In alt.motorcycles sokol <none.DeleteThis@000.com> wrote:
> My sister?s fiance wants to get a 08 Suzuki gsxr600 cause it is
> cheaper here in America then it is in Poland. It costs 42000ish zl
> which equals $19998 which is ridiculous. He is not a American citizen
> but my sister is she goes to college here in Poland. They want to go
> to the states and get the bike they were looking at. My sister?s
> fiance says even though he wants to buy the bike in America and ship
> it to Poland he would still have to pay customs around 30% cost of the
> bike and vat which is 22% cost of the bike. Is this true even though
> so instance my sister buys the bike for him as a present would he
> still have to pay if he would register it in Poland and, If this is
> true. Anyone know how we can solve this solution or just get a
> bike,and same bike year for $19998 and band your head on a table and
> telling your self why you paid so much,
>
>
> Thank You.
Poland is part of the Schengen treaty since last year, so I presume
things work in a similar way as they do for other Schengen countries:
you can buy overseas and in some cases even claim local taxes back when
exporting. Once importing in the EU, you pay import duties (around 10% on cars,
I don't know what the tariff is on bikes) as well as your local VAT.
Don't bother fooling around with numbers on invoices: If you've bought
it with a 5% or 10% discount, that goes into the duty calculation, but
your friendly taxman will not believe the invoice that states the brand
new Gixxer was sold for 2000 USD. The logic is the same whether you buy
yourself or as a present - after all the cost of the present includes
duties and taxes.
There's one more thing, this not directly related to Schengen
procedures: in most european countries you'll have to produce a european
CoC to register the bike. Ask Suzuki if they want to get you one for an
american spec bike. They probably won't, as US spec and euro spec may be
quite different. You may be able to change some bits and pieces to
conform (lights, tires etc are often candidates) and you may get a
permission to keep other stuff american spec when registering.
With the dollar being where it is, importing can save a bunch of money
if one knows what one does. But it can go terribly wrong as well. I know
of cars that just couldn't get registered here and ended up being
shipped back.
Other route to go: you're part of the european market. Shop around
there. Look specifically at countries within Schengen that have high
taxes - you can reclaim those taxes and the product often is cheaper
than in low tax countries. And you'll get the CoC, which makes
registration a no-brainer.
cu
.\\arc
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