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Have you ever had to pay import duties tax on a piece of gear shipped from Europe? If so, what was it and how much?

Never.

Nope.

Yes. Do a Google search, there are calculators that will figure it out for you. IIRC the last time I paid about $24.99 for something valued around $400 shipped from england. I also recall paying around $185 for something valued at around $1700 also from england, which is a much higher percentage for some reason. These are to the best of my memory but could be off.

i like to stop at the duty free shop

Ugly Nora wrote: Yes. Do a Google search, there are calculators that will figure it out for you. IIRC the last time I paid about $24.99 for something valued around $400 shipped from england. I also recall paying around $185 for something valued at around $1700 also from england, which is a much higher percentage for some reason. These are to the best of my memory but could be off.

If that's $1700 not including shipping, then it will have most likely been the shipping cost on top. In the UK they include the postage as part of the total value of the item, so I'm guessing it's the same elsewhere. Bastards. And then there's a handling fee on top. Bastarderier.

It was about $1700 total. The item was around $1400 and shipping was around $250 or $300.

Years ago I got a bass shipped to me from Canada and had to pay like $80 for import duties. Not sure if it was because of how the seller shipped it or what

skullservant wrote:Years ago I got a bass shipped to me from Canada and had to pay like $80 for import duties. Not sure if it was because of how the seller shipped it or what

Do you remember if it was shipped by FedEx?

I've bought a lot of stuff from Europe and China and never had to pay import duties before. I ordered a pedal that took over 3 weeks for it to actually be shipped, I think as a gesture of good will for being late and uncommunicative he shipped it 2 day from the UK to the US. But now (about 3 weeks after I received it) I got a fairly stout bill from FedEx for import duties (this is on top of the already expensive shipping I had paid.

Gonna have to contact fedex and the pedal dude to see whats up.

There is really no sense in contacting the builder or Fedex. It is not their fault; these are the laws. Fedex paid the tax on your behalf, and now you need to pay them back.

I do recall when I bought something from Castledine in England, he said if he ships it Fedex, I will probably have to pay import fees, but if he shipped it some other way (I guess "regular" mail or whatever) I probably wouldn't. I don't know why one would be more likely to incur fees but not the other, but maybe that helps answer your previous question.

It is due to the private carrier having to pay imports like Nora said and also to pay the salary of the customs officer they hire.

However, there ongoing litigation to take down the "brokerage" fees and they are very inconsistent. They are also sometimes billed via the shipping institution instead of the delivering. For example, a FedEx franchise in Italy is technically a different corporation than FedEx Ground, FedEx Home, FedEx International, etc. Even if FedEx home delivers, it may be that original office that billed you and the delivering company will have no record of any charges (since it is an Italian company). DHL works the same way....like the charge may come from DHL UK, not DHL USA. It gets really confusing.

I believe the US government does not tax consumer goods not meant for resale (i.e. you aren't importing large stock)...Because they don't even have a national tax as it is. We already pay for the customs employees with taxes, so their function is to work for us (until we become a usage fee based land). Since EMS is a direct contractor/service provider with USPS, they get to work under these rules too.

FedEx, UPS, DHL, cargo shipment companies (Merrick, boats) etc are all working for profit, so they have to pay for their service and use of customs. They pass on a charge to the recipient. But, they have been adding brokerage fees as a typical way to get a little extra cash to slash their margins of the extra overhead of having to pay for customs officers. The crap part is that they got in a habit of sending a bill USPS instead of informing the recipient upon delivery (probably because sometimes they delivering company has no idea or haven't been billed themselves..no record yet)...so they rely on traditional mail or you signing up with their electronic billing service...neither of which is reliable (I had three charges last year....two of which I never received a bill for and hadto spend hours on the phone finding the actual billing department/corporation/subdivision).

DHL was the worst...they can't find a damn thing and there is no way to find a bill that has been sent to you unless you have the invoice number of the actual paper bill...the tracking, your address, nothing is linked to that invoice via normal "help lines". There is a second DHL corporation that is not related informational wise that does all the accounts (with no communication between the two). It was a giant mess. They got the point and only do COD now, which is good.

Anyway, the brokerage fees are what are stupid...they can be up to 50% of the items value...($100 pedal got me a $40 customs charge via fedex...bullshit).

I don't use them anymore....any of the private carriers. They do horrible work, damage items, and overcharge. (UPS broke 4 faucets, three of which where replacements for the original they broke in transit and they admired too it....FedEx admitted to breaking a beta lead by throwing it over a fence once...they shrug their shoulders and say, "we charge for convenience. not safety...plus your account ain't keeping us afloat"...which basically what I got told by the UPS distro in LA///and something similar to the FedEx in Bakersfield).

Our tile came via a private shipping company on a boat. The customs charge was included in our purchase price...that is the way it should be. These dumb companies like FedEx should include it as part of shipping costs like EMS and USPS do to some degree...but then they couldn't add brokerage.

Never have but I don't buy high dollar items overseas generally.

I had to pay $45 for a $300 bike frame shipped from Canada through UPS. I hate UPS with a passion.