Sending bike/bike stuff to relatives in France: how to avoid abusive customs practices and taxes

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LouisN
Posts: 3510
Joined: Mon Feb 19, 2007 3:44 am
Location: Canada

by LouisN

Hi all,
I sent some bike parts they needed for specific use to my daughters in France. Used parts that belong to them (they spend the whole season there).
What surprise I had when they received a letter from chronopost.fr mentioning that fraud was illegal, and they (I) had to provide bills for everything in the box and pay the EU taxes !
So they sent the box back to me. Now I may need to send other parts, maybe some bikes too.
How in hell can I proceed to clear French customs if I want to send some belonging to relatives without having to look like a criminal fraud ?
Thanks for your take on this.
Louis :)

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micky
Posts: 5765
Joined: Thu Sep 21, 2006 8:57 pm
Location: Vicenza
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by micky

Can't talk about France specifically, but sadly it's becoming more and more difficult to even get normal stuff shipped from abroad to EU.
I recently purchased an item here on WW, declared 30euro as it was used, and wait for it, the taxes were close to the amount declared.
Theorically you always would need a bill or anyway a CN23 where you declare an amount close to real value.

Berzin1
Posts: 237
Joined: Wed Jul 20, 2016 9:35 pm

by Berzin1

I'm having a similar issue with having to send a frame to Cyfac for a repair/modification.

I'm not willing to say the value is 45 euros or less because if it gets damaged I would like to claim damages. Also, it's a retail item but it's also a few years old, like more than ten.

Omiar
Posts: 385
Joined: Wed Dec 14, 2011 8:20 pm

by Omiar

Im not an expert but this sounds logical. These parts have been bought in Canada and taxes are paid in Canada.
You could bring (import) them to EU as your personal belongings but you can't send/ship them to another person.
Although personal belongings are also not limitless, also there is limit for cash.

You need a customs declaration some sort. Im not an exper but this should be called 'Temporary admission' .
This looks as a place to start
https://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/b ... fic-use_en
and looking at these
https://www.revenue.ie/en/importing-veh ... index.aspx
https://business.gov.nl/regulation/temp ... rt-export/
it sounds the right direction
This is for a limited period, essetianlly you have to re-export those items. So more paperwork.

I've done something similar at times where our country was not in EU. Went to a foreign race. First declare export for bikes so you can later import them without fees.
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