Well it's finally on its way to me...
The seller in Switzerland (Adrian) has been great to helping me sort this and had to do quite a bit of extra work for his sale. Pedda as the middle man was great as well. Also the UK based transport company (Chas Mortimer) were very helpful and always let me know the steps required.
Its been an interesting purchase as initially I thought Switzerland though not in the EU fully were part of the Free Trade Zone so things could just move about as they do in the full EU countries. Not so. After I had paid the money over I found out that the bike would be liable to Import Duty and VAT. However I had noted in the past, vehicles over 30 years old should be classed as of historic value so have 0% Import Duty and a reduced 5% VAT (on sale and transport cost total). I emailed HMRC to confirm and they came back positive and the Commodity Code you need to use is 970500 00 90. This is so long as the vehicle is not overly modified and not used for the purpose it was manufactured for (everyday use in this case).
As the bike was leaving Switzerland it needed customers clearance and also importantly a Transit Form to Calais. Without the T-Form the Import Duty / VAT would be payable at the first EU country it entered and make life more difficult / more expensive probably. Adrian had to get the customs clearance sorted but in the end it was too difficult so he used a Swiss based "fixer" ( Müller Gysin in Basel) who liaised with Chas Mortimer to get the electronic paperwork sorted. When the bike arrived in the UK Chas Mortimer had to pay the VAT on the bike (and probably others bikes) when they arrived (with ChannelPorts in Folkstone in this instance) and then I paid him (this is important, see below for NOVA).
***Additional 29/01/18 Once the bike arrived with me I needed to get the NOVA sorted. I thought this was the same online process as the TZR I got from Holland - get yourself a Government Gateway account, sign in fill in the questions and away you go.
Not so! It turns out the online NOVA system is only for vehicles brought in from the EU or for VAT registered businesses. So I couldn't use it. I called HRMC and for this I had to download form C384 ( from
https://www.gov.uk/government/publicati ... d-vat-c384 or Google it) and send that off. They gave me an address to send to but after finding a week later that postal forms have to be scanned and electronically passed on which can take weeks the lady informed me, it was better to email the form and covering documentation to
ecsm.nchcars@hmrc.gsi.gov.uk. For the documentation one of the most important items was to get the info from Chas Mortimer to say the VAT had been paid and they sent me the
"Trader Input Paper C88(6)" that showed the bike VIN number and the VAT paid that had been faxed to them when it arrived and the VAT paid. I also included the sale receipt from the seller, the Swiss registration document (showing the VIN number) and the Paypal receipts. I also made it clear Chas Mortimer were not the importer, I was, they were just the courier. With that emailed off I got a reply the next working day with the NOVA letter and reference ready for the DVLA once I have it MOTed. Yay!!!
All of this maybe of interest, as once we leave the EU, this will have to be the process if you do want to bring in a bike from Germany / France / Holland etc. At present the EU countries are easy (as I did with the TZR250 I got from Holland last year) as just need the registration document (though some EU countries need it to be deregistered at their equivalent to a DVLA office - as the case in Holland).
In all, assuming it gets here as stated above and that not much needs to be spent on the MOT, first registration and 6 months tax, the total cost will be about £2900. If I didn't have such a helpful seller it would have been a lot harder.
Rob
Oh interestingly (for me!) it's date of first registration shown on the Swiss Registration was 01/04/1985 which was my 16th birthday when i was first on the road as well!
