Charity bike club hit with hefty Spanish customs duty charge that could have been avoided with Business West ATA Carnet

It seems that almost every week there is a newspaper article reporting on businesses, organisations and individuals being caught out by new regulations that Brexit has thrown up. The impact of leaving the EU has created ripples that are reverberating out from the centre of the pond and there are no signs of them reaching the edges, just yet.  

At the beginning of the summer holidays, we saw the airports and ports struggling to cope with the volume of people travelling. The port of Dover saw miles and miles of queues and holidaymakers sat in hours’ worth of delays. Airports had to cancel flights.  

After two years of not being able to tour, bands thought 2022 was the summer when they would be able to get back to touring and performing live freely. But sadly, for some of those bands, they feel Brexit has created so much red tape it is now not economically viable to tour in Europe and for others equipment has been delayed, which has led to shows being cancelled. For others, the issue is that they can no longer make enough money on merchandise to make it worthwhile, because they can no longer reclaim the VAT. To do so they would have to be registered in every country they perform.  

And it’s not just the music sector that has been finding things difficult. Just two weeks ago, as reported by the BBC, a Welsh bike club came up against new customs regulations and ended up being charged an unexpected and hefty duty fee. Sadly, in this instance, a simple customs document called an ATA Carnet could have saved the Tap it Out Bike Club a considerable amount of money. According to the BBC article, the bike club, based in Pyle, Bridgend, were riding 600 miles from Santander to Lisbon to raise money for Prostate Cymru. The club sent the bikes ahead on the ferry, and the team flew out to meet the bikes at Santander, where the ride was due to begin. The key factor to the customs duty being charged was that the bikes travelled separately ahead, without a customs declaration. The Spanish border authorities were unaware the bikes were being imported temporarily so applied a duty tariff to the equipment, which cost the club €8,500 (£7,330) when they collected their bikes.  

This is incredibly unfortunate and could have been avoided with a Business West Carnet, which would have cost the club in the region of £700.00-800.00.

Business West offers registered charities a 15% discount off the ATA Carnet standard price*. If your organisation is interested in raising funds overseas and needs some advice on taking your goods and equipment temporarily overseas, please contact our team on carnets@businesswest.co.uk or we have some really useful information in our FAQs. Alternatively, if you know where you are travelling and are ready to apply for your carnet click here. 

*In order to receive the 15% discount on the standard ATA Carnet price, simply quote 'Registered Charity 15% discount' when you apply in the Messages to Chamber section on eCert, Business West’s online export documentation platform. 

References: 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-62799594 

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/sep/04/it-was-a-brexit-export-...  

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/aug/10/brexit-stage-left-how-t...  

https://theloadstar.com/brexit-bureaucracy-hits-a-sour-note-at-european-...  

https://www.nme.com/news/music/brexit-touring-europe-strangling-talent-c...