Buying online save huge money

[greatwhite]

As far as I'm aware there is no duty on all sports goods. The 30% duty mentioned earlier is to protect local clothing manufacturers. Therefore as long as the bill of goods states that the item is sports goods and NOT shoes' date=' you shouldn't have a problem with duties.

BTW - The SA Post Office charges 15% VAT. I have no idea what the other 1% is about and have just learnt to accept it.
[/quote']

 

If I recall correctly, there used to be 5% on cycle equipment a few years back, but I do know that a lot of duties have been dropped/reduced in recent years. i.e. duties are not the real issue here.

 

Mark - I've always been hit 14%, so your local post oriface is screwing you.

 

The reason for the disparity in price has more to to with different business models (and a bit of greed):

1) local importers have no where near the same volumes over so they have higher margins to compensate.

2) typically you are comparing a cycle shop price to a european/US e-tailer. If you use CWC as a basis for comparison (who are, in my opinion, the 1st guys in SA to have an appropriate internet based pricing stratagy) you see a much smaller gap.

3) like the importer, the retailers don't have the same volumes, so larger margins are required

4) if CWC had meaningful competition like the european/US e-tailers do, you would see another drop in price.

 

When all is said and done, you'll never get pricing parity though - increased shipping costs to SA and lower volume prohibit this. BUT, when you factor in individual shipping for items bought in the US/Europe (which is quite costly) you should be able to come out about square on a lot of items.

 

As for the greed I mentioned - if you pay attention to local prices vs Euro/US prices, you will see trends where certain product lines are quite a lot more here - you can identify which guys local importers are greedy

 

[E1A104]

"We are Family, I've got all my Sisters with me" 

[Perot]

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[widget]

I spend virtually  all day dealing in Imports and distribution (my own, and not cycles), so I can assure you the 30% duty on FOOTWEAR (shoes) is standard and definately STILL stands.

 

Actually let me re-classify - Customs states that "anything you wear on your foot is "FOOTWEAR" it dosnt matter what it is, flip flops, cycling shoes, beach walkers, gum boots, running shoes, dive boots - its ALL footwear, and as far as I can see all tariff charges on footwear have a 30% duty or a R5.00 per item TAX - whichever is the greater applies.

 

So if the 30% duty value per item is less than R5.00 - THE R5.00 tax will apply.

 

Sometimes the P.O dos not tarriff the items correctly, especially if the invoice is in a foreign language, the item is just stated as say "Jewelers tool" (which could mean anything) in which case they just charge the VAT and let it through.

 

If that happens, its not your fault and you score a bit of money.

 

Sometimes the same happens with clearing agents, or the clearing agent is just lazy and clears duty free because he cant be bothered to check the line - HOWEVER, if the order comes through a shipper, is cleared by the shipping agent and is then stopped and inspected by SARS (and believe me it happens OFTEN)and is found to be incorrectly tariffed, both you and the shipper stand to be fined.

 

So if you got away with it this time and it was imported through a shipper, well it was a lucky break and you saved some money, but dont expect it to happen every time.

 

Importers dont have this luxury, as they are registered with customs and have a record on file of lines they import, so every invoice is just captured by the tarriff clerk and the manufacturers code will be matched with the customs code on file and "bang" duty is charged - so its impossible to have a batch of shoes come through customs without duty charged.

 

 

[madmarc]

I spend virtually  all day dealing in Imports and distribution (my own' date=' and not cycles), so I can assure you the 30% duty on FOOTWEAR (shoes) is standard and definately STILL stands.

 

Actually let me re-classify - Customs states that "anything you wear on your foot is "FOOTWEAR" it dosnt matter what it is, flip flops, cycling shoes, beach walkers, gum boots, running shoes, dive boots - its ALL footwear, and as far as I can see all tariff charges on footwear have a 30% duty or a R5.00 per item TAX - whichever is the greater applies.

 

So if the 30% duty value per item is less than R5.00 - THE R5.00 tax will apply.

 

Sometimes the P.O dos not tarriff the items correctly, especially if the invoice is in a foreign language, the item is just stated as say "Jewelers tool" (which could mean anything) in which case they just charge the VAT and let it through.

 

If that happens, its not your fault and you score a bit of money.

 

Sometimes the same happens with clearing agents, or the clearing agent is just lazy and clears duty free because he cant be bothered to check the line - HOWEVER, if the order comes through a shipper, is cleared by the shipping agent and is then stopped and inspected by SARS (and believe me it happens OFTEN)and is found to be incorrectly tariffed, both you and the shipper stand to be fined.

 

So if you got away with it this time and it was imported through a shipper, well it was a lucky break and you saved some money, but dont expect it to happen every time.

 

Importers dont have this luxury, as they are registered with customs and have a record on file of lines they import, so every invoice is just captured by the tarriff clerk and the manufacturers code will be matched with the customs code on file and "bang" duty is charged - so its impossible to have a batch of shoes come through customs without duty charged.

 

 

[/quote']

 

Widget you are correct in what you are saying with 2 exceptions. Spiked Athletic Shoes carry 15% under 64.041110 & Ballet shoes with blocked toes carry 0% under 64.041912.

So not all footwear carry 30%, but be that as it may, and assuming that everyone bringing in cycle shoes will want to do it legally, they will have to pay the 30%. But I have also heard that if you bring in goods not for resale and for your own use, the duty is waived (I am under correction here) I got lucky because on checking the tarrif for my shoes it calls for 30%.

My original point on this issue under "CWC Grey imports" was that if the importers or agents wanted to they could drop the price of cycle shoes if they got together and made application to Customs & excise to have a tariff made specifically for cycle shoes with a reduced or even no duty, as they have done with the spiked shoes and ballet shoes above. There is no local manufacturer which requires protection in this product. I know this is a difficult application, but if they persued it aggressivly and long enough, they would get it right.

The subject came up as a result of someone saying importers were simply importing making huge markups on top of huge duty's and the cyclist was paying through the nose, and the LBS and importers were blaming everyone else but themselves. Shipping costs, duties, VAT etc etc.

if the importers/agents took up this fight bt applying for tariff reduction or waiver and won (even if it took 12 - 18 months) they could cut prices by at least 20 - 25% overnight - now that would giving back to the industry that supports them ie. the cyclist. if this were the case, i would most certainly been more apt to buy locally even if the local prices were 10 - 15% more expensive.

But they have a blatant lazy dumbass attitude of simply dictating, "THATS THE PRICE TAKE IT OR LEAVE IT" because they know that cyclist are passionate about the sport and they will buy it even if they need to get a 2nd job to pay for it.

This arcaic way of doing business is now coming to an end as a result of the global market that now everyone has access to ie. online shopping anywhere in the world. And the locals need to start reinventing they way they do business with their customers, or they gonna find themselves out of business.

 

 

[porky]

Hmm, dont know much about tariffs on shoes or getting it changed, but its not always that easy.

 

It also depends on the local market, lost job opportunities and the strength and volume of sales locally which would be compromised if any Tom Dick or Harry started selling against the major importers who are legit, pay their taxes and employ a number of staff.

 

I would say companies like Nike, Reebok and the big importers of brands would want to keep duties in place as this stops or slows down the importation of parallel imports of their products which would kill their market in an instant if a price war due to undercutting prices were to develop.

As it stands a parallell importer would not only require substantial funds to clear a few containers of shoes and pay over the duty plus vat up front, but because of duty costs they would probably be uncompetitive in the wholesale mass market (the big super stores who are the primary mover of the shoes) and this is probably one of the main reasons this sort of scenario has not developed.

 

Unfortunately cycling is so small in terms of volume and sales I doubt any application would be successfull against the big importers of footwear who would certainly oppose the lifting of duties.

 

porky2008-01-09 11:01:16