Import Duties on Cycling Clothing

[grumpy]

I would like to find out what the experience is wrt importing cycling clothing from Chain Reaction Cycles.

I have imported a number of cycling gear from them, for the gear I had to pay a clearance fee and 14% VAT.

 

I would like to order some shorts and shirts but is now worried about the import duties, I had to pay a 40% surcharge this morning on clothing that my wife imported, the customs then went and put a 14% VAT on the order amount plus the surcharge.

 

If one did that to Assos shorts then it would cost more that what it s costing locally.

 

Has anybody go experience in this regard?

[jmaccelari]

Yep - I'm afraid that's my experience as well. I ordered some Assos

stuff that was taxed to way above what a local price would have

been. The problem was that I couldn't get it locally...

 

[ngala24]

Its correct

 

Clothing was 40% and going to 45% as ive already posted here

https://www.bikehub.co.za/forum_posts.asp?TID=49241

 

Example of calculation for you

 

Customs duty is eg R1000 x 40% = R400

Customs vat is then

R1000 x 10% = R1100 = R400 = R1500 x 14% = R210.00

 

Payable would be

R400 Duty

R210 Vat

 

 

 

 

 

[bontie]

Bike parts carry no duty, correct?

If one would purchase a frame , would that carry any duties?

 

It does seem like one could save a couple of Ronds if you import a frame?

 

 

[zeepee]

The government is trying to stop the import of cheap Chinese clothes thats busy ruining our own textile industry.

Unfortunately you now get hammered if you buy specialised clothes form overseas.

 

Stuff thats not manufactured locally wont have such a huge import duty, parts, frames, electronic gear ect...

[ngala24]

Frames are duty Free

 

 

[porky]

Yes, duties increased to 45% last monday I think it was.

 

Importing clothing (inc.shoes) will soon be a major headache, herewith an excerpt from a bulliten I recieved from our forwarder. -

 

.........SARS is also operating on the Nedlag system, giving them an indication of a market related price per clothing item.  SARS is flagging every clothing tariff heading and demands to see documentation on each shipment.  Every entry reflecting a discount is also queried................................

 

If you dont feel like a "head banging" session with customs, my suggestion would be to not bother with importing clothing / shoes, anything with a "wearing apparel" heading.  <?: prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

porky2009-10-19 09:12:20

[Hawk]

Frames are duty Free

 

Frames are duty FREE!!! I like this one

[linnega]

Bike parts and frames are duty free unless a full bike is imported.  There is no inefficient, unproductive industry to protect as is the case with textiles.

 

Porky is correct, the state and SARS are targeting the retail trade in general, but in particular by weeding out unscrupulous importers.  Should benefit all in the industry in the long run, but will cost the consumer in passed on admin costs in the short term.

 

[grumpy]

I don't think frames and equipment is duty free, have imported a GPS, bike light recently and had to pay a clearance fee and 14% VAT on it.

It was worth it, still saved a couple of grand on the whole lot,

 

At least it's cheaper than the clothing.

[ngala24]

 

I don't think frames and equipment is duty free' date=' have imported a GPS, bike light recently and had to pay a clearance fee and 14% VAT on it.

It was worth it, still saved a couple of grand on the whole lot,

 

At least it's cheaper than the clothing.

[/quote']

 

Every item has vat applicable to it, when we say free we mean Duty an additional rate you pay before your vat.

 

And if your item pays duty you pay vat on the duty amount aswell

 

 

[porky]

I don't think frames and equipment is duty free' date=' have imported a GPS, bike light recently and had to pay a clearance fee and 14% VAT on it.

It was worth it, still saved a couple of grand on the whole lot,

 

At least it's cheaper than the clothing.

[/quote']

 

A clearance fee is differant to a duty grumpy (by the way nice name - I feel like that today!) - clearance fees are the costs the forwarder charges to do the paper work. Duty is a tax on an item, usually designed to level the playing fields and protect local production.

 

A word of warning to all the guys out there who think its "okay" to cheat on documentation, (ie) under invoiceing, reflect a massive discount that in effect was not applied, incorrect representation on the invoice, (ie) say it was a present when it was not or call a frame "spares" etc, SARS is wide awake and targeting importers (like Linnega says) - theres nothing you can think of that SARS hasnt seen before, you may get away with it once, even twice, but like the guy jumping from the 50th floor, he is fine on the way down, but the inevitable result of the jump is severe, - you will get caught, eventually, and the inevitable result of this "fraud" is severe.

 

Keep your nose clean and pay the relevant taxes, and duty, its probably still cheaper and you can sleep easy at night.!

 

 

     

porky2009-10-20 00:08:20

[colinw]

I must have go lucky as purchased a top from CRC recently and they marked the parcel as bike parts and paid no duty just vat.

[CJVDM]

Guys, would a camelbak be considered as clothing or bike parts?

[ngala24]

Camel would be considered back pack and pay 30%

[Spat]

Hi

 

I bought some Nalini Bibs and a Jersey from Trikotexpress its currently cost me way less than buying it locally, will update once I go through the clearance exercise based on numbers above I think it will still come out cheaper than buying locally.

 

Sad but the Bianchi items are crazily priced locally.