Hi guys!

To start a trip to Australia, I shipped my ride from Florida to Bremerhaven, Germany. The bike has arrived, and the handling agent now tells me that I have to pay 25% of the bike's value as Cash Guarantee to the German Customs (6% Duty and 19% VAT), to be (hopefully) refunded when I leave Germany.

I'm traveling with a US passport, and the bike has current registration in the US, title in hand, green card insurance ready.

I don't recall ever hearing of this kind of security deposit requirement in Europe. If you have any knowledge of this situation, could you please offer me some guidance?

Thanks!

__________________

LOS ANGELES TO BUENOS AIRES
A photographic expedition with unlimited legroom.

NEVER heard of it. I suspect he's got things confused, as it's never been a requirement that I know of. THOUSANDS of people have shipped into Germany and not been asked for this.

IF he was suspicious that you were planning on leaving it in Germany, yes, that would be valid, but if you can convince him of your plans, it should be no problem. I'd escalate it to customs people, talk to them yourself if necessary, but definitely don't accept it.

The shipping company you used should have had this all sorted in advance. Motorcycle Express seems to have no trouble, and neither does anyone else that I know of. Who did you use?

good luck!

__________________
Grant Johnson
Seek, and ye shall find.
------------------------
Inspiring, Informing and Connecting travellers since 1997!
www.HorizonsUnlimited.com

Hey Grant! Thanks for the quick reply. That's what I thought also. I'm hoping that things will get cleared up tomorrow. Will report back on the outcome.

Good to hear from you

__________________

LOS ANGELES TO BUENOS AIRES
A photographic expedition with unlimited legroom.

Nein ,, Bremerhaven zoll ist ganz shitzel!

Have you done a search here ,, you would not have shipped to Bremerhaven ,, instead to Southhamton or Rotterdam.
Assume you used Wallenius out of New Jersey as I did.

http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...-customs-56885


Now you have to make a run for it ,, like I did !
This is how it works ,, as soon as you get your bike ,, there are two gates ,, south gate (security more tight) and east gate or main gate, You are supposed to pass this gate and immediately to the right ,, old WWII brown stone Zoll office,, where you pay.
As I drove by ,, I acted very casual ,, calm ,, leaning back on my sissy bar, I waved at them ,, a salute really , these two were chatting way and waved me off ,, instead of turning immediate right,, I went straight then left and hauled my ass to Hanover,, non stop.

No personal experience at Bremerhaven, but this action/ procedure by German Customs, specifically for vehicles imported at Bremerhaven, has been reported for the last two years; yes, even for personally-owned vehicles claiming 'temporary tourist' import status--which normally are exempt from any import duties.
[Speculation:] There are a large volume of vehicle imports thru Bremerhaven; (as Grant suggested) the Bremerhaven office of German Customs may have become suspicious of 'so many' vehicles claiming duty-free temporary tourist import status who actually intend(ed) to leave the vehicles permanently in Germany. That suspicion may in fact be accurate, i.e., some of "us" actually do import vehicles into Germany as 'temporary tourist' imports, intending to and actually leaving them in Germany semi-permanently as a location for return and repeated touring within Europe. This is technically against German (and most other countries) law, but is also a longstanding practice.
[Repeat--this is speculation as to why Bremerhaven German Customs has introduced this temporary import duty.]
The other primary German port of entry is thru Frankfurt Airport for airfreighted vehicles (e.g. most of Motorcycle Express's clients); Frankfurt Airport German Customs has not introduced a temporary vehicle import fee as a regular procedure, perhaps because there are so many fewer vehicles entering and claiming temporary tourist import status [speculation].
Note that (district offices of) German Customs do have the authority to implement this procedure, and, as Grant suggested, you may be able to get around it by personally talking with Bremerhaven Customs staff to demonstrate that you're actually just riding through. If that doesn't work, other HUBBers have actually paid the Bremerhaven fee, and been able to get it refunded upon leaving Germany on their bikes--but it's a huge bureaucratic hassle.
Good luck.

Thanks for all the replies!

The great news is, I have my bike , so we've got this thing started!

As for the bad... I have no wisdom to share, as I think I ended up doing what seouljoe said.

After claiming the bike from the warehouse, I went to Truck and Speditionsservice as per the handling agent's (Interfracht) instructions. Their function appeared to me only at their office: a glorious equivalent of the "helper" kids running after my bike at some Central American countries' borders. Well, ok, maybe not exactly.

They told me upfront that I could take my chances with the customs directly. The anticipation, however, was that I would get stopped, and my chances of convincing them to waive the security deposit were slim.

I had two options I was told:

1) Fill out a tourist declaration and post somewhere around 3500 Euros deposit in CASH (for a value of USD 20K) which I could claim back once I exited EU. (not just Germany!) Their fee for this would be EUR 50.

2) Get a transit permit by posting the 3500 Euro deposit under similar terms, which would give me only 4 days to get out of Germany, and would cost EUR 150. (Why I might prefer this, I didn't really get)

So, I got on the bike & headed towards the customs in a line of trucks. No one said stop, so...

Is my paperwork now incomplete? Can't have everything eh?


Shipped with shippingcarsrus.com
Dropped off to their warehouse on July 11th. Vessel sailed out on 20th. Arrived Bremerhaven on Aug. 5th. Received bike on 8th.
Paid $650 (+$250 insurance) for shipping in a container. Receiving end charges were not quoted. (Expect to pay EUR 200 for unloading, plus whatever you hit at the customs roulette)

__________________

LOS ANGELES TO BUENOS AIRES
A photographic expedition with unlimited legroom.