How much is the $800+ customs fee for international orders?

Everyone always warns not to spend over $800; but you know what, I really wanna do it. How much am I expected to add onto my cost?

The website I'm ordering from adds a $25 surcharge for customs regardless of $ spent; so I might as well make use of that required fee. 

Why not split into two orders?

Will the order be slowed down getting through customs?

I responded to your other post in another thread about this:

Depends on the goods.

two sets of totems cost me 50 @ customs.
300 hangers and 300 glue ins cost me 15.

the hangers and glues ins were a more expensive order by a pretty decent amount.

I don't want to do 2 orders because I'm making an order from treekit.com, and they have a $83 shipping flat rate with $25 of that going towards customs fees. Might as well use it instead of avoiding customs.

The order will unfortunately probably get slowed down.

Unrelated, but they also have a 10kg weight limit that was stressful AF to stay under while trying to order a 60m rope with everything lol. 

As Mr. Rogers said it all depends on the goods. Here are the rates:

https://www.usitc.gov/harmonized_tariff_information

The best way to pay the least amount in customs fees is to figure out the different possible classifications and choose the one with the least tariff. Then have the shipper list the classification on the customs declaration. If the classification is listed then the customs agent will in all likelihood use that tariff rather than looking up all the possible classifications. I can attest that it works as I have imported items and not paid a dime. But the shipper has to the customs declaration. 

The other is to NOT use a shipping service that ties into UPS or FedEx as they will charge an addition brokerage fee for collecting the customs fees. You want it to end up in the hands of USPS.

Allen Sandersonwrote:

As Mr. Rogers said it all depends on the goods. Here are the rates:

https://www.usitc.gov/harmonized_tariff_information

The best way to pay the least amount in customs fees is to figure out the different possible classifications and choose the one with the least tariff. Then have the shipper list the classification on the customs declaration. If the classification is listed then the customs agent will in all likelihood use that tariff rather than looking up all the possible classifications. I can attest that it works as I have imported items and not paid a dime. But the shipper has to the customs declaration. 

The other is to NOT use a shipping service that ties into UPS or FedEx as they will charge an addition brokerage fee for collecting the customs fees. You want it to end up in the hands of USPS.

The list on that website is quite specific with its rates and descriptions! Looks like it'll either be free, 5%, 7%, or 17%. Not really sure which. I'll try to get in touch with them to have them choose one of the free options. I'm also under the impression that you only get charged by customs for the $ that goes beyond $800?

An exporter that falsely declares a product code is a f#cking idiot, the hassle and penalties are enormous.

Jim Tittwrote:

An exporter that falsely declares a product code is a f#cking idiot, the hassle and penalties are enormous.

i imagine that plenty of products qualify under multiple different categories. The amount of options that they have is exhaustive to look at

OSHA penalties are enormous; but that doesn't stop the fact that 95% of tree companies in my area don't even know the rules to begin with. Never even heard of OSHA bothering a soul in my home county. Miami, on the other hand, will happily send people to jail for trimming a dead branch off of a bald cypress tree. 

You don't deal with customs much do you? Each item of climbing equipment already has a code attatched.

Jim Tittwrote:

An exporter that falsely declares a product code is a f#cking idiot, the hassle and penalties are enormous.

 This is absolutely true, I used to work for a company that got fined around $1 billion for using false HTS codes to avoid fees.  I say used to work because 30k+ people were layed off because of the bankruptcy that resulted from this and other mishaps

Adam Wwrote:

 This is absolutely true, I used to work for a company that got fined around $1 billion for using false HTS codes to avoid fees.  I say used to work because 30k+ people were layed off because of the bankruptcy that resulted from this and other mishaps

Fines in the millions are commonplace, $3m for deliberately falsly coding graphite electrodes as small not large for example. And it is a felony and the individual worker who issued the code is liable as well as the company.

Even if it isn't done deliberately as a company it's a real hassle as one generally loses all ones privaleges as an importer or exporter and have to go through the whole rigmarole of full declaration for any further shipments i.e. the customs don't trust you any more.

Jim Tittwrote:

You don't deal with customs much do you? Each item of climbing equipment already has a code attatched.

No, I don't. That could be deciphered extremely easily considering I made this post asking about customs to begin with.

Where do I find this code?

It will be on the commercial invoice and the customs declaration though as a private customer you may never see these, otherwise you just ask the manufacturer who will provide it.

In a roundabout form of luck; they blew off my order for so long that there is now a black friday sale going on that I can add onto my order, which brings it down below the $800 threshold.