US import duty

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Mravk

·Jun 14, 2023

First time long time... I made an impulse buy at chrono24 for my first watch. I want to share with forum members how much I paid for US import duty throught UPS (I had the smae question before I bought):

Watch $1100
Brokerage Charges:$12.00
Freight Charges: 0.00
Government Charges: $24.02

Seller listed:
movement: 47%
case: 47%
band: 6%
battery: 0

 

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Dan S

·Jun 14, 2023

Generally it is advantageous to put a higher value on the movement and lower values on case and band, because the customs duty involves percentages of those components. The specific calculation depends on the type of watch, the number of jewels, the material of the case and band, etc.

To see the schedule for yourself, google: US harmonized tariff schedule watches

This should lead you to Chapter 91. It takes a little effort to wade through it, but all the information is there to read. This does not include fees from the agent (usually the courier service), which can easily add up to $50 these days.

 

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RevZMan123

·Jun 14, 2023

closer from japan on ebay does 70/20/10 usually but it's up to the seller on how they chose to do the breakdown.

 

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gbesq

·Jun 14, 2023

I have no complaints about US Customs charges on watches that I have purchased from international sellers. In my experience, U.S. Customs is crazy cheap compared to what my overseas OF friends have to pay on their imported purchases.

 

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Evitzee

·Jun 14, 2023

US Customs, at the present time, takes the view that there is not much revenue to be gained from these sorts of imported items relative to the costs expended. Other countries go after all revenue regardless of what it costs, largely to show the citizen who is in control.

 

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DON

·Jun 14, 2023

I paid that much for a $120 movement shipped from China.

if I knew they were going to use UPS. I would have suggested China Post and saved on the $22 brokerage fee from UPS

 

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Gefa

·Jun 14, 2023

gbesq

crazy cheap

...well said 🙁

 

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Larry S

·Jun 14, 2023·Color Commentator for the Hyperbole.

gbesq

I have no complaints about US Customs charges on watches that I have purchased from international sellers. In my experience, U.S. Customs is crazy cheap compared to what my overseas OF friends have to pay on their imported purchases.

+1 always aghast at what our non US members pay. It’s disgusting.

 

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Seaborg

·Jun 14, 2023

Larry S

+1 always aghast at what our non US members pay. It’s disgusting.

Yep.
It is even often a deal-breaker... 🙁

 

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Larry S

·Jun 14, 2023·Color Commentator for the Hyperbole.

Seaborg

Yep.
It is even often a deal-breaker... 🙁

Makes it almost impossible to repatriate the watches I’ve imported. Sad.

 

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Risto

·Jun 15, 2023

Not so lucky here in Estonia. We pay 20% VAT + customs tariff of 6%. Also, govt is planning to raise VAT to 22% next year 🙁

 

R

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roh123

·Jun 15, 2023

We have 25% vat on-top in Sweden. Customs is the easy part. 😀

 

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Mark020

·Jun 16, 2023·not the sharpest pencil in the ΩF drawer

Just bought a watch part in the USA at an auction. Hammer USD 275. Including fee, shipping, import tax, VAT & Fedex handling I paid EUR 664....

 

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YY77

·Jun 16, 2023

Mark020

Just bought a watch part in the USA at an auction. Hammer USD 275. Including fee, shipping, import tax, VAT & Fedex handling I paid EUR 664....

Fee and shipping must have been crazy high, a purchase from Japan to NL only totalled to all in 22% for me.

Import tax was only €0,80.

Edit: saw you're talking about a part, mine was a watch.

Edited: Jun 16, 2023

 

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HamDoctor

·Jun 16, 2023

For importing watches and parts to Germany, I usually end up paying 20% of the total value of the shipment when buying from abroad. VAT is 19%, but there's also a base fee and sometimes a tiny bit of extra customs for items that are not strictly watches (like boxes, bracelets etc.).

As a rule of thumb, adding one-fifth to the price of that "crazy cheap auction I'm currently looking at" has worked out well... and suddenly, it's not so crazy cheap anymore, sigh.

 

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Mark020

·Jun 16, 2023·not the sharpest pencil in the ΩF drawer

YY77

Fee and shipping must have been crazy high,

USD 82.50 fee and USD 114 shipping and handling. Total USD 471.50 which was EUR 447.05 on my Visa so exchange rate 1.0547. Import tax EUR 17.20, VAT EUR 84.92 and handling fee EUR 15. Ouch....

 

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gbesq

·Jun 16, 2023

EU taxing authorities: “The bill for your imported Constellation, sir”

 

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RevZMan123

·Nov 6, 2023

I imported a watch from Nick Hacko in Australia, using the form supplied by them and DHL. The taxes weren't bad this time but now I see a fee I don't recall before: Bonded Storage $150.

It would have been $65 if not for this thing.

Bonded Storage − If a shipment is registered into bond and subsequently held for more than three calendar days following the arrival date in a bonded DHL or non-DHL facility, either when awaiting documentation from the receiver or importer, or when clearance has been assigned to a third party broker.

Which is dick because it ended up being held up because they didn't contact me about pretty much anything. I had to call them where all the paperwork said they would contact me. Annoying.

 

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theluckyluke

·Nov 6, 2023

Crazy how different the import taxes are between US and EU. Easy to understand why EU buyers are seeking from the EU… what’s sort of sad is that we already have less offering generally in the EU I think and the difference is only getting worse with such tax discrepancies.

 

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bardamu

·Nov 6, 2023

theluckyluke

Crazy how different the import taxes are between US and EU. Easy to understand why EU buyers are seeking from the EU… what’s sort of sad is that we already have less offering generally in the EU I think and the difference is only getting worse with such tax discrepancies.

Sad but true.
I ended up simply not buying anything expensive from outside EU.