Jellyfish Posted July 17, 2021 Share Posted July 17, 2021 Apologies if this has been discussed here before but... does anyone know - exactly - what duty and/or fees are payable when a guitar is imported to the US from overseas? Here's the situation: I am considering purchasing a non-American made instrument from a reputable guitar store in Europe. As I understand it, the store will take care of any export paperwork and fees at their end, but I would be liable for any import duty or fees at the point the guitar enters the US. Can anyone confirm or deny? Any pitfalls I should know about? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
django49 Posted July 17, 2021 Share Posted July 17, 2021 Last time I did it (a European made guitar) was not recently. IIRC, the assessment was more or less the equivalent of the local sales tax rate. Might have been a coincidence...Around 8% of the value. I cannot be confident that your state might not ALSO expect you to pay THEM (as a use tax) on top of that. CA tax rates may be more like 10% these days. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HamerCustomEr Posted July 18, 2021 Share Posted July 18, 2021 I import gear all the time to Canada. All I pay is local sales tax, unless FedEx or UPS decides to charge a brokerage fee, which can run into hundreds of dollars. From Europe, I would recommend either the Post Office, or DHL. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dutchman Posted July 18, 2021 Share Posted July 18, 2021 There's a guy on Youtube that will ship or recieve guitars from anywhere in the world. I think he calls himself Trogly, he's been around for years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JustKid Posted July 19, 2021 Share Posted July 19, 2021 Bought from overseas quite a few guitars, not US made. No problem. The real question is - How much is that guitar? And very important - who is the shipper. Tell them to use EMS ( express mail via post office) and you'll have no problem ( again, depending on the price of the instrument and declared value. Some 3 years ago ordered 3 Gibbys from Thomann, they were running huge sale, specifically spoke to the guy about Express Mail. Never paid a dime on import. But bought one from Canada, US made, guy shipped it with Fedex , 2 weeks later got fedex bill for brokerage services $80. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ting Ho Dung Posted July 19, 2021 Share Posted July 19, 2021 What ever the "fee" is, it's called theft. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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