On Sep 19, 2008, at 5:02 PM, Arle Lommel wrote:
I have a pretty arcane question for non-U.S. makers who send
instruments to the U.S. Do you know if, per chapter 92 of the U.S.
Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (2004), what
customs fees are due on hurdy-gurdies? It looks like they are
dutiable at 4.6% (item 9202.90.60), while bagpipes are not
dutiable. I'm trying to be armed when I bring some instruments into
the U.S. to be able to claim that the duty rate is lower than the
general 10% if I am challenged on anything.
Perhaps another way of asking is if your U.S. customers ever end up
paying import duties on what you send them. Any advice would be
welcome.
-Arle
Hi Arle;
I've never imported a gurdy, but I have imported a large clock. My
experience with Customs is that if you provide them up front with an
detailed invoice for the item(s), with a notation on it indicating
the item number you cite above, they'll be more than happy to accept
that as the duty and tax you accordingly. They have a really large
book they look things up in; if you provide the reference number,
that will make their job much easier.
Making their job easy will always make your life easy.
Just make sure you have the shipping listed as a separate item, so
they don't try to tax you on that as well.
They will want to inspect the item in detail, so you need to be able
to open the shipping container for them (bring whatever tools are
necessary). You might want to include some cotton gloves so they can
handle the gurdy (without risking anyone touching the wheel for
example).
If you can play something for them, they'll be very pleased. All the
Customs folks I've met have been very nice, and intensely curious
about 'weird' things.
They'll want a check, and there is a minimum tax they can collect
(around $20), so if the tax will be less than that, they will likely
tell you to forget it (as they did for me).
I don't know where you are, but if you can arrange for it to be a
quiet time at the air freight/shipping terminal building, things will
go better as well.
If the item is shipped in via one of the large package carriers
(FedEx/UPS), they will either pay the duty and bill you (if it is a
small amount) or contact you to pay it before they deliver (if it is
a large amount). Or it may be skipped entirely if the amount seems
too small to bother with, which tends to be my experience with small
items from overseas.
Now, in my day job (for the US Navy), I get expensive equipment from
overseas from time to time, which inevitably leads to getting a bill
from FedEx for the customs duty which I have to arrange to get paid,
usually months later (which is annoying). All of which seems silly
(the gov't paying the gov't?), but that is how things works.
Tom Frank
