Again, I'm a newbie. Interesting thing about 'newbies,' they ask these types of questions. And I'm not allowed to ask in any sales area of OF until I have 200 posts. Then, I did do a search here but nothing popped up.

Question: How much are import duties?

For example, I bought some watch straps off of EBay recently. Now, unsolicited, I get some of their watch listings. There are a number of listings from Japan. Is there a resource somewhere, for Japan in this case, that tells me exactly what duties to expect?

 

Import duties and applicable taxes like VAT are owed to your country of residence when you purchase and import goods from another country. Where are you located?

 

Thank you. Answer: USA

 

https://www.cbp.gov/trade/programs-administration/determining-duty-rates

 

For US, basically nothing until yoou pasa a certain threshold, I think it used to be $2500 but see link above.

 

You will owe customs duty on imported goods as well as use tax to your state of residence. If you are importing a watch, the seller will need to complete what is known as a watch worksheet which US Customs will use to calcuate the duty owed. The value of the strap/bracelet, watch case and movement are all assessed for duty at different rates. Customs duty in the US is relatively low compared to most other industrialized nations.

 

FWIW, I'm in the US and just paid around $180 in duties on a $2600 purchase. So, I suppose that's about 7%?

 

I think it also has a good bit to do about how the seller fills out that watch worksheet. The movement is where most of the value of the watch is, however it's taxed the least. The case is taxed at one rate and the bracelet/strap another. So if the seller fills out the form with the vast majority of the sale price noted in the movement section, and say $200 for the case, $100 for the bracelet/strap, your duty owed will be greatly impacted. If they just split it in thirds, you'll pay more.

Here's another good read for you, they seem to lay it out fairly well.
https://theluxurywell.com/blogs/news/customsduties

And pardon, the link I sent before is a beast, over 4000 pages to sift through of the US Harmonized Tariff Schedule. Chapter 91 deals with watches and clocks specifically.

 

That’s correct about the watch worksheet. What you don’t want is the seller allocating most of the value of the watch to the watch case if it happens to be made of platinum.

 

I'm searching but having no luck...I recall a thread about this that laid our a 'general percentage' for each of the three components on the form. Something like movement = 60%, case = 25 or 30%, bracelet = 15 or 10%.

Or at least that's what my completely fried brain recalls after a day of working out 8MW of power distribution, panel schedules, load balancing, and failover matrix.

It may be time to shut down and enjoy one of these...


or possibly one of these...

 

I went through this recently, so it's still fresh in my mind. Here's a summary:

For a declared value of less than $800 (usd), there is no import duty.

Above $800:
Merchandise processing fee: ~0.3% of declared value; but there's a minimum of ~$30.
Import duty: ~$2 for the movement, ~10% of the bracelet value, ~4% of the case value.
Broker fee: about $10-$20 if you use DHL or Fedex.

Add all of that up, and that's about what they will ask from you. As mentioned above, you probably want realistic valuations for the bracelet and case, with the balance put on the movement.

 

Wow, that's actually pretty high. I was assessed less than that on a $6,300 watch imported from the UK. Had to pay 6% use tax to my state though. Still beats the UK, though. From what I know from other OF members there, between customs and VAT, it's about a 23.5% surcharge. That's brutal.

 

Ouch, 23.5% is no joke! You must have to be really committed to the hobby to pay fees like that

The 7% was higher than I expected - I ordered from Japan and didn't think much about it, as I never had import duties from there previously. I wonder if I hit a price threshold that triggered the duties as someone mentioned above.

 

Perhaps my post wasn't clear. I'm in the US, not in the UK. I have paid very modest customs charges on watches imported into the US. I was describing how the customs fees in the US are quite low compared to nations like the UK.

 

Gentlemen,

Thank you very much!

This has been an incredible amount of information. Certainly, a potentially significant economic factor when looking at your 'import' options. It's a sleeper that could smack you in the head hard if you didn't know.

But overall, in my short time here, this has been a wonderful forum.

On another note: I'll be tilting a glass in my freezer later tonight. Cheers!

 

In reality it's a crapshoot. The carrier used is a major factor. With DHL and FedEx you are definitely getting hit with a charge. I've had many shipments through USPS pass through with nothing due. I recently purchased a watch from Japan that was shipped via Japan Post and USPS and nothing was due. And this was a +$5,000 watch.

How the seller fills out the paperwork is also a major factor.

The most I've paid is around $200 for watches in the $3,000-$6,000 range.

 

No, it's my post that was confusing. I had meant "you" in a general sense, but should have said, "One would have to be really committed to the hobby to pay fees like that." It would be very odd if you were in the UK but had flown in for the Mid-Atlantic forum G2G.

That makes sense - DHL is the one that hit me with the ~7% fee this week.

 

I know from experience that importing from Japan in this case a vehicle was 30% in total in duty and vat.

 

So if importing a Rolex into the US it would look like this.

Something like
movement = 30%
case = 10%
bracelet = 15 or 10%
Rolex marketing gobbledygook = 45-50%