VAT and Customs; shipping a keyboard ti USA

[keyboard Kultist]

The title says it all I'm negotiating the purchase of a keyboard from Europe into the USA and there is concern about VAT and customs, etc. Any advice would be much appreciated. The plan is to pay by paypal.

[vvp]

An European company must ship it to you without VAT. You will pay price without VAT at the time of ordering.
If here are any import duties for keyboards in USA then you will be paying them when the keyboard arrives to USA. There is no VAT in USA so you will not pay any VAT but import duties may be applicable.

[keyboard Kultist]

An European company must ship it to you without VAT. You will pay price without VAT at the time of ordering.
If here are any import duties for keyboards in USA then you will be paying them when the keyboard arrives to USA. There is no VAT in USA so you will not pay any VAT but import duties may be applicable.

Thanks! Sorry to bother folks again, but how does that work exactly? I imagine the keyboard will arrive in some place like New York and make it's way to me here in scenic Tennessee after all parties are satisfied. Do I have to make some arrangements to pay duties when it arrives in the USA or does that happen when I receive it?

This my first foray into the action packed world of international keyboardism

[kmnov2017]

In Europe, generally we get an invoice to pay from the customs.

I am a bit surprised that you are buying a keyboard from Europe and having it shipped over to the US. I would expect it to be the other way round, there’s tons of retro stuff that I’d rather buy from the US....which are impossible to get in Europe...

[vometia]

I can only speak of my experiences in the UK but incoming parcels will usually be held hostage until relevant import duties, local taxes and "handling fees" are paid. The exact mechanism depends on the courier who does the last leg, which is whoever the originating shipping company has a contract to deal with (usually not especially obvious). They'll generally negotiate the parcel through customs paying the duty on your behalf and will then contact you to pay them before they deliver it. They can be variously slow about doing so.

But that's how it is in the UK. The US may be entirely different... From what I've heard, UK customs tend to be more pedantic than most.

[keyboard Kultist]

In Europe, generally we get an invoice to pay from the customs.

I am a bit surprised that you are buying a keyboard from Europe and having it shipped over to the US. I would expect it to be the other way round, there’s tons of retro stuff that I’d rather buy from the US....which are impossible to get in Europe...

Well, it's a rather hard board to obtain Acer KB102A

[Wazrach]

I can only speak of my experiences in the UK but incoming parcels will usually be held hostage until relevant import duties, local taxes and "handling fees" are paid. The exact mechanism depends on the courier who does the last leg, which is whoever the originating shipping company has a contract to deal with (usually not especially obvious). They'll generally negotiate the parcel through customs paying the duty on your behalf and will then contact you to pay them before they deliver it. They can be variously slow about doing so.

But that's how it is in the UK. The US may be entirely different... From what I've heard, UK customs tend to be more pedantic than most.

Fedex handled my Unicomp Ultra Classic order last year, only sending me the import charges three weeks after I received it. Parcelforce are twats. They will hold your parcel and expect you to pay the ransom before you get it. It would be more expensive to travel to the depot and refuse the "handling fees" than it would be to just pay the whole lot. -.-

[cli]

In Europe, generally we get an invoice to pay from the customs.

I am a bit surprised that you are buying a keyboard from Europe and having it shipped over to the US. I would expect it to be the other way round, there’s tons of retro stuff that I’d rather buy from the US....which are impossible to get in Europe...

Well, it's a rather hard board to obtain Acer KB102A

Have some patience...
Few months ago someone sold his NEC blue alps board, which was a rebadged Acer 101A

[keyboard Kultist]

Blue Alps have become a minor obsession with me, I have several boards with those lovely switchs. I blame Chyros for sparking this mania...thanks Tom!

[keyboard Kultist]

I can only speak of my experiences in the UK but incoming parcels will usually be held hostage until relevant import duties, local taxes and "handling fees" are paid. The exact mechanism depends on the courier who does the last leg, which is whoever the originating shipping company has a contract to deal with (usually not especially obvious). They'll generally negotiate the parcel through customs paying the duty on your behalf and will then contact you to pay them before they deliver it. They can be variously slow about doing so.

But that's how it is in the UK. The US may be entirely different... From what I've heard, UK customs tend to be more pedantic than most.

Thanks Vometia, the US postal service has a (somewhat deserved) reputation for being slow and inefficient, though I've had a lot of things delivered by them with no problems. Of course there's always fedex.

[dcopellino]

But that's how it is in the UK. The US may be entirely different... From what I've heard, UK customs tend to be more pedantic than most.

Pedantic is an euphemism if you consider my experience with UK customs. When I was contacted by uk cc dpd collect courier for paying an item coming from Shenzhen they requested me an additional fee of 20.70£ to route it to Italy as final destination. so far it could seem normal but... their website was buggy and it didn't properly precess PayPal payment, so I was forced to make an international bank transfer in a different currency for an extra amount of about 25£. (20.70+25)£ for an item declared as much as 45£. Are they crazy? Regrexit? I don't think so. Rather #crazexit!!

[vometia]

Fedex handled my Unicomp Ultra Classic order last year, only sending me the import charges three weeks after I received it. Parcelforce are twats. They will hold your parcel and expect you to pay the ransom before you get it. It would be more expensive to travel to the depot and refuse the "handling fees" than it would be to just pay the whole lot. -.-

The handling fees are a special annoyance of their own considering they're just the cost of doing business for postage that has already been paid for. I've seen people justify them on the basis of "you could do it yourself, it would be so much work!" And yes, I'm sure it would, just like it would be so much work for me to pay my own VAT, but fortunately the woman at the local shop does it for me and doesn't charge me a VAT processing fee and make me wait until the end of the week before she'll hand over my stuff! I understand the relevant HMRC and PF people are in the same building and that ~£13 pays for probably about 30 seconds of some minimum wager's efforts. Which they don't always get right, but good luck trying to get them to review it...

Pedantic is an euphemism if you consider my experience with UK customs. When I was contacted by uk cc dpd collect courier for paying an item coming from Shenzhen they requested me an additional fee of 20.70£ to route it to Italy as final destination. so far it could seem normal but... their website was buggy and it didn't properly precess PayPal payment, so I was forced to make an international bank transfer in a different currency for an extra amount of about 25£. (20.70+25)£ for an item declared as much as 45£. Are they crazy? Regrexit? I don't think so. Rather #crazexit!!

"Pedantic" on the basis that it seems that most low-value stuff is intercepted to see if they can apply charges; AFAICT most countries have much higher limits (in the UK it was recently reduced to just £15, which includes postage) and charges aren't so widely imposed for low-value stuff as it's a waste of everyone's time.

But that is quite the experience you had there. I would be ranting about that for years. I especially hate arbitrary bank charges like that...

[XMIT]

No import taxes for keyboards from Europe to the US. No VAT, no customs fee, none of this. Have the sender complete the customs declaration as they would anyway.

Source: multiple keyboards received from Russia, Ukraine, France, Germany, the UK.

[keyboard Kultist]

No import taxes for keyboards from Europe to the US. No VAT, no customs fee, none of this. Have the sender complete the customs declaration as they would anyway.

Source: multiple keyboards received from Russia, Ukraine, France, Germany, the UK.

Thanks XMIT. BTW, I love those Hall effect switchs