andy20
MM Forum Member
Posts: 2
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Post by andy20 on May 26, 2023 2:42:41 GMT
Hey everyone, wasn't expecting this to be my first post, but here goes. I just bought a fiddle edge and am still waiting on UPS to deliver it. It spent a few days in a warehouse here in the US while waiting to be cleared by Customs. Today I got the bill for import fees and taxes in the amount of $471. Needless to say, I was a little shocked. Is this a normal amount for this sort of thing? I've only bought one other guitar internationally before, and that was from Japan. I had it in 3 days and no fees. I don't really get how this is supposed to work I guess.
Now that I've gotten that off my chest, It's been awhile since I've been this excited about a new guitar. Looking forward to spending some time here and talking resos.
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Post by mitchfit on May 26, 2023 3:46:59 GMT
more info required:
what was purchase price?
from what nation?
was it shipped in a box or a valuable guitar case?
have ordered a couple of slideRIG comps from the UK in the past, they didn't get any price increases from customs.
that said, far from an importing expert from just those two shipments.
mitchfit
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Post by Michael Messer on May 26, 2023 8:08:48 GMT
Hello Kurt,
Almost every time I send a guitar to the US there seems to be a different calculation for import tax and duties. Two weeks ago I sent an MM guitar to Wisconsin, it was a lower value guitar at around £1000.00 GBP and the duties were around $80.00 USD.
Two nights ago I spent an hour or so dealing with various importation documents for your guitar relating to sustainable materials and general details of the goods. One of the documents was new to me, so it appears that Massachusetts has some different laws on importation. The two documents were - Lacey Plant and Plant Product Declaration Form and TSCA - Toxic Substance Control Act Declaration ...phew, when I first visited the US in the '70s that second form would have had a whole different meaning!
When asked about importation costs by my customers I always recommend they contact their local customs office or UPS facility for this information. I do this with all overseas customers anywhere in the world because I just can't get involved in that part of the transaction. The people at UPS are usually much more helpful than customs people.
A year or two ago I bought something from a well known US based guitar company. The total cost including shipping to the UK was $120.00 USD, and I had to pay £60.00 GBP in tax and duties.
Having sent guitars all over the world for the past fifteen years I have come to the conclusion that a lot of it is down to the individual operator doing the paperwork and calculations.
Your guitar should be with you any day now as I have received all the customs clearance information from UPS.
Please email me when you have your guitar.
Shine On
Michael
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Post by snakehips on May 26, 2023 10:33:36 GMT
Hi there !
It is definitely down to the receiving country (and/or county/region or whatever) - they decide what duty/tax/fees are.
There may be different tax & Duty bands for different types of items.
"Handling Fees" - could be a set float fee, or a percentage, or who knows what - so as MM said, you really need to contact your local people and ask them what to expect.
If I just talk about importing guitars for a minute, importing into the UK has different levels of Duty and Taxes, depending on (for example) if the guitar is brand new, used (up to 30yrs old), "collectable" (circa 30-99yrs old) and "antique" (over 100yrs old). Brand new - the duty/taxes are higher, and over a 100yrs old there is no Duty/Tax - but there may still be some sort of handling fees.
I wanted to buy a vintage Shure mic from a US seller on ebay.
He sells everything using Ebay's Global Shipping Program. I don't like it !
Sure, both the buyer and seller is protected, if an item goes missing in the post (that did happen to me once, and the Global Shipping Program refunded me (and the seller wasn't "out of pocket" either).
The Global Shipping program calculates the import tax, duty & handling fees & adds to the item price & shipping fees - and you just pay the total amount on buying - and there are no additional fees to pay when you receive your item. Sounds good so far ? !!
The vintage microphone seller did not have the correct details (I presume) for the microphone entered into his item page so that the automatic Global Shipping Program - so the calculated fees were for the "brand new" higher tax&Duty bracket.
I did not want to pay much higher taxes & Duty than was fair to pay - but the seller insisted I'd have to just pay, then try to claim the excess paid afterwards, from the UK Customs & Excise. What if they don't agree to that ? It's better to have the calculation correct from the start !
I'm sure MM will have made sure the guitar paperwork has been entered correctly BUT just make sure your US County have correctly understood & calculated the appropriate fees.
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andy20
MM Forum Member
Posts: 2
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Post by andy20 on May 26, 2023 12:30:19 GMT
Thanks for the info everyone.
Michael, I just got notification from UPS that it is ready to be picked up. Not sure if I can get there today or not. I emailed UPS to try to get more info on it but they haven't responded. Hopefully they can give me a breakdown when I go to pick it up. I was expecting to pay something but this seems a bit extreme to me. If the Massachusetts laws are part of the reason, we will be truly living up to our nickname of Taxachusetts.
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Post by Michael Messer on May 26, 2023 13:06:22 GMT
Thanks for the info everyone. Michael, I just got notification from UPS that it is ready to be picked up. Not sure if I can get there today or not. I emailed UPS to try to get more info on it but they haven't responded. Hopefully they can give me a breakdown when I go to pick it up. I was expecting to pay something but this seems a bit extreme to me. If the Massachusetts laws are part of the reason, we will be truly living up to our nickname of Taxachusetts. Kurt, I would definitely question them and get a breakdown of their charges. Shine On Michael |
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Post by bonzo on May 26, 2023 13:24:22 GMT
Taxachusetts, I like it Andy 😊🎸👍 just don't go throwing your guitar in Boston Harbour! 😉
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Post by mitchfit on May 26, 2023 17:06:32 GMT
would be way too easy/pleasing to jump on top of the "dog-pile" for a genuine world class group whine about a governmental death by taxation ploy.
to avoid forcing MM to put me back in line again, will instead say that it seems odd that some form of state tax should be applied to this international deal unless the actual port of entry was indeed the tea party location. [as bonzo inferred]
guess it would be best to bow to the superior international import expertise of the firm Harrison Enterprises as i have done here before.
mitchfit
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Post by mitchfit on May 26, 2023 17:43:45 GMT
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Post by conehead on Jan 8, 2024 0:06:09 GMT
Hey everyone, wasn't expecting this to be my first post, but here goes. I just bought a fiddle edge and am still waiting on UPS to deliver it. It spent a few days in a warehouse here in the US while waiting to be cleared by Customs. Today I got the bill for import fees and taxes in the amount of $471. Needless to say, I was a little shocked. Is this a normal amount for this sort of thing? I've only bought one other guitar internationally before, and that was from Japan. I had it in 3 days and no fees. I don't really get how this is supposed to work I guess. Now that I've gotten that off my chest, It's been awhile since I've been this excited about a new guitar. Looking forward to spending some time here and talking resos. |
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Post by conehead on Jan 8, 2024 0:12:32 GMT
Hey everyone, wasn't expecting this to be my first post, but here goes. I just bought a fiddle edge and am still waiting on UPS to deliver it. It spent a few days in a warehouse here in the US while waiting to be cleared by Customs. Today I got the bill for import fees and taxes in the amount of $471. Needless to say, I was a little shocked. Is this a normal amount for this sort of thing? I've only bought one other guitar internationally before, and that was from Japan. I had it in 3 days and no fees. I don't really get how this is supposed to work I guess. Now that I've gotten that off my chest, It's been awhile since I've been this excited about a new guitar. Looking forward to spending some time here and talking resos. I have been considering buying a MM blues and this has been my concern. I am in Idaho. I have spent a lot of time doing research and have ended up more confused than when I started. The information on the customs site is also very confusing! I am looking into buying the guitar from the 12th Fret in Toronto Canada and having it shipped to Idaho. The duty seems fairly reasonable but the murkiness of what other charges might be involved spooks me. The last time I bought a guitar from Canada it was a Gibson and there were no fees whatsoever but of course Gibson is made in the USA and probably the guitar fell under the Fair Trade agreement. I did e mail the 12th Fret and plan on contacting the customs office etc...But will also ask has anyone else ever had one of these shipped from Canada to the US? |
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Post by mitchfit on Jan 8, 2024 18:09:02 GMT
if you PM Michael he can give you the "tax, license and dealer prep" [total] cost of getting an MM blues guit to your front door. as far as exports from north of the border, no experience on my part. would suggest contacting 12th fret by email as they will know from many previous dealings to US. also, check currency exchange rates. www.exchange-rates.org/exchange-rate-history/cad-usd-2021-12-31hope this helped, mitchfit |
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Post by mitchfit on Jan 8, 2024 18:24:50 GMT
PS---
just read this--see MM blues 12 fret thread below in recent uploads.
mitchfit
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Post by Matt on Jan 9, 2024 21:31:49 GMT
Hey everyone, wasn't expecting this to be my first post, but here goes. I just bought a fiddle edge and am still waiting on UPS to deliver it. It spent a few days in a warehouse here in the US while waiting to be cleared by Customs. Today I got the bill for import fees and taxes in the amount of $471. Needless to say, I was a little shocked. Is this a normal amount for this sort of thing? I've only bought one other guitar internationally before, and that was from Japan. I had it in 3 days and no fees. I don't really get how this is supposed to work I guess. Now that I've gotten that off my chest, It's been awhile since I've been this excited about a new guitar. Looking forward to spending some time here and talking resos. The feds should have hit you for 8.7% on the guitar, I don't suppose they accidentally accounted for shipping? The Mass. theory sounds plausible too. |
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Post by Michael Messer on Jan 10, 2024 9:18:51 GMT
Hey everyone, wasn't expecting this to be my first post, but here goes. I just bought a fiddle edge and am still waiting on UPS to deliver it. It spent a few days in a warehouse here in the US while waiting to be cleared by Customs. Today I got the bill for import fees and taxes in the amount of $471. Needless to say, I was a little shocked. Is this a normal amount for this sort of thing? I've only bought one other guitar internationally before, and that was from Japan. I had it in 3 days and no fees. I don't really get how this is supposed to work I guess. Now that I've gotten that off my chest, It's been awhile since I've been this excited about a new guitar. Looking forward to spending some time here and talking resos. The feds should have hit you for 8.7% on the guitar, I don't suppose they accidentally accounted for shipping? The Mass. theory sounds plausible too. Matt, sadly that is not the case. The import charges are calculated on the total amount including shipping. There is also an extra charge for goods manufactured in the Republic of China and sometimes they want a handling fee on the top. MM Fiddle Edge guitars are now listed as assembled in the UK. Also, for reasons that are difficult to trace, import duties vary from state to state and in some cases from operator to operator. As pointed out by Mitchfit, they can be paid at this end when I book the shipment, but that could work out more expensive for some. The whole subject of import taxes, duties and handling fees, is a mystery. Shine On Michael |
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