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Hello everyone. I have been viewing this forum for a couple months and it has been very helpful! I have found other threads that are similar to what I'm going to ask but none of completely resolved the question I have. I have also talked to several customs brokers and they have come close, but are not willing to go into great detail with me because I'm still 6+ months out on moving the container. I'm planning on building a home in St. John and have purchased a lot. The home will be ICF and that material will ship from the states to St. John in a container. Since there is alot of free room in the container, I plan on stuffing it full with as many building materials as I can get in there. I understand I will be charged a fee on the materials (4%?) and that I will need a receipt of everything in the box. What I dont understand is the country of origin and the pricing structure. For example, I will have one box full of plumbing materials (fittings, valves, etc.) and that will all be documented on the invoice. I imagine most of these materials will have been made in china and have already had an import fee to the states assessed. I'm un-clear if I need to look up each item and say where it originally came from. That seems like a heavy lift. I'm hopeful that if the invoice shows the purchase was in the states then that is all that is required and no additional import fees will be assessed. Thank you in advance!
Posted : September 29, 2024 6:34 am
When we shipped our building materials & household good (4 containers full) from the US to the Caribbean we listed the "Country of Origin" as the United States regardless of where the individual items might have been manufactured since all of it was purchased from vendors in the US.
Posted : September 29, 2024 9:47 am
Topic starter
Great! That is very helpful!
Posted : September 29, 2024 2:23 pm
Everything I have ever had shipped to STX was always from the mainland. I used country of origin as US. No issues. I ordered things from Ikea in the PR a couple of times, they ship to the VI. Both times to clear customs a country of origin was required for each item. The receipt from Ikea showed each items country of origin.
If you ship any household/personal items from the mainland that are used, make sure to identify them separately, they are not subject to the 4%.
Posted : September 29, 2024 3:47 pm
We shipped a 53’ container down in February of this year. It was a mixed container new and used household items and all of my construction tools, as well as items needed for our renovation. All of used household items did not require a fee. Our new items that were from other countries, like our LG appliances, were subject to the assessment. We did a lot of planning and investigation, sent 5 pages of documents with a list of every item in each box as well as if it was new or used and country of origin for the new items. We did not want to give customs any reason to hold up our container. All of our pre-planning and legwork paid off. Container was received and went through customs very quickly. Anything you can do to make them not work as hard or look at your container will pay off in the long run. All of my construction tools were not assessed either, but once again we listed every item, although not each individual screwdriver. Also we put dollar values on each and every box, the new and used. I knew ahead of time what we would pay in assessment and we were really close to my projected cost. Best of luck.
Posted : September 30, 2024 4:26 pm
If the items have not been ‘in use’ in the state for a year prior to shipping them then they are going to be subject to the tax. You will need the invoices/receipts for the items that have the quantity/description/value/and country of origin. If the place you bought the items from doesn’t know the country of origin you can usually do a little looking online to find it out. There are brokers that can help you with questions too. I use Boynes Shipping to do my clearing. They are reasonably priced and have alway been helpful. Making a false claim on a customs form is a serious no no.
Posted : October 1, 2024 1:27 am
