[ForSale-Swap] Help> Need info on US customs charges

[Ken - VE5KC]

Thank you to all who took the time to reply. 

Unfortunately, my question to the list got all turned around and the
replies went into the shipping side, even to problems with different
carriers.. None of this had anything to do with the question "Need info on
US customs charges" . 

I did a lot of searching on the Internet looking for answers. The US
government site seemed to be down or I just never found the correct one.
The best I found was:
http://0-www.customs.treas.gov.library.csuhayward.edu/impoexpo/impoexpo.htm
which was very slow to not available. See below..

Maybe this may be of help to others.

73 . .  Ken - VE5KC


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INTERNATIONAL MAIL IMPORTS
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Locations of Customs international mail branches

Sending international packages from abroad

Mailing vs. shipping 
Although many travelers use the terms shipping and mailing interchangeably,
they are not the same, especially not where clearing Customs is concerned.
Mailing is always via the international postal system, which is run jointly
by international governments. Shipping, on the other hand, refers to
private-sector couriers, those commercial delivery services that often
promise to deliver packages in record time. Commercial delivery services
usually use customs brokers or other agents to clear your merchandise
through Customs, which is a service you pay for in addition to the charge
for shipping and any duty or processing fees owed to the Customs Service.
(Customs brokers are not employees of the U.S. Customs Service.) 

If you mail your goods through the Postal Service, the only fees you may
have to pay are a postal service handling fee and, if duty is owned on your
package, a Customs handling fee. You also have the option to protest a duty
determination - before duty is paid, rather than after - as would be your
situation if a courier service was handling your packages.

Here's an example of how mailing vs. shipping can affect a package: Say
you're shipping used personal goods back to the United States. Even though
a commercial delivery service may require you to provide a complete
description of the goods you are sending, that service's customs broker may
not make a distinction between new and used goods when clearing goods
through Customs and will automatically pay whatever duty would be owed if
the item was new. They, in turn, will bill you for reimbursement. Thus, you
could be asked to pay duty on something you already owned that you are
sending back to the United States. 

In order to avoid paying the duty, you will have to ask the courier
service's broker to protest the duty payment with Customs, and they may
charge you again for that service. In any event, Customs recommends that if
your goods are "used personal goods returned," you indicate this on the
outside of the package since this can significantly reduce the amount of
duty, if any at all, that you are charged for the shipment. 

You should also be aware that because different clearance procedures and
regulations may apply to mailed vs. commercially shipped packages, the
information and guidance in this brochure apply only to goods entering the
United States by way of the international mail system, and not to those
shipped by commercial delivery services. 

Goods sent by the traveler or resident of a foreign country
When you take your package to a foreign post office, the postal clerk will
give you an international customs declaration. Be sure to fill it out with
a full, accurate description of the goods inside and attach it to the
parcel's exterior. By international treaty, all foreign post offices will
have this form. In the very unlikely case that one isn't available, simply
write the description and value on the outer wrapping of the package
itself. 

Getting packages from abroad
As stated earlier, when a package first enters the United States, it
arrives at a post office near the addressee. That Postal Service will route
it to one of 13 Customs international mail facilities, where Customs
inspectors will determine whether duty is owed. Customs then returns the
package to the Postal Service for delivery (unless the value of the package
is over $2000, in which case the package will be held by Customs until
formal entry can be made). If duty is owed, the Postal Service will collect
it from the recipient before delivering the package. If the package is a
gift worth more than $100, the recipient will be charged duty. The sender
can reimburse the recipient for whatever duty he or she has paid; however,
by U.S. Customs regulation, duty cannot be prepaid; in all cases, including
gifts, the parcel's recipient bears responsibility for paying it. .

Assessing and paying duty
The various rates of duty for goods are listed in the Harmonized Tariff
Schedule (HTS), a book the size of an unabridged dictionary, containing
thousands of entries. Whether or not your shipment requires the payment of
duty depends on its classification as one of the categories of goods listed
in the HTS. Determining a good's classification, and therefore its duty
rate, is very complicated. The Customs inspectors who do this work have had
extensive training. If you would like to get an idea of what the duty might
be on a particular item, you can find a copy of the HTS in your local
library, or you can go to our website at and find a link to the HTS under
the Importing Section. Please be aware that Customs makes the final
determination about an item's classification, not you. If it is critical
for you to know the exact rate of duty on an item you want to send to the
U.S., please call your local port and ask to speak to an import specialist.
Otherwise, keep in mind that textiles tend to have the highest rates of
duty, and that approximately 65% of the items in the HTS have a zero rate
of duty. 

Goods not requiring duty 
When Customs determines that a package can pass duty-free, the Mail Branch
returns it to the Postal Service to be delivered by the addressee's local
post office. In these cases, no additional postage, handling costs or other
fees are required of the addressee.

Goods requiring duty 
Packages that do not pass free of duty will have a yellow form, the Customs
Mail Entry (form CF 3419A), attached to the outer wrapper. A Customs
officer will have already filled out this form with the item's tariff
classification number, rate of duty, processing fee, and the total amount
that must be paid in order to take possession of the shipment. You should
keep this yellow form until you are certain that you intend to keep the
merchandise (please see the section on repairs/alterations, starting on
page X).

After this happens-inspection of the package and completion of the CF
3419A-Customs sends the parcel back to the Postal Service, which sends it
to a local Post Office for delivery. The local Post Office also collects
the duty owed and a postal handling fee. This procedure applies to packages
worth up to $2,000; the recipient will have to file a formal entry with
Customs for those worth more than $2,000. 

The postal handling fee will appear on the package in the form of
postage-due stamps. (This fee is waived if the package contains dutiable
goods mailed from an American military post office abroad.) A five-dollar
($5) Customs processing fee will be assessed on all shipments on which duty
is owed. 

Note: Most personal shipments worth up to $200, and gift packages worth up
to $100, will pass duty-free as long as the recipient does not receive
multiple packages in a single day whose cumulative value is more than these
amounts. 

Duty waiver policy
Although all merchandise that enters the United States by mail is subject
to duty, the Customs Service normally waives duty on goods valued at less
than:

$200, if you purchased the goods during the course of your travels for your
use; or 
$100, if the goods are sent as a gift to another person. 
This waiver does not apply if the addressee receives more than $200 (or
$100 for gifts) worth of goods from overseas in a single day. 

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Additional information on importing merchandise can be found on the U.S.
Customs website at: www.customs.gov