Cost of importing a motorbike inc paperwork

[dthomp123]

Hi there,

 

Does anyone know if it is worth shipping a motorbike (approx value £1400) over from the UK if we emigrate or is it too much hassle and expense and easier to sell the bike in the UK and buy again in Aus ? I guess we would be getting a container anyway so don't know if we can put the motorbike in along with the rest of our stuff (would obviously expect to have to notify Aus customs etc)

 

Many thanks if anyone knows !

 

Dominic Thompson

[furkew]

Hi there,

 

Does anyone know if it is worth shipping a motorbike (approx value £1400) over from the UK if we emigrate or is it too much hassle and expense and easier to sell the bike in the UK and buy again in Aus ? I guess we would be getting a container anyway so don't know if we can put the motorbike in along with the rest of our stuff (would obviously expect to have to notify Aus customs etc)

 

Many thanks if anyone knows !

 

Dominic Thompson

 

In general, bringing a car or bike often isn't worth the hassle & cost in the end.

 

Expensive, rare or luxury cars & bikes are normally worth looking into, and obviously something of sentimental value.

 

There was a thread recently that outlines the cost quite well. I'll try to dig it up, and post the link.

 

what bike is it?

[PARBUTTN]

Hi,

 

We are currently in process of shipping car and bike in a 40ft container along with our personal belongings.On doing our homework hubby has a luxury car and would cost us another 30K on top of the sale of it in uk to replace it in oz. The motorbike again is a Ltd edition and is irreplacable. The import permit costs 50$ and takes roughly a month to come.

If you are having a container, then it is probably worth taking the bike as AQIS fees and port charges would have to be paid anyway , also you do not pay tax on motorbikes like you do a car. It will cost you a bit to re register it and pass it through compliance though.

Maybe do some homework like we have and work out how much it is going to cost, but if the bike is sentimental or irreplacable then its out of the equation anyway.

[mike 6r4]

On doing our homework hubby has a luxury car and would cost us another 30K on top of the sale of it in uk to replace it in oz.

 

Don't think that if the car is selling for $80k in OZ that yours would be worth $80k. It'll be a grey import therefore less valuable as the specification is different and it'll also be more expensive to insure because of possible extra expense of crash damage repairs.

 

If you are having a container, then it is probably worth taking the bike as AQIS fees and port charges would have to be paid anyway , also you do not pay tax on motorbikes like you do a car.

 

If you take a car then a 40 footer with the car will cost $627 for AQIS inspection. We had 2 quads in with ours and these cost and extra $330 to have inspected. Cleaning charges are extra. Not sure about not paying tax on motorbikes though??? You get charged 5% duty then 10% GST on top too. Also if you bought the bike say 4 years ago for £12k you get charged the duties on that value. They convert it to dollars then charge the duties on that. There is no allowance for depreciation.

[PARBUTTN]

Hi, thanks for your advice, however, as I said we have done our homework,and are aware that an import is only worth about 65% of Australian value. In this case with the current terrible exchange rate for us we would be able to sell the car after 12mths, for about 20K more than UK. So to us it is worth shipping our car, which we have had from new with only 20K on the clock. Each make and model depends so you must do research.

 

We have already paid our container and AQIS fees which were 500$ with Crown as they have an agreed contract, so only expecting to pay, cleaning,customs,tax and compliance fees the other end.

 

Motorcycles are not subject to duty like cars, but are subject to customs GST. There is also a depreciation allowance for vehicles prior to 1998.