries are 11% currently. I am not a customs duty importer, so that’s just my reading of the database. You can call CBP if you really want to know.
For some reason, German companies are particularly loathe to remove EU VAT for shipments outside the EU.
I had this from Bike24. They were sending the order directly to me outside of the EU so at no point would I be crossing an EU border with the goods. Apparently sending them to my address outside the EU, paid for by a card registered to the same address outside the EU, wasn’t enough.
I know a few Canyon owners. I’ll ask them if they got VAT relief.
We thank you for your request at Bike24.
In order to refund VAT we need you to send us the bill stamped by the customs office by post. The stamp needs to be from a border point inside the European Union (and not, for example, stamped by Swiss customs) and we need the original documents. We do not accept scanned documents sent by e-mail.
Please note that the export of items has to be done within 3 months of the sale, your place of residence must be outside of the European Union and the items have been only been bought for private use.
Please also note that a VAT refund can only be transferred to a bank account inside the European Union or to the credit card that was used for payment.
If the original payment was not done by credit card please send us IBAN and BIC of your European bank account.
If you want to buy a Canyon plan ahead of time. If you order now hope and pray to have your bike home for christmas…2017.
Great bikes no question, but customer service…cough
thats a slightly different issue. So canyon will ship a bike to dubai or qatar (though qatar is not on their list they will do it)
in those instances they will remove VAT but the shipping fee with fed-ex amazingly is the same as the VAT - so it is a wash
I’ve spent a lot of money over the last 6 years in europe and had VAT refunds BUT anyone that is signed up to the electronic system only refunds 12 of the 20%, the other 8 is an “admin” charge
mail order companies within the EU can not ship to an address inside the EU and include a VAT refund form for goods to be subsequently taken out
I would bet that I could show up in their showroom and they might have a form - but you’d need to check in advance, but then you do not want to be coming back through customs with a cardboard box with Canyon plastered all over it…
the Bike24 thing is weird. I’ve bought from Wiggle and CR for 6 years here and they show VAT removed and free shipping but they do something weird with their prices because if I put VPN on for UK and ship to Qatar v’s non VPN from Qatar the prices are not the same - they’re still cheaper than here though
I live in Brazil and bought a Canyon MTB last year and it was delivered to my hotel in Portugal.
When leaving the EU, the VAT refund form was stamped.
After coming back to Brazil I sent back to Canyon the form and VAT (19%) was refunded.
So in theory, it’s fairly straightforward the German way. You get the Customs/VAT Form signed at your EU port of departure (LHR?), and claim back from Canyon once you arrive home in the US. How you play it at the US Border is up to you.
Now you just have to actually get hold of a Canyon
Yes, given that I have Global Entry, it is definitely not worth it to screw with US customs. From the US customs rules, it looks like the first $800 is exempt. The next $1000 is at 3% and after that the rate seems to be 10%. I chatted with Canyon and they say they will send the paper work for VAT refund. So if I get a VAT refund, then paying the up to 10% for US customs doesn’t seem to be a big deal. I would have paid sales tax of around 8% if I bought a bike locally.
The current shipping window seem to roughly a month before with my travel dates. Seems like there is some buffer for any shipping screw ups. I will likely take the plunge.
I too am looking at purchasing a Canyon and I live in Ohio. I have communicated with Canyon representatives and they are telling me that Canyon will be available in US and Canada in 2017. Wait and see I guess.
I would double check that and get a ruling from CBP before you go. (Good idea to have in hand anyway at the airport so that the CBP officers apply the correct duty)
The HST says bicycles are 11% duty.
I live in Brazil and bought a Canyon MTB last year and it was delivered to my hotel in Portugal.
When leaving the EU, the VAT refund form was stamped.
After coming back to Brazil I sent back to Canyon the form and VAT (19%) was refunded.
I live in the US and took a trip to Germany a year and a half ago. This is exactly how it works. There’s a form Canyon will give you, you must have it stamped at the airport in Germany before leaving. You’ll also need to have it stamped upon your arrival to the US, which means you have to declare what you’ve got. You’ll then need to send the twice-stamped form back to Canyon via mail, and they’ll issue the refund to your credit card. I would keep a scan of the form or send it FedEx to ensure they receive it.
I wasn’t charged import duty in the US even though they had the value of the item in the receipt/form that needed to be stamped. My guess is that because it was a frameset and not a complete bicycle. I didn’t ask, didn’t care…
Don’t count on being able to pick up your bike from Canyon HQ even if they have it in stock. They need to know you’re coming, and typically need to have 5 days notice. Lastly, they didn’t want to take my US credit card.
