Duty/VAT question

[Nicklemeister]

Hi, I'm South African, my girlfriend Australian, living in Bali, Indonesia. We recently purchased a couple of locally-made MTBs. The brand is Polygon. They're surprisingly decent bikes. We're coming back to Cape Town soon for 3 months and, ideally, would like to bring the bikes with us on the plane to use while we're there. Can anyone enlighten me as to what, if any, duty/vat implications there are for doing this? The alternative is to buy while we are there but we would much prefer to bring our own bikes,

 

Thanks

 

Nick

[Wayne pudding Mol]

Pretty sure that if you bring it in as checked luggage, sports goods, you will have no hassle - If any questions are asked tell them they are second hand and worth less than R5000 - your girlfriend would have no hassles as a non resident and I seriously doubt you will encounter any hassles

[Grease_Monkey]

There will be no duty/vat implications. You are bringing sports equipment on holiday with you, not importing items into SA from overseas.

 

Just leave a bit of dirt on the bikes so if they are opened/inspected you can reasonably argue they have been in your possession for a while.

 

You are also here on holiday, so I'm assuming you have return flights booked? That should be enough to convince anyone it's a holiday - thus just stuff you are bringing on holiday with you.

[Falco]

If it's an obviously used item, and part of your checked luggage on a return ticket, you won't have any hassles with customs. I'd be willing to bet they won't even open the box.