Tariff avoiding strategy for USA

[hansyulian]

Due to the current tariff war, would it be cheaper if USA citizen to travel to mexico / canada, buy PC / parts there, then bring them back?

[Dedayog]

15 minutes ago, hansyulian said:

Due to the current tariff war, would it be cheaper if USA citizen to travel to mexico / canada, buy PC / parts there, then bring them back?

No idea.  Can you calculate a few examples?

 

We have no idea of tariff pricing yet, and travel to Mexico/Canada, nor reactionary pricing in Mexico or Canada.

 

 

[saintlouisbagels]

It depends on so many variables.

You would have to compare the price between USD and CAD. Then you have to find out how much it would cost to do a roundtrip. Flight ticket? Or are you going to be inducing wear on your vehicle? Will there be a time cost? Are you taking a vacation day or spending a weekend? etc. etc.

[RONOTHAN##]

One thing that's probably worth mentioning, it's technically illegal to do that, items purchased across the border need to be declared and have taxes/import dues paid on them when you bring them across. Whether or not it'll be enforced or if there's ways around it I don't know, but from the bit I know about the law (admittedly not a lot) doing this would be considered smuggling. 

 

Basically you might want to consult a lawyer before you think about trying this. 

[SorryBella]

2 minutes ago, RONOTHAN## said:

need to be declared and have taxes/import dues paid on them when you bring them across.

If its for personal use you can repatriate it for lower rate, least in Indonesia. But yeah i dont know if US has the same scheme.

[RONOTHAN##]

3 minutes ago, SorryBella said:

If its for personal use you can repatriate it for lower rate, least in Indonesia. But yeah i dont know if US has the same scheme.

Yeah, either way you should consult a lawyer before you attempt it to make sure you're not breaking any laws or anything by trying to bring it in or pay less. There might be some workarounds like that, again I'm not a lawyer I just know a law saying something along these lines in on the books to prevent things like this, but you would need to an actual attorney to figure that out for certain. That said, with how expensive lawyers are, factoring that into the cost of parts would make the return on investment even worse.

[Blue4130]

11 minutes ago, RONOTHAN## said:

One thing that's probably worth mentioning, it's technically illegal to do that, items purchased across the border need to be declared and have taxes/import dues paid on them when you bring them across. Whether or not it'll be enforced or if there's ways around it I don't know, but from the bit I know about the law (admittedly not a lot) doing this would be considered smuggling. 

 

Basically you might want to consult a lawyer before you think about trying this. 

It's not illegal to travel somewhere and buy something. You just need to declare and pay the taxes/fees to customs. There is no need to talk to a lawyer, just follow the rules.

[Levent]

I think you misspelled tax evasion

[Eigenvektor]

44 minutes ago, hansyulian said:

would it be cheaper if USA citizen to travel to mexico / canada, buy PC / parts there, then bring them back?

You may be able to bring items into the country for free, if they are below a certain value. Anything above that and you'll typically have to pay import taxes of some kind. I'd suggest to read up on that before attempting to bring goods into the country.

 

If you bring goods you bought abroad back into the country without declaring them and you're caught, you'll likely be paying a hefty fine on top of taxes.

[SansVarnic]

1 hour ago, hansyulian said:

Due to the current tariff war, would it be cheaper if USA citizen to travel to mexico / canada, buy PC / parts there, then bring them back?

Not how tariffs work ... but regardless this a method of tax evasion so I wouldn't suggest it.

 

 

Also

-= Topic moved to General Discussion =-

This is not a "Hot Deal" [its tax evasion].

[LogicalDrm]

https://www.cbp.gov/travel/international-visitors/know-before-you-visit/customs-duty-information

This page give you good overall look onto things before new changes. In short, depends on value of item, but overall shouldn't matter. Like said on that site, lowered rates apply only to products which are manufactured/produced in country you are importing them from (as in are domestic product), For most PC hardware manufacturing is done in Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, China/HK etc. Assembly could be done in US, Mexico and Canada, but there the tax has already been paid for individual parts arriving, making the trip added cost. 

 

Besides the governmental payments, there are consumers rights things to note. Like returns and warranty. Unless company whose product you are importing explicitly says they honor international warranty for product bought from region X, you would need to ship product back to country of origin. 

[starsmine]

1 hour ago, hansyulian said:

Due to the current tariff war, would it be cheaper if USA citizen to travel to mexico / canada, buy PC / parts there, then bring them back?

Literally tax evasion/customs fraud if you are doing it at any kind of scale that matters.

This has always been a "thing". 

[Blue4130]

4 minutes ago, starsmine said:

Literally tax evasion/customs fraud if you are doing it at any kind of scale that matters.

This has always been a "thing". 

 

30 minutes ago, SansVarnic said:

Not how tariffs work ... but regardless this a method of tax evasion so I wouldn't suggest it.

 =-

This is not a "Hot Deal" [its tax evasion].

Only tax evasion if you don't declare it.

[maplepants]

Even if the taxes are 0 when you bring the goods back with you into the US, I'd be suprised if this is worth it for people who don't live extremely close to the border. 

 

I live in Germany and there are technically cheaper products available in Poland, Czechia, gas from Luxemburg, etc. People who live very close to the border do actually take advantage of these cheaper products, but where I live close to the middle of the country it's not really worth it. It'd take me like 6hrs to get to Poland, so that's pretty rough. And that's not even to a big city, I'd have another 90min or 2hrs to a city big enough that they would have a wide variety of stores.

 

People who can drive to/from Vancouver, Montreal, Niagra Falls, or Windsor might find it worth while. I used to live in eastern Ontario, so it's hard for me to guess whether it's worth it to for other smaller places like Edmunston, or boarder towns in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta. 

 

I guess we'll know when/if computer shops start popping up in Northgate and Regway.

[Lurking]

Whatever you think the rules are now, they could be different in 5 minutes..... and then different tomorrow again (probably worse).

 

There USED to be a $800 "minime" threshold for what you bring into the US (or direct-order, like from Alieexpress). This minime exemption was removed, at least from China. I have no idea if this also was lifted for when you travel, or from Mexico. Chances are, the guy at customs also can't keep up with the rule changes. Note that those rules also differ for type of product (e. g. alcohol).

 

The only items I would be comfortable smuggling would be laptop, tablet or phone that you can reasonably claim you  had already before travel. An MB, for example, will be obvious. And throw away packaging and receipts. It will be hard to claim you had 20 laptops for your travel.....

 

Whatever you do, you lose warranty, service, and of course have travel expenses unless you travelled anyway. IMHO, not worth the hassle. If you drive down there today, expect rules to have changed by the time you re-enter the US.....

 

On the upside, there will be a recession and unemployment in the US. So, prices could go down a bit to make up for tariffs........ 

[Sauron]

6 hours ago, SorryBella said:

If its for personal use you can repatriate it for lower rate, least in Indonesia. But yeah i dont know if US has the same scheme.

Seeing as this would be the obvious workaround and the value of the tariffs is so high they'll most likely ensure this is not economically viable... then again at this point there isn't much that would surprise me when it comes to sheer incompetence.

[Blue4130]

59 minutes ago, Lurking said:

Whatever you think the rules are now, they could be different in 5 minutes..... and then different tomorrow again (probably worse).

 

There USED to be a $800 "minime" threshold for what you bring into the US (or direct-order, like from Alieexpress). This minime exemption was removed, at least from China. I have no idea if this also was lifted for when you travel, or from Mexico. Chances are, the guy at customs also can't keep up with the rule changes. Note that those rules also differ for type of product (e. g. alcohol).

 

The only items I would be comfortable smuggling would be laptop, tablet or phone that you can reasonably claim you  had already before travel. An MB, for example, will be obvious. And throw away packaging and receipts. It will be hard to claim you had 20 laptops for your travel.....

 

Whatever you do, you lose warranty, service, and of course have travel expenses unless you travelled anyway. IMHO, not worth the hassle. If you drive down there today, expect rules to have changed by the time you re-enter the US.....

 

On the upside, there will be a recession and unemployment in the US. So, prices could go down a bit to make up for tariffs........ 

That was De minimis, and as far as I understand, it was only on shipments, not a person carrying good across boarders. That has different rules.

[Zodiark1593]

7 hours ago, RONOTHAN## said:

One thing that's probably worth mentioning, it's technically illegal to do that, items purchased across the border need to be declared and have taxes/import dues paid on them when you bring them across. Whether or not it'll be enforced or if there's ways around it I don't know, but from the bit I know about the law (admittedly not a lot) doing this would be considered smuggling. 

 

Basically you might want to consult a lawyer before you think about trying this. 

I don’t think legality was the question. Pretty certain a reasonable person would assume the worst in regard to legality. Given that some of the rules at hand were put in place by an individual that could be best described as a Petulant Child, I don’t think anyone cares. (look at me saying the quiet part out loud) 
 

Would be cool if a “New Shenzhen” popped up on the Canadian border though. 

[Blue4130]

59 minutes ago, Zodiark1593 said:

 

Would be cool if a “New Shenzhen” popped up on the Canadian border though. 

Canada doesn't make electronics though so the tarrifs would still apply even if it was a "new shenzhen"

[KidKid]

9 hours ago, hansyulian said:

Due to the current tariff war, would it be cheaper if USA citizen to travel to mexico / canada, buy PC / parts there, then bring them back?

Probably not. The travel costs would outdo the savings. 

[TVwazhere]

17 minutes ago, KidKid said:

Probably not. The travel costs would outdo the savings. 

^This^

Hypothetically, as someone who lives about 3 hours from the border of Canada (six from a meaningful big city) I'm going to spend more in gas alone than I would have just paying the tariff on say a Nintendo Switch or a new GPU. Not to mention the cost in time that I could have spent doing literally anything else, presuming the only reason I visited Canada was to commit tax evasion / tariff dodging. 

[wanderingfool2]

3 hours ago, TVwazhere said:

^This^

Hypothetically, as someone who lives about 3 hours from the border of Canada (six from a meaningful big city) I'm going to spend more in gas alone than I would have just paying the tariff on say a Nintendo Switch or a new GPU. Not to mention the cost in time that I could have spent doing literally anything else, presuming the only reason I visited Canada was to commit tax evasion / tariff dodging. 

Time you spent going there aside, it could also depend the type of vehicle whether or not it's worth it.  [Also depending if you have family across the border, where like in my case I know I will be crossing likely once or twice this year].  Anyways, driving an EV and going to a major outlet (Canada to US) would only cost me like $30CAD in electricity for effectively a 500km round trip...in my hybrid it would be about $100CAD in gas [Vancouver to Seattle and back at expensive Canadian gas prices].  So I mean at the point of saving yourself 10% on a $1k purchase it would be worth neutral for a hybrid in my case or better if I have the range on my EV.

 

That's not even including that the Canadian $ is bad at the moment so there would be favorable exchange rates at play.  Overall though it really depends how much of a discount you can get by doing it...if you dodge a 100% tariff [which might equate to 25% - 100% practical], you would only need to spend $100 - $400 to brake even.

 

That all assumes though the tariffs don't get levied upon entry when you disclose. (Which who knows these days, it seems to be changing daily and no one is quite sure of all the provisions yet)

 

5 hours ago, Blue4130 said:

That was De minimis, and as far as I understand, it was only on shipments, not a person carrying good across boarders. That has different rules.

Yea, I was thinking about that...although not sure how things were written as well...because I know when the Canadian side tariffs came into affect there was a slew of additional items that were no long exempt from the boarder crossing if you spend a certain amount of time across there.

 

Also not sure if the $800 applies to tariffs, as it's tax exempt but not sure about tariff exempt.

 

To the OP...you would want to thoroughly research it all and see what might apply because honestly you might end up having to pay the tariffs anyways when you declare it.

[saintlouisbagels]

5 hours ago, Zodiark1593 said:

Would be cool if a “New Shenzhen” popped up on the Canadian border though. 

Funny enough that's kind of how the New Hampshire border is for Massachusetts.

There's no sales tax in NH, so it's standard practice for people to drive north to NH (45min for me) and do all of their major purchases and grocery shopping. They have a Costco, BJs, Best Buy, Apple Store, etc. all stationed there only a few minutes from the border.

[SpaceGhostC2C]

17 hours ago, Blue4130 said:

It's not illegal to travel somewhere and buy something. You just need to declare and pay the taxes/fees to customs. There is no need to talk to a lawyer, just follow the rules.

 

15 hours ago, Blue4130 said:

 

Only tax evasion if you don't declare it.

 

The whole point of OP's question was to circumvent the tariffs, hence not declaring the goods and not paying any duties.

[Blue4130]

1 hour ago, SpaceGhostC2C said:

 

 

The whole point of OP's question was to circumvent the tariffs, hence not declaring the goods and not paying any duties.

You don't know that, you are assuming that. Nowhere in his post did he say that he would not declare.