DHL invoice after getting a JNS shipment in the US?

[TimS]

I've placed two orders with Maxim. After my most recent order, I received an invoice for duty assessed by DHL. I know other countries pay an import duty, but I've never paid one in the U.S. And I'm not sure why one order was assessed a duty, and the other one wasn't?

Did I just get lucky by not being taxed on the first order, or did DHL make a mistake by billing me for duty on the second?

I'm curious to see what others' experiences have been.

Thanks,
Tim

[JBroida]

you got lucky the first time... they can charge you customs and duties on any of this stuff really

[schanop]

Hi TimS,

You are the lucky one.

I got one a couple of years ago for an order from Maxim. The charge was about $60 for random custom inspection recoup cost. If you search for references of incidents, you will find many and many people think that DHL just tries to get some extra money if you are happy to pay.

What I did was to ring DHL, and in the end they waived the charge.

[vinster]

There's technically a duty on kitchen knives, but not one on sharpening stones. For some reason, USPS almost never imposes a duty, but I've gotten a customs duty for some international packages shipped via ups, FedEx, and DHL.

I've gotten 2 duty invoices for packages from maxim out of probably 15 packages in the last year. On one package that was mostly stones with one knife, I called and said the duty was on the full value of items that shouldn't have been assessed. They wrote me a letter a couple weeks later saying that the duty was in error.

So it seems somewhat arbitrary. It depends on what's marked on the invoice and who's reviewing it at CBP. They have to match up items and values on the invoice with the complex harmonized tariff schedule. You can look up the HTS online if you want.

* the above only applies if you are in the US

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[EdipisReks]

I've never ever been invoiced for a duty, and I've gotten a ton of stuff over the years...

[JBroida]

there actually is a duty on stones too... its just much less than knives

[TimS]

Thanks for the info; I appreciate the comments. I guess I'll call DHL and see what they say.

FWIW, both shipments were stones only. Oh well, learn something new every day.

[jimbob]

Aussie customs were nice enough to drill into one of my stones and charge me for the pleasure!

[vinster]

there actually is a duty on stones too... its just much less than knives

Hey Jon -- which HTS code do you use on synthetic and natural stones?

I did a search of the USITC website (http://hts.usitc.gov/) and came up with the following categories (Sorry it's hard to read -- I'm bad at pasting tables):

6804 Millstones, grindstones, grinding wheels and the like, without frameworks, for grinding, sharpening, polishing, trueing or cutting, hand sharpening or polishing stones, and parts thereof, of natural stone, of agglomerated natural or artificial abrasives,

Other millstones, grindstones, grinding wheels and the like:
6804.21.00 00 Of agglomerated synthetic or natural diamond
6804.22 Of other agglomerated abrasives or of ceramics:
6804.22.10 00 Bonded with synthetic resins
Other:
6804.22.40 00 Abrasive wheels
6804.22.60 00 Other
6804.23.00 00 Of natural stone
6804.30.00 00 Hand sharpening or polishing stones

Or you can go here: http://hts.usitc.gov/Table%2068.xml#6804. Most of the items on the list are free of a "general" duty.

I called DHL and sayd that my items fell into the last category "Hand sharpening or polishing stones" and were duty free. It's usually someone's job to match up the packing slip with the ITC categories, and assess duties if any are due. People make mistakes, especially on small tickets

[JBroida]

i dont remember exactly what it was, but we had a customs broker deal with this stuff for us a couple of times and i recall it was... maybe 6804.22.10