Hi all,

I read the cycling sticky and from what I can understand is that, officially you pay Swiss sales tax of 7.6% on a bike that is < 6 months old.

I am going to be arriving via plane and am taking the bike with me (in a box). Is it likely I will have to pay or will i most likely be able to get through without problems?

All those links appear to refer to motorcycles...I am importing a bicycle.

It is going to be in a box with me and I am taking on the plane. Is it likely that could be stopped walking through customs?

Ah ha.. no wonder I couldn't find this sticky you were talking about..!

The sticky comment was in reference to one in the sports/fitness sector, where this thread was moved from

I bought a new one in Spain before leaving and crossed the border with it inside my car. I wasn't stopped, so I didn't pay a rappen for it

Sorry for bringing this up again but I have the same point (albeit with a frame rather than a whole bike) and I couldn't find an answer in any of the posts on customs (which postly deal with items shipped in).

The frame is being built in the UK so I may have some flexibility to have the costs broken down between different parts and the cost of labour so am trying to see if this would help me.

In addition if I leave Switzerland again could I reclaim the duties? Or at least avoid having to pay more to the new country...

Last thing I want is to pay customs duty to get it over and then six months later pay customs duty to take it back again...

They won't stop you (and if they do they won't care about the bike) unless the bike looks obviously un-ridden or you've just stopped the other side of the border to get a stamp saying you want to reclaim the tax in the country you bought it from.

So a shiny bike with no wheels, handlebars, or saddle, and packed up nicely in a box...

Thinking airport customs rather than cycling it in...

If it helps,

I bought my bike new in Australia,

Had it repacked into an 'old' busted up box

Took it with me on the plane.


No one asked questions.

I can add one more experience of buying a new bike outside the country, then immediately flying over to Switzerland with it unridden in a standard cardboard bike box. I walked straight through customs with no questions asked (this was August 2009 at Geneva airport).

So, you should be OK, but there are no guarantees.

In contrast, I went to the Eurobike exhibition a few weeks ago, which is in Germany on the other side of Lake Constance. At the end of the last day of the exhibition, a few manufacturers sell off their display bikes and frames. Together with many other people, we went back to Switzerland on the ferry. When we got off the ferry and walked through customs, a guy with an obviously brand new electric bike and someone else carrying a pretty carbon road frame were being pulled to the side by the customs officials.

The easist way to find out, cal the custom office. I think you should not pay custom but you must declare the bicicle.

Schweizerische Zollverwaltung
Flughafen
Postfach
8058 Zürich
Tel.043 816 20 51 *Fax043 816 20 99 *

Depends what the bike cost; you can bring in something (add up all your somethings) worth up to 300CHF with no duty

By the way, The note from the sticky is correct. 6 months was correct for me over a year ago as well.

If you bring the bike over in a totally new box, OBVIOUSLY it's new.

In anything else (i.e. an old taped up box, etc.) it's not going to look new, and it's not likely that they will inconvenience you to open up an old box for a dubious tax charge.

The only thing I would keep in mind is when the model of your bike is available.

How the hell are they going to prove when you bought the bike?
If it's a brand spanker, then you may have some issues when you are caught, but if the release date of the bike is older than 6 months, and you are buying a new bike at the end of that season, and it's packed in an old box.
Odds are you will be in the clear.

just be ready for the question "How old is the bike?"

Thanks, got in touch with the customs office and should be due to pay 7.6% VAT but as it's going abroad I should ensure i pay VAT free in the UK, so hopefully they can do that with a domestic shipping. That'll actually knock 12.4% off the price and I could go further and bash the box up a bit to try and avoid the 7.6% too but suspect that would be puching it too much. In any case I don't know if there are procedures for notifying the revenue when an item is purchased VAT free (otherwise everyone in the UK would do it right??)


Incidently, where did you get the CHF 300 figure from as I couldn't find it...?

We arrived here by plane and my husband took his pretty good and quite new road bike in a box (in special bicycle suitcase) and was no any problem at the custom, no one paid any attention to the box. Don't worry!

One note that may help a couple ways--
Cardboard boxes aren't the sturdiest and you may be unlucky enough to have one of the baggage people place it on the bottom of the pile...

I go to the hardware store and buy a couple foam pipe insulation tubes-the 3 inch or so by 5 or 6 feet long variety. about $5 and you'll always have them for travel. split one down the middle, cut them to size, and wrap them around each of your frame tubes to protect anything from rubbing your new frame (for scratches but then also for carbon fiber protection, if you've got a new fancy frame). that way, your new bike is under wrap and it's protected from your wheels, loose pedals, other unforeseen stuff rattling around. no one from customs will even bother trying to unwrap the frame. you can do this in under 5 minutes. honestly. zip tie or tape around the foam to keep it secure. take any tags, reflectors, or new plastic that comes with the bike off to avoid the new bike look.

best shipping secret in the trade...

also, of course customs agents will be pulling people aside during interbike. it's the one time of the year when everyone is bringing new stuff back and forth and they can't simply ignore it. rarely would this happen to anyone on a weekday, just saying it's their road bike they're shipping.

I don't believe you can get out of paying the VAT unless you have the company you buy it from ship it to Switzerland (in which case, the shipping company will handle the Swiss sales tax and you will pay that upon delivery).

It's certainly true that the customs office will tell you that you SHOULD pay Swiss sales tax if something is imported when less than 6 months old - which is what was stated before, and that is the law. However, it does not seem fair to do so if you've already paid sales tax on it in another country, which is why a lot of people hope to avoid this charge.

As for how new the bike box is - who uses a cardboard bike box more than once? Whenever I fly with my bike, I just go to the local bike store and get a box that a bike was just delivered to them in and use that. I've sometimes then unpacked the box at the airport on the other end and the box hasn't even left the airport. Therefore, regardless of the age of the bike, the boxes I use are always virtually new (they tend not to survive more than a couple of trips anyway). There are lots of guides online as to how to pack your bike in a box with a decent amount of protection, or you can pay a local bike store to do it for you. By the way, when you pick up the bike box from the store then also ask for any leftover packing materials that they have - their garbage and recycling is likely to be half full of it.