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custom duty help!
 

hi, Thanks for all to make this site so helpful and supportive. I was a beginner 3 years ago and learned a lot here, this year my eBay & AMAZON stores are going well which bought my concerns of Custom Fee/Duty, the suppliers from China directly ship the products to me by DHL and I don't think they paid duty, anyone has idea how the custom monitor this and whether IRS will bring any troubles to my stores? Appreciate anyone can help me out.

Re: custom duty help!
 

ohh, by the way, every single package is under $200, but we normally have multiple package every week, the total value is over $200.

Re: custom duty help!
 

Duties should be paid by you upon receipt of item.

Re: custom duty help!
 

You pay import tax and duties

The exporter doesn't do anything their end for it

Re: custom duty help!
 

hi bros

thanks for your replies, every package is under $200 value, so should be tax free for individual package, I guess I did not make my point clear. When there are multiple packages, say, 5 packages in one week, total value will be $1000, should I pay import tax/duty?

Re: custom duty help!
 

DHL/FEDEX/UPS will send you a bill.

Not anything any of us can tell you other than that.

Re: custom duty help!
 

But I never received any bills from DHL, this makes me worry :smash:

Re: custom duty help!
 

No it depends on what are you importing, what the duty rates are, if your item has high duty value such as garments, you will be definitely charged for duty from DHL/FED or UPS. OR if it's personal shipment value under $2500.00, you will be okay.

Re: custom duty help!
 

In my experience I get a bill from DHL if the declared value for a shipment is over $400, but I have no idea how other things are taxed. I average about 50 shipments per month and I've only received bills for packages declared over that threshold. They do not combine the declared value of separate shipments and tax you based on that.

If there are any taxes due on a package when it comes into USA, DHL pays them for you to expedite shipment. They send you a bill 2-3 weeks later for the taxes they paid, as well as a small convenience fee they charge for getting the package through customs for you.

Again this is all based on my experience and I can't say how applicable this is for your situation.

Re: custom duty help!
 

shipping companies do keep record, so if you go over a certain value then and ship often they will start assuming you are a business.

Almost every week i get ask for my licences and vat numbers.

Re: custom duty help!
 

For items over around 15$ you are liable to pay tax unless its a gift

Re: custom duty help!
 

Also depends on what your supplier is declaring - hope the declaration part is proper.

Pay attention to bunneh's comment about addition of duties for the long run plan.

Re: custom duty help!
 

Chinese forwarders undervalue the shipping invoice for everything going to the US/UK as standard. Will be your problem if you get found to have not paid the right amount or is in the UK anyway

Re: custom duty help!
 

It's not a huge problem in the US. Certain regions are way more strict than others though, and I'm certainly not saying you can't get in trouble by under declaring.

I don't think bunneh's comment really applies to the US either, and I'm assuming that's where OP is from. I've imported hundreds of packages. Most of the time I don't get the paper invoices DHL mails out, so they'll call me every few weeks and I pay the duties owed on the past 5 or 6 shipments.

DHL/USPS/FedEx/UPS know I'm a business but they don't really care as long as I pay what I owe them, lol.

Re: custom duty help!
 

Yeah its rife in the UK as we have to pay around 5% import duty and then 20% vat on top of the product+shipping cost+import duty, end up paying more in tax than the item costs on a lot of items.
HMRC (our version of irs) hardly ever check them though but I assume if they were to inspect your company at some point and see you've made £100k in purchases from China and only paid £2k tax on it when you should of paid £25-30k it will be a issue lol.

Think its mainly the US and UK that gets under declared, spoke to my suppliers about it a lot and they won't dare do it on anything going to Germany,Spain etc as it just gets stopped by customs straight away and they ask for proof of the value

Re: custom duty help!
 

Couldnt have said it better. :faint:

Re: custom duty help!
 

Wow, that really blows. I'll pay $40 taxes on a $2500 order.

Re: custom duty help!
 

I think thats just asking for trouble

Re: custom duty help!
 

You're perfectly entitled to your opinion, but why do you say that?

I just pay what the shipping companies ask me to pay.

Re: custom duty help!
 

The shipping companies send you a bill Play. You pay it or you dont pay it.

I have FULLY DECLARED value orders $56,000 and the fee over shipping is $1018.19

$40.00 on $2500 sounds high. Must be DHL or UPS.

Re: custom duty help!
 

DHL mostly. And as I'm sure you know, their "deferment fee" is about 40% of the total amount.

Re: custom duty help!
 

Geez you lucky, I have a box arriving monday with DHL that is $1441 + $339 shipping and have to pay £284.00 ($408) customs..

and another 2 on thurs with similar values.

I would dream to have to pay $40.

Re: custom duty help!
 

picking up for the port .. I am thinking a large shippment by sea and picking up at port of oakland .. I was told fees would be accessed there . anyone pciking packages up like this ?? I is going to take a semi to haul several pallets but was told there is many differnt fees to watch for like this .. any help ?

Re: custom duty help!
 

I thought when phaz0rs was being sarcastic - but seems you US guys are paying peanuts!... agree with Bunneh, the prices we have to pay in the UK are quite harsh! hence I said paying $40 on a $2k+ order was asking for trouble - which would certainly be the case in the UK.

Re: custom duty help!
 

Hire an agent.

So a full container costs $300.00 to port. A freight truck could easily be 2-4X that cost.

Hire an agent to make sure your ISF forms are correctly filed. You only have 48 hours to submit them to Customs. You then normally will have to declare material list, invoices, waste dumping regulations, sometimes pantone colors etc...

It is not bog deal but it could be very overwhelming when the fines for a missed ISF deadline can be in the thousands of dollars.

Duty fees must be overnighted via check on these orders too. Again no big deal just another step.

Re: custom duty help!
 

I have the freight truck "family" but need a list of things to be sure to take care of , i am counting on this being a often thing so would like to learn the to do;s myself when declaring value is that what i paid for it or market value or??? and thanks yankee

Re: custom duty help!
 

Hire an agent to handle it.

Forwarding agent or importing agent.

They handle all of it.