International shipping from Germany to USA and VAT?

[KevinO]

I'm finding that the better selection of Steirische Diatonic Button boxes are in the EU. Has anyone experienced an online purchase from Germany or Austria to the US? I'm curious what the added taxes were roughly as a percentage? Let's assume a purchase of $4000 US dollars for a new accordion.

thanks for any insights?

 

[SteveBox]

I have purchased an accordion and other musical products from EU countries. There should be no VAT (Value Added Tax, called MWSt in German) if the item is shipped to a country that is not in the EU. This can be a significant savings over the online price you see, which usually includes the VAT (as high as 20%). Of course, there could be US customs duty to pay. In my case, the customs duty on a $3700 accordion was $140, half of which was DHL's processing fee.

 

[Jim2010]

Here is a link to the info you seek:

Harmonized Tariff Schedule

hts.usitc.gov

(scroll down to Chapter 92)
Customs on button accordions seems to be 2.6%, but there is an unexplained column that seems to show that it is sometimes free.

 

[Valski]

Don't know about American duties however I looked into Importing an accordion into Canada. There are no import duties on musical instruments so to speak into Canada coming from the European Union. You will however pay the Canadian equivalent of a value added tax here and this can vary depending on the province where you return to and these range from 6-15%, so the savings are not as large as one might expect. Plus there can be issues with warranties on an instrument not sold in the USA.

 

[Siegmund]

Here is a link to the info you seek:

Harmonized Tariff Schedule

hts.usitc.gov

(scroll down to Chapter 92)
Customs on button accordions seems to be 2.6%, but there is an unexplained column that seems to show that it is sometimes free.

There is a list of countries we have free-trade agreements with, from which the 2.6% is not assessed. The "General Notes" PDF has the list of countries (see pages 6 and 11-13 of it.) Briefly, most developing countries, and most of South America, are duty-free, most industrialized countries have 2.6% duty.

Importing from Europe, items made in Ukraine and Bosnia are duty free; items from Belarus and Russia have the 40% rate; items from almost everywhere else (Italy and Germany and France) are 2.6%. Edited to add: it is the country of origin, not the country where the sale happens, that matters. (China is also 2.6%.)

 

[mbaggio65]

I ordered a Ketron SD90 directly from the factory in Italy. I had to pay about ~ $200 tariffs and fees. I know others got it without, not sure what my holdup was.
Markus

 

[Ventura]

in the old days, you could not choose the shipping middleman and
common carriers had so much latitude on how they did things
(like bundling shipments into ports of entry, then sharing the
overall cost of the bundle between all the different end receivers

NOW you can insist they use UPS or FedEx, which both companies
have established themselves fully through Europe in recent times.
These companies treat your package and shipment specifically and individually
and apply uniform "rules" whether across town or across the Ocean

so my advise is simply be SPECIFIC with whoever you are giving
your Money to, and insist upon choosing to have it shipped your way

 

[Tom]

Of course I would never do this myself, but my friend was told to make sure to print "REPAIR" in large letters all over the box.

 

[KevinO]

Update on this... I did make a purchase from Germany and UPS was the shipper. It was like $20 for UPS customs processing and the duties were around $25. It was coded as a musical instrument or equipment. It took a few days to get through the system and I did have to call UPS customs department to provide my SSN. Once I did that it showed up 2 days later without issue. So a pretty smooth and low cost process.