Personal import from USA??

[barefoot]

I have a Harley Davidson that I keep at my daughter's in Florida for when I am over there. I have had the bike 6 months from new and was considering importing it back here to the UK, does anyone know what it would cost to have the bike shipped over and what taxes I would have to pay?

Thanks

Kev

[aeropilot]

If you are named on the bikes title in the USA as the owner, and have had insurance over there in your name on the bike, and have had it for more than 6 months you should be able to avoid the 17.5% VAT and 10% duty when importing to here, as long as you keep it for 12 months after importing it.

Not sure on shipping for a bike, I'd say best bet would be to contact one of the established US car importers and see if you can squeeze it into one of their containers that comes over, this may reduce the costs somewhat against a purpose shipping charge..??

The big potential issue is what model Harley is it..?

If it's a Dyna or Softail model and is only 6 months old, you may have a problem getting it registered over here as it will be a Federal spec bike, not a Euro spec one, so could involve a bit of expenditure with your UK Harley dealer or Harley specialist getting things changed etc to enable you to get it UK registered...??

[barefoot]

It is a 105 Anniversary 1200 Sporster, it is in my name and I am insured, would that model entail mods to become road legal in the UK?

Kev

[aeropilot]

barefoot said:

It is a 105 Anniversary 1200 Sportster, it is in my name and I am insured, would that model entail mods to become road legal in the UK?

You should be OK with a Sporty, as it's only the Big Twin 96ci engines in the Dyna, Softail and Tourer models that have the electronic flappy thing in the exhaust and different ECU etc.
You still might have to do a few mods to lights, indicators perhaps, but that shouldn't be too big a deal if that's the case.
Would be worth posting over in the Yank Motors section as there are a number of guys that post there that are involved with importing Yank cars on a regular basis, so you might be able to do a deal with getting it shipped in a container that's already coming over.