Quote Originally Posted by bear@bearkilts.com
DHL has waited a month before sending me a bill for border fees. You're not out of the woods, yet.
How true have these words of forestry advice from wise old bear proven themselves to be when yesterday should arrive by post a bill from DHL for a few units in excess of $200 USD. The amount is based on a flat 12%, the typical rate of duty applied to garments of wool not meant for warmth. (If you are buying it to keep yourself warm, laddie, the rate for such a privelege is 16.3% plus $.41/kg. of weight.) Were I to file a protest, I could probably get a few dollars knocked off since the entirety of the shipment was not of a woolen nature, consisting also of a belt and a kilt pin, both of which are purportedly taxed at a lower rate than wool, and I might decide to persue this path of objection if I am feeling particularly tenacious/tedious come Monday morning. What I will most likely do is cut a check for this one and keep things simple with the one letter of protest I have already sent.

For reasons of being thorough, I am also trying to presently obtain some specific classification information from U.S. Customs. I would like to give some hard facts here should anyone else in the near future need to know specific designations for kilt related imports and their corresponding rates of duty. I have a few of the numbers for the wool garments but nothing confirmed for goods of a leather nature such as shoes, belts, and sporrans. Metal items such as jewelry, and sgian dubhs also confound me since the tarriff data base is one nebulous place to loiter: Is a sgian dubh a weapon, or is it jewelry? Suffice to say that it you use it to open a letter or butter your bread, the rates of duty will be potentially different.

Mychael