Buyer beware of US Customs

[BCMC]

Hello there, I’m new to this form but have had many RT’s professionally and personal, currently have a 2017. Recently l wanted to add the GPS Central locking device from Wunderlich. I purchased one for a previous RT from them, however this time when l contacted Wunderlich l was advised that they no longer stocked them.

Wunderlich gave me the contact info for original supplier which was a company called Oldtimers located in Slovakia. I contacted them and they gave me a quote of 155 euros which included shipping to Washington State. 155 euros is approx $186 which l thought was fair.

I paid them, received a tracking number from DHL and a delivery date. 2 days before the delivery l received an email advising me l owed additional
$108 for customs or it wouldn’t be delivered. Crazy, but this was totally my bad for not doing my research. Hopefully this will help some else.

[Capt Sisko]

You're not alone. In the UK we have a duty free limit of £135 on the import of goods for person use when shipped from the EU into the UK. Below that it's a straightforward door to door service. Go over that amount and you have to pay import duty, however it's not just duty the bit over the £135 limit, no, it's on the whole amount, plus any carriage & insurance charges. That total of Goods, Carriage & Duty then has 20% VAT added to it. Tax on Tax. And it get's worse.

If the carrier has paid the Duty & VAT to the government on your behalf (which most do automatically), they charge you for the privilage, typically £25 or so, but because that is classed as a service, that's plus 20% VAT as well. A tax to pay a tax. What was it Benjamin Franklin said about Death & Taxes.

[BCMC]

Thank you Capt, it always amazes me how efficient some companies/governments are at taking our money but fail miserably in providing their specific services.

Wish l would have read something like your explanation and did my due diligence first. Thanks

[Doctor T]

Firstly, welcome to our site
If i order goods from overseas and the amount is over £135, I make a separate order for each item. My last overseas order(bike stuff) totaled £460. So i ordered each part separately to bring it under import duty.
DHL tried to tax me on them, but i got them to check the order numbers. As they were different, they gave up. Fed X tried the same but lost

[exportman]

Hello

One of the policies brought in by the current US administration was to remove the $800.00 deminimums for personal imports meaning duty and taxes are applied to all imports into the USA. This ws part of the adminsitrations "BIG BEAUTIFUL TARIFFS" which no one in the goverment seemed to understand would be paid by the end buyer not the overseas supplier. The USA has one of the most complex import duty policies I have ever come across in 50+ years of international logistics. SInce then in a tit for tat move the EU have also altered their own policy on low value imports and the UK is looking to do the similar though not as a knee jerk action as they are consulting with customs brokers and fast parcel carriers around how best to apply this. UK is expecting this to be in place by Q2 of 2029 latest. Companies like SHIEN and TEMU are already looking at changes in their processes and establishing distribution warehouses in the UK.

[Ed Harley]

...This ws part of the adminsitrations "BIG BEAUTIFUL TARIFFS" which no one in the goverment seemed to understand would be paid by the end buyer not the overseas supplier...

This.