Taiwan Customs Makes Us Feel Like Duty

Ozsoapbox has a really great post about ordering bike parts from overseas. Sometimes they tax you and sometimes they don't.

I have blogged before on Giant's competitive advantage, and duties on foreign bike parts (manufactured in Taiwan) contribute to some of the disparity between local and foreign bike prices. In the case of Oz, the government is actually double dipping.

Later investigation revealed that cycling gear above $1000 TWD (a ridiculously stupidly low amount of about $30 AUD) attracted an ‘import duty tax’ of 5%...

...This itself wasn’t too bad but the government then double dips and applies a further ‘business tax’ which was another $420 TWD ($13.80 AUD) in taxes.

Combined, these two taxes brought my total import duty to nearly $826 TWD or $27 AUD, roughly 10% of the order cost.

Additionally, when calculating the import duty and business tax, the idiots at the customs office decided to include the cost of my shipping from Wiggle which was approx $1500 TWD alone ($48.87 AUD).

Also:

Taiwan:

December 4-8 is Taichung Bike Week, for all you who want to look at bike stuff. I will be outdoors riding.

World:

• Does Republican surge mean doom for America's new, progressive stance on transportation funding? For the first time since the Eisenhower initiated the Interstate Highway System, an American administration has shifted the focus of transportation away from the automobile. Now the impact of that change is in doubt as many cycling proponents on Capitol Hill are out of work. Maybe the USA is in for a cyclist revolt, like the one in LA over the city's bike plan.
• If you are not working... ride a bike and volunteer.
• Popo tesitfies!
• UCI President wants 4 year bans, which could be potentially career-ending.
• Training in heat improves cool weather performance. That is not my experience in Seattle. The cold, damp air brought on an asthma attack... and it sucked.