Freedom Kilts and Duties and Taxes - a survey.

[The Wizard of BC]

I have been shipping kilts all over the world for four years now and have never heard directly from a customer about being charged Duty, Taxes, Excise, Fees, or other unexpected costs to get your kilt from "The Man".

Would anyone who has been charged additional monies please let me know here. It is important to others thinking about ordering from "overseas".

I do not advocate the use of declaring shipments as "gift" or "product samples" as a way to avoid legal taxes. But If I know what duties and taxes are being charged perhaps I can deal with them in a more equitable way.

You would think that shipments between Canada and the United Kingdom would get a break (we both have the queen on our money) but it seems I can ship to the moon cheaper.

We have all heard the horror stories of Fed Ex and duties between the UK and the US. We all know taxes are a fact of life in a modern world. But if I know exactly what my customers are being hit with perhaps I can find a way to lessen the impact.

[mcvarmit]

perhaps they are just horror stories, but they do keep me away from ordering merchandise from europe. i wish i could give you more info. but these rumors do effect my buying habits.

semper fi

slick

[AL-58]

In Australia, it's mostly dollar value based (some specific items may have individual taxs/duties applied). Generally if it's less than $500 AUD it will slip through without a problem. More than $500 will attract GST (10%), import duties can also get involved, you may even have to pay some taxes on the postage/freight costs (it's complicated). When I imported a Banjo from Tennessee it got stopped because it was very close(the vendor had declared it high for some reason, insurance maybe), but the paperwork I had was enough for customs to release it without me paying anything extra.

Al

[cessna152towser]

I had to pay a total of £50.29 to receive my Freedom Kilt from the Post Office. Import Duty, plus a small amount of VAT (may have been VAT on the import duty?), came to £35.29 and the Post Office took a handling charge of £15 for collecting the duties.

[Wompet]

In Australia, it's mostly dollar value based (some specific items may have individual taxs/duties applied). Generally if it's less than $500 AUD it will slip through without a problem.

In the U.S., the harmonized Tariff Schedule is tariff, duty by country of origin, and then by value. Having read through the pertinent chapter a couple of times, I can tell you - kilts don't really fall under any of the tariffs for men's clothing. Add in the cultural costume/clothing exemptions and the clothing<=$200 rule* (for those who undervalue their kilts), and kilts from Canada to the U.S. should be duty free.


*The personal exemption/gift exemption is actually $400 USD, but clothing and textiles of lesser value may be subject to duty.