Any experience with tariffs ordering from the UK? (please don't turn this political)

[FourT6and2]

If declared customs value is under $2,500, it's a standard clearance and relatively painless and fast. You pay base duty. Reciprocal tariffs are applied according to IEEPA tariff directives. If declared customs value is higher than $2,500, a you need a formal clearance. That's more paperwork, time, and fees.

Reciprocal tariffs are applied differently based on country of origin. The country of origin does NOT mean the country where a good ships from. It means the country where a good was manufactured. If it's an unassembled guitar amp kit, consisting of parts manufactured all over the world (resistors from USA, capacitors from Taiwan, pots from China, jacks from the U.K., etc.), I'm not sure how a suitable Harmonized Tariff Code would be selected. The parts are not assembled into a final product. So it's not like the country of origin would be the U.K. It would have to be listed out for each individual electronic component. Maybe.

Maybe there's an HTS code for a bundle of electronic parts that will then be later assembled? I don't know.

IEEPA Reciprocal tariffs on goods from the U.K. stack. i.e. It's 10% ON TOP OF the original base duty. By contrast, the reciprocal tariff on goods from the E.U. do not stack. They cap at 15%. So if the base duty is 5%, the total is brought up to 15%. For the U.K., if the base duty is 5%, it's added to the reciprocal tariff.

Again, country of origin is NOT where the item ships from. It's where it was manufactured. If it's a fully built amp with parts from all over the world, the country of origin is where it was finally assembled into the end product. A bunch of parts in a box... I have no idea.

It's your job as the importer to provide the correct HTS codes for export and import. Not the shipper. And you can direct US Customs and Border Patrol and/or the shipping carrier to use whatever codes you want.

 

[matttornado]

The OP asked not to make it political and then makes it political by accusing someone of making it political when they asked a non- political question.
LOL

 

[skoora]

The OP asked not to make it political and then makes it political by accusing someone of making it political when they asked a non- political question.
LOL

Considering only one party’s supporters (not all) believed that about Tariffs, it made the question a poor sarcastic attempt at blatant poking of the political bear, that sleeps ever so soundly in OTC.
Might as well have said GEO five times in front of a mirror

 

[Geo]

The EU is going bust, expect to pay more from that part of the world while you can still get things from there.

 

[FourT6and2]

The EU is going bust, expect to pay more from that part of the world while you can still get things from there.

Perhaps. But within the context of this thread, the U.K. is not part of the European Union.

 

[MadAsAHatter]

If declared customs value is under $2,500, it's a standard clearance and relatively painless and fast. You pay base duty. Reciprocal tariffs are applied according to IEEPA tariff directives. If declared customs value is higher than $2,500, a you need a formal clearance. That's more paperwork, time, and fees.

Reciprocal tariffs are applied differently based on country of origin. The country of origin does NOT mean the country where a good ships from. It means the country where a good was manufactured. If it's an unassembled guitar amp kit, consisting of parts manufactured all over the world (resistors from USA, capacitors from Taiwan, pots from China, jacks from the U.K., etc.), I'm not sure how a suitable Harmonized Tariff Code would be selected. The parts are not assembled into a final product. So it's not like the country of origin would be the U.K. It would have to be listed out for each individual electronic component. Maybe.

Maybe there's an HTS code for a bundle of electronic parts that will then be later assembled? I don't know.

IEEPA Reciprocal tariffs on goods from the U.K. stack. i.e. It's 10% ON TOP OF the original base duty. By contrast, the reciprocal tariff on goods from the E.U. do not stack. They cap at 15%. So if the base duty is 5%, the total is brought up to 15%. For the U.K., if the base duty is 5%, it's added to the reciprocal tariff.

Again, country of origin is NOT where the item ships from. It's where it was manufactured. If it's a fully built amp with parts from all over the world, the country of origin is where it was finally assembled into the end product. A bunch of parts in a box... I have no idea.

It's your job as the importer to provide the correct HTS codes for export and import. Not the shipper. And you can direct US Customs and Border Patrol and/or the shipping carrier to use whatever codes you want.

Thanks for this info. I was thinking of a kit as a singular product. Didn't consider it could be treated as individual components. I'm pretty sure Modulus makes most everything in-house; even transformers. So likely it would resistors and capacitors that could get tariffed separately. Whatever the case I'll have to look into this aspect more.

 

[Geo]

Perhaps. But within the context of this thread, the U.K. is not part of the European Union.

Agreed but they are bankrupt also.

 

[FourT6and2]

Thanks for this info. I was thinking of a kit as a singular product. Didn't consider it could be treated as individual components. I'm pretty sure Modulus makes most everything in-house; even transformers. So likely it would resistors and capacitors that could get tariffed separately. Whatever the case I'll have to look into this aspect more.

I did a Gemini search and the simplest answer is that a kit would be imported under one single HTS code, not individual ones per component: HTS 8518.40.2000 and you would declare the country of origin as the U.K.

 

[MadAsAHatter]

I did a Gemini search and the simplest answer is that a kit would be imported under one single HTS code, not individual ones per component: HTS 8518.40.2000 and you would declare the country of origin as the U.K.

That's good. It would have definitely complicated paperwork if you had to figure out where each piece of a kit came from; especially if substitutions were involved.

 

[CoreyW]

I ordered a Schmidt Array board earlier this year and it was an absolute nightmare. Fedex was taking atleast a week per email to respond, it took me nearly 3 weeks to get my paperwork from them to begin the clearance process, with both Martyn Schmidt and myself sending them all needed documents. Then when I finally got the paperwork from them I start getting warnings that if my order is not processed it will be returned. Memphis is only 3.5 hours or so away from me and I was ready to just make the drive with all documents in hand to try and pick it up.

 

[FourT6and2]

I ordered a Schmidt Array board earlier this year and it was an absolute nightmare. Fedex was taking atleast a week per email to respond, it took me nearly 3 weeks to get my paperwork from them to begin the clearance process, with both Martyn Schmidt and myself sending them all needed documents. Then when I finally got the paperwork from them I start getting warnings that if my order is not processed it will be returned. Memphis is only 3.5 hours or so away from me and I was ready to just make the drive with all documents in hand to try and pick it up.

So you self-cleared instead of letting FedEx do it?

 

[CoreyW]

So you self-cleared instead of letting FedEx do it?

Well, I am not really sure to be honest, Fedex was the importer, they were supposed to send me the clearance documents, and then I provide them with the material sheets etc... I havn't done international shipping in over 10 years and its been even longer since I was sent to the classes for it and I can only imagine how much everything has changed. I pretty much followed what I was asked to do by Martyn from Schmidt Array since he does it fairly often.

 

[FourT6and2]

Well, I am not really sure to be honest, Fedex was the importer, they were supposed to send me the clearance documents, and then I provide them with the material sheets etc... I havn't done international shipping in over 10 years and its been even longer since I was sent to the classes for it and I can only imagine how much everything has changed. I pretty much followed what I was asked to do by Martyn from Schmidt Array since he does it fairly often.

Typically the carrier (FedEx, UPS, DHL, etc.) handles customs clearance for you. Unless you specifically tell them you will self clear. There really isn't any paperwork for you to do unless the value is so high that a formal clearance is needed. And even then, the carrier does it for you.

 

[CoreyW]

Typically the carrier (FedEx, UPS, DHL, etc.) handles customs clearance for you. Unless you specifically tell them you will self clear. There really isn't any paperwork for you to do unless the value is so high that a formal clearance is needed. And even then, the carrier does it for you.

Thats more or less what I was expecting. SA pedal boards are wood framed, so the manufacturing info was required. It was below the $2500 threshoold, so I dont really understand why it was such a pain in the ass, outside of things just not getting done on Fedex's side.

 

[Racerxrated]

I've bought 2 Vintage Marshall cabs from England over the past year. Each time, the Tariff/import tax was 10%. UPS was the carrier both times, and emailed me the bill to pay through them. Pretty simple process for me.
Recently bought a couple vintage capacitors from Canada, and never got a bill at all. Those came USPS. They were pretty cheap though.

 

[jtees4]

For us in the US, we sometimes had to pay VAT taxes. I never thought of it as political. I was always free to buy or not buy. To the OP: I see that's all you are trying to do, is know what your actual cost would be.

 

[Geo]

Paying more for everything is just a fact of life, regardless of who or what the reason. Bitching about it is useless.

You want to change that? Get everyone to start bartering and trading in gold and silver.

 

[rsm]

I was disappointed that no flight case makers in the US had what I wanted; it would have to be a complete custom case, and cost even more.

Swanflight in the UK had the case they designed for my keyboard, that I could customize some features above and beyond the base model, which I did.

In the past, I've purchased rifle cases for keyboards; they're usually cheaper than music instrument cases, and have foam inserts you can customize, but nothing was big enough for my Yamaha Montage M8x.

I contacted Yamaha about it, and they were not aware of any plans to make a case for it; besides if it was a Yamaha branded case for it, I'm sure it would have cost even more.