Post tariff world

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mdt-son said:
So AN is collecting the tariff on behalf of the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP)? I guess this is offered as a service not to delay processing with the customs. Still, some US states charge consumer tax which isn't collected by AN, as far as I know.

- Knut
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Nor is State Tax REQUIRED to be collected.
 
States cannot force sellers to charge Sales Tax on purchases made in another state unless the seller has a presence in that state. So, eBay and Amazon add the purchasers Sales Tax because they have presence in every state. I only have a presence in Virginia, so I charge sales tax on sales in Virginia only. No state charges Sales Tax on purchases outside the country. Some states ask (not force) you to pay on purchases outside the state, but they really don't have standing to do that. With the exception of the rights given up to the Federal Govt, states are similar to sovereign countries. Not all states have Sales Tax. Some states break the Sales tax into State/County/Local but the state sets the rate, and it can vary by the parts of the state. In VA is on goods but not services or food and in my area 6%.

There is no Federal (central) Sales Tax.

Until now, there has been no customs delay as long as the seller marks the HSS code correctly. Best I can tell by working a test order (not finishing it), AN is not only paying the Duties but the shippers "fee" as well which is definitely not what I hoped.
 
FWIW I was told by our tax accountant that in the US states he was familiar with, if an item is purchased out of state and shipped to you with no state sales tax applied, you are responsible to declare that and pay the appropriate sales tax in your state. Per him, only a "gift" would not be subject to tax. Also per him, check your individual state for the precise regulations. I don't know anyone who actually does this in the USA though I do know one person in the UK who DOES declare/pay the appropriate tax when he receives items from out-of-country that were not taxed.

AN immediately charging the tariff amount for shipping an order is, IMO, not reasonable or proper. They don't have to pay the tariff to send the order to the US. US Customs will (or may not) apply the customs charge that the buyer will have to pay. I have received many orders from other countries that SOMETIMES, the customs applies the charge and SOMETIMES they don't. AN applying it up front is giving them money that they have no right to receive. They will MAKE money doing this that they would not have made by simply shipping the product at the "correct" price and let the custom charges fall where they may for the buyer to deal with. Further, it is not currently known if parts such as these will or will not be charged the "full" Tarrif price yet AN is forcing folks to pay that price.
 
I long for the good old days. In this case the good old days started in the late 80s and ended on March 4 2025.
Prior to that I could order MC parts or machinery parts from any supplier in the UK, France or Australia and have them shipped to my PO box in the US, no tariff, an no tariff bringing them from there into Canada.
I discovered that it was the same cost and a bit quicker to have items shipped to the US rather than directly to me in Canada.
This was because the US Customs did not inspect any packages, at least not any of my items. I have brought in hundreds of items this way.
Up until a few years ago Canada Customs inspected every international package that I brought in. This created a delay, sometimes a week or so.
I guess it could be argued that they were doing their job, looking for contraband drugs, guns etc.
I tried direct ordering from the UK again a fee years ago and Canada now seems just as slipshod and fast as the US.
For the last few years Canada Customs hasn't opened any of my packages from AN and deliveries have been quick.
Good thing as the US door is, for the moment, firmly shut.
It will be interesting to see if some stuff that is not subject to tariff goes up in price anyway.
I saw a local motorcycle dealer ad where they claimed they had old pre tariff stock of Triumphs, KT Ms available at the old price and that all new stock would go up due to these new tariffs.
This makes no sense at all since Triumph is a UK firm and the bikes are built in Thailand. Canada is part of the British Commonwealth which means we have Free Trade, Zero Tariff on almost everything from the UK, just like we had with the US post R. Reagan.
It has been that way with the UK for at least 50 years.
I'm pretty sure we also have free trade with Thailand, but I will check.
If so, I'm going to call the dealer on this as the last thing we need is dealers piling on extra profit and pretending it's a tariff.

The AN letter makes no sense. It may be that they are permitted/ required to collect the US tariff on USA bound parts and forward that to the US Government.

They definitely should not be collecting US Tariffs on items bound for Canada or Mexico. Canada and Mexico have not levied tariffs on the UK.


Glen
 
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Would be informative to know if AN also applies tariffs to orders from other countries that do tariff UK goods....perhaps this is just the option AN does with all tariff charging countires?
 
Gents,
Apologies on two counts:
1. We did not realize the mistake in that we said "North America" whilst it should have read "The US";
2. Since we do not know yet if we will be charged by the freighter, or if the customer will be charged at his door, we thought it wise to charge the customer in advance. As soon as we know the customer is charged in the US, not us in the UK, we will refund the 10% we have overcharged in that case. Easier to charge first and refund then than to run after the customer asking him to, please, refund us for the customs charges.

This must be seen with the background we currently have with the tax officials down under who all of a sudden found Andover Norton owes tariffs the customer should have paid in the last four(!) years. Which, for unknown reasons we did not know we had to raise and pay their tax office, aussuming, as you do about the US tariffs, if due they'd be raised from the customer in the country of destination.
Hence our, perhaps rash, decision to ask for the tariff surcharge from US customers before we are caught out again as we currently are Down Under.

All this will be clearer shortly and we will react as soon as we can, but with all this coming in from one day to another we really do not know yet how the traiffs will be worked.
Joe Seifert
 
ZFD said:
Gents,
Apologies on two counts:
1. We did not realize the mistake in that we said "North America" whilst it should have read "The US";
2. Since we do not know yet if we will be charged by the freighter, or if the customer will be charged at his door, we thought it wise to charge the customer in advance. As soon as we know the customer is charged in the US, not us in the UK, we will refund the 10% we have overcharged in that case. Easier to charge first and refund then than to run after the customer asking him to, please, refund us for the customs charges.

This must be seen with the background we currently have with the tax officials down under who all of a sudden found Andover Norton owes tariffs the customer should have paid in the last four(!) years. Which, for unknown reasons we did not know we had to raise and pay their tax office, aussuming, as you do about the US tariffs, if due they'd be raised from the customer in the country of destination.
Hence our, perhaps rash, decision to ask for the tariff surcharge from US customers before we are caught out again as we currently are Down Under.

All this will be clearer shortly and we will react as soon as we can, but with all this coming in from one day to another we really do not know yet how the traiffs will be worked.
Joe Seifert
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Joe,

I tried a test order and could not figure out what you are doing.

I hoped that it was (parts total * 1.1) + shipping - it's not. (Proper)
Then I thought (parts total + shipping) * 1.1 - it's not (Possibly Proper although not how I ship internationally))
Then I thought ((parts total + shipping) * 1.1) + "broker fee" - it's not. (Matches how carriers do it)

So, I'm at a loss to see what you are charging. If you pre-collect the customs I would expect the first and that's better than it has been when you don't include the HSS code 8714-10-0050 and the carrier (DHL especially) tries to add customs. When that happens it takes me 1-2 weeks to get them to deliver without customs as there has been none until now.

BTW, we never pay "at the door". The shippers can't get their fee for that so they "pay it for you" and charge a fee and until you pay them back or get them to understand that are no duties, they do not deliver (at least true of DHL & UPS to me).
 
Just got back from a week off, so not quite up to speed with the US situation. We are still awaiting confirmation from the couriers, but basically it is looking like it will work like this - US Customs charge the courier, the courier charges us and we charge the customer. As you can see, it is in the hands of the US Customs and how they want to collect the tariff, once that is decided then it will be pretty straight forward.

Hopefully the blanket US tariffs have a short shelf life.
 
Tornado said:
Would be informative to know if AN also applies tariffs to orders from other countries that do tariff UK goods....perhaps this is just the option AN does with all tariff charging countires?
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What we do depends on the receiving countries policy as to collecting the tariff or sales tax. Australia insist we collect their sales tax depending on the size of the order or if it is being shipped to a private customer or business. Most countries collect their own tariffs and taxes, a few don't don't but are looking at the couriers to collect it for them.
 
In Sweden and probably in other EU countries too, some goods from China and UK has VAT added. Seller sends VAT to our country. Different story with tariffs. Low value purchases exempt from tariff.
 
t ingermanson said:
Without getting into the politics or usefulness (or not) of the recent tariffs, today the Andover newsletter said they'd be charging an additional surcharge for orders going to the US. So, is this a private retaliatory tariff on the hapless citizens/customers on this side of the pond, @Madnorton ?

As an importer of parts in the past, I've always paid tariffs to the company who transits the goods (FedEx, UPS, DHL, etc). I don't understand how an exporter is responsible for any import tariff of another country whatsoever.

Please, let us know what you're experiencing as an exporter to the US, and what we should expect. The newsletter was shy on details and rationale.

Thanks
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The current USA Tariff are an 'Export' charge not an 'Import' charge. This means that the exporter is responsible for making the payments to the US Customs. We understand this will be done via the Couriers, (As they Export on our Behalf). This is why Jaguar Land Rover have halted Vehicle movements to the USA.

As we have said if any overpayments are made these will be returned.
 
It is still very fluid, but one thing has come to light that the US is stipulating the exporter / shipper pays the tariff to the US. Don't all jump for joy, because do you honestly think that we or anyone else will take a 10%+ hit on revenue. The US customer will end up paying the 10%, sadly it looks like some companies may not even bother to ship to the US, thankfully we are working with our global couriers to get a system in place that works so that we can continue to sell into the USA. For us the products we ship are actually already sold to a customer, for some companies like car manufacturers I suspect will not export to the US when they have to pay the tariff and then have to try and sell the items at an enhanced price once the items are in the US.
AN did not introduce or want this tariff, and I suspect many of our customers feel the same. Sadly the administration that introduced it are still not forthcoming with enough detail at this early stage to enable a system to be put in place. We have asked questions about size of orders tariffs could apply to, dealing with trade customers etc, but at the moment we don't have the detail from the US that is needed. What we do know is that all parcels arriving at the US border from last Saturday will incur the tariff irrespective of what date the purchase was made even pre 2nd April. It is due to this why prices have risen, it is not pre-emptive, unfair or anything else - parcels arriving at the US border are being charged now and have been since last Saturday, and here at AN we want to make sure that any tariffs and exchange rate fees charged to us from the couriers is covered. Once we know more and if customers have been overcharged, then we will of course refund where applicable.
 
Another casualty of this is shipping costs. I want to place a small order of about US $25. Used to be Royal Mail and USPS charges would be about $10 or 12 dollars. Only options now are DHL or UPS at almosr double the cost of the parts because they are the only ones set up to collect the tariff.
 
What a giant mess to sort out. I can see where a small business might just choose to avoid the whole thing by eliminating US shipments.
The Penquins on Heard and McDonald Island have already levied retaliatory tariffs. They must be paid up front and only in Krill or Squid.

Glen
 
we thought it wise to charge the customer in advance.

So, you use my money to keep your books covered and I might get the charged advance back if it works for your biz/income profile? Do you return the advanced charged with the interest it earned while you held it?
Maybe this technique is wise for for your books, not so much for your customers.
 
Lineslinger said:
we thought it wise to charge the customer in advance.

So, you use my money to keep your books covered and I might get the charged advance back if it works for your biz/income profile? Do you return the advanced charged with the interest it earned while you held it?
Maybe this technique is wise for for your books, not so much for your customers.
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As he said, parcels arriving in the US as of last Saturday are incuring the Tariff . It has to be paid by AN or their shipper at that point in order for the item to be delivered to you.
I don't see how AN can not charge the customer at this time.
As a business owner, now retired, if I was in AN's shoes, I certainly would add the Tariff to the bill.
I wouldn't swallow it in the hope someone might reimburse me later on.



Glen
 
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