Custom Fees for Tonearms on Ebay From Japan

I bought 3 tonearms from Japan via eBay a few years ago. A Denon 307 and two Fidelity Research arms: an FR29 and an FR54. No custom fees or tariffs!

Thanks JB - do you recall the carrier?  Was it Fedex, UPS, DHL, EMS etc?

I’m not in the USA, but when I checked for a friend I realized the tax free limit is $2500 (for good for personal use) and then you pay 3-4% import tax if declared value is over $2500. READ THIS!

Slightly different information here.

It doesn’t matter what shipping method do you use. At the moment you can’t use Japan Post (EMS) to ship to USA (covid restrictions by Japan post), only sea mail available. But you can use DHL from Japan to USA.

Ask the seller to declare lower value for custom control and you will not pay any import tax. When I sell something to USA (or elsewhere) declared value is very low, no one never paid any import tax, but every parcel was inspected my custom control in USA (it can take from 2 days to a week).

Misha-

Thanks for the information - definitely helpful.  I'd heard about instances where DHL charged inappropriately for the duties, but its here say and wanted to hear from folks directly.

I'll PM you for some advice once I get decide to go down the Japanese route.

 

It seems to be different every time...even when values are true. I import several lines and am constantly surprised at how variable the duty is....
That said a used item for personal purchase will likely be little to nil.

You guys are lucky in America, because in Europe they change import tax on everything over 30-40 EUR and the tax is about 20-30%. In my country the tax is 15% on everything over 200 EUR and they only want to low down the limit to zero to charge more.

30-40 euros shipping costs included.
So even asking the seller for lower customs value still you pay tax. Nice.

G