Import Duties querie

[dunndog]

Hey all,
I have a friend coming from the US, and for various reasons he's going to send his bike over ahead of time rather than bring it with him. He works in an outdoor adventure store over there, so he'll be packing his frame into a bike box and splitting the rest up in another as it's cheaper postage. I can only assume this stuff isn't subject to import duties etc, although it isn't new it's worth many times over the 1k limit on imports. In order to ensure he/we don't get tangled up with any wrongdoing, or in order to make sure there are no issues, what could he do to make it clear to customs that it's not a new bike being imported? What's the difference between what they would view as something being subject to duties etc vs something that's just essentially a postage item? He will most likely be posting from his store address in the states to my home address in Vic.
Cheers in advance!

 

[Nambra]

Pretty sure MrLinderman might be able to help you here - I recall him posting before about having worked in freight/forwarding/importing or some related occupation in the past.

I would have thought that if each parcel arriving has a duty value of less than $1000 then there should be no duty or GST, although I could be mistaken. I bought a pair of noise cancelling headphones from the US a few years ago (and then left them on a plane) and the guy who sent them to me put 'return of repaired item' with a value of $0 on the declaration - probably not legit, but it worked nonetheless!

Edit: is this a real friend? :spy:

 

[dunndog]

Haha! Yes, this is a real friend. He manufactures snowboards and skis, and apparently will be bringing a swag of them with him and his partner , the bike was an afterthought. This is why I'm feeling out this stuff, if it's going to cost him an extra $500 just to clear it it's not worth sending over.
So do those costs apply to everything, even if it's not new?

 

[JTmofo]

If he's legitimately bringing his gear over for personal use, with the intention of using them and returning with them, he should have no issues sending them as "Unaccompanied Personal Effects" once they meet the requirements in this

https://www.border.gov.au/Importing...rsonalbelongingstoaustraliafinal2015feb17.pdf

 

[Calvin27]

https://www.border.gov.au/Importing...rsonalbelongingstoaustraliafinal2015feb17.pdf

No duties for personal use. Just make sure it doesn't look too swanking new I guess. A brand new bike box might not be the best idea. Perhaps get a box with mismatching brands? I'd also be sending the whole bike not just the frame. Looks like a sale if it's jsut the frame. Fill in the declarations and away you go.

 

[dunndog]

Might just be easier to tell him to carry his bike and send boards/skis, as they are for promotional purposes anyway.. Cheers boys I'll look into that option for him.

 

[gcouyant]

We sometimes travel with high value sporting and personal items and most first world countries document the items in your immigration file. As long as you leave the country with those items then there's no problem. Some less developed countries however demand some form of "tax" or compensation.