Buying a Mid Drive motor from China to UK. Tax and carrier costs

[Jaybee258]

Hi Guys. Has anybody from the UK recently bought a motor from China? During COVID, I bought a motor and paid the seller for the tax, collected automatically via PayPal I think. Things have changed. On a motor of say £300, I would expect to pay tax of just over £100. How is this collected and paid, and the carrier will want a nice fee for sorting out your customs clearance. This fee used to be enormous I believe.

Has anybody recently been through this and how much was the final import costs in the UK? I found some old threads on this but nothing up to date.

Many thanks

 

[999zip999]

SXFYHXY 28" Electric Bicycle Rear Wheel Conversion Kit 48V 1000W EBike Hub Motor Set, E-Bike Rear Motor Conversion Kit for Battery E-Bike SXFYHXY 28" Electric Bicycle Rear Wheel Conversion Kit 48V 1000W EBike Hub Motor Set, E-Bike Rear Motor Conversion Kit for Battery E-Bike : Amazon.co.uk: Sports & Outdoors
They sell wheels in the UK you know complete kits also
Support some guy in the UK.

 

[Jaybee258]

I would love to buy from the UK. I want a mid drive torque sensor TSDZ2, 100mm version. I can only find ebird on AliExpress or from USA. If you know a UK shop with this exact motor, I would be delighted.

 

[Jaybee258]

I contacted ebird and they said I pay the tax and costs at delivery not by the seller

 

[Adrian_]

I bought a QS 273 from China about a month ago, I knew I was responsible for tax during sale which I was ok with. The motor was £402 plus £239 for FedEx 10 day delivery. The FedEx handled the tax side and they texted me a link where I can pay the tax right when it was ready for delivery. The total was £73 which included FedEx service fee for them to handle the tax side which was £2.50 I think, so the import duty was about £70 on a £400 motor.

I believe you only have to pay tax on items with declared value of more than £136. There were couple of times where I bought controllers and other things valued at £300 but I told the seller to declare the value at 150 USD which is £120 which they did and I didn't have to pay tax. Most AliExpress sellers are happy to do that.

 

[Jaybee258]

I bought a QS 273 from China about a month ago, I knew I was responsible for tax during sale which I was ok with. The motor was £402 plus £239 for FedEx 10 day delivery. The FedEx handled the tax side and they texted me a link where I can pay the tax right when it was ready for delivery. The total was £73 which included FedEx service fee for them to handle the tax side which was £2.50 I think, so the import duty was about £70 on a £400 motor.

I believe you only have to pay tax on items with declared value of more than £136. There were couple of times where I bought controllers and other things valued at £300 but I told the seller to declare the value at 150 USD which is £120 which they did and I didn't have to pay tax. Most AliExpress sellers are happy to do that.

Thank you Adrian. Very helpful