Home
>
Tax
>
How to Cut Duty Cost and Increase Profit as an Importer

How to Cut Duty Cost and Increase Profit as an Importer

Import duties continue to be significant elements in the cost of international trade. Yet many companies and businesses still pay more duties than the law requires ? which impacts adversely on landed cost and ultimately on business profitability. A planned approach to managing customs duty costs would look to eliminate, reduce and delay payment of customs duties.

How to reduce customs duties in your business

There are many ways to reduce customs duties. The amount of duties paid depends on four "whats". Managing the impact of any of these "whats", will improve business profit.

1 What the goods are, (i.e. their nature and characteristics) determines tariff code and therefore the duty rate

2 What the origin of the goods is, (i.e. where dug up, grown, farmed, further manufactured or processed NOT just shipped from) determines whether preferential, standard or additional duties are payable

3 What the structure of the transaction is (i.e. whether sale, leased, loaned, free of charge, under warranty or repair arrangement), determines customs value

4 What happens to the goods once imported (i.e. sold, further manufactured, repaired and returned, stored and re-exported) determines whether various reliefs are available.

How to use a key opportunity in customs valuation planning

A major under utilised approach to reducing duties is to look at the customs valuation. A key provision in both US and EU customs law permits the customs value to be based on any earlier sale of the same goods in a chain of transactions prior to importation. For this reason it is variously described as the "prior sale", "earlier sale" or "chain of sales" opportunity. They all mean the same thing, i.e. lower duty!

How does this work? For example, if goods are sold by a manufacturer in the US for $60 to a US export company which, in turn, sells them to an importer in the EU for $100, duty can be paid on a value of $60, providing certain conditions are met. The savings achieved are the difference between duty on the ?100 and the duty on $60. Savings of up to 40% on the duty costs are possible.

What are the benefits? The chief benefit of the approach is to save customs duty by excluding the costs and profits attributable to the non-manufacturing activities undertaken in the country of export from the customs value declared at import in the destination country (US or EU).

The approach also uncouples the value of the imported goods for customs valuation purposes from their inventory value for corporate income tax purposes. That's good because tax and customs values are often in tension. Tax authorities tend to favour a low import value (i.e. more profit to tax), whereas customs favour a higher import value (more import duty to collect.) Using an earlier sale approach, the price paid by the importer is no longer relevant for customs purposes, so that any increase in that price will not cause an increase in the amount of customs duty.

Who can benefit? Any company or business importing goods into the EU or US can benefit from the opportunity providing there has been an earlier sale and the exporter is willing to provide the relevant invoice relating to the earlier sale. Since this involves disclosure of margins by the exporter, the approach is more attractive to international groups of companies where such disclosure is not an issue and to industries where margins are already widely known. However, exporters can still realise the benefits by importing goods into the US and EU on their own account.

About The Author

? Philip Brigstock-Bates 2004

Philip Brigstock-Bates manages Tariff AXe Services www.tariffaxe.com providing customs duty compliance and consulting advice to global companies, mid markets and start ups involved who import or use/sell imported goods in their businesses.

Professionally qualified in tax and import fields, he was previously he was with Ernst & Young and PricewaterhouseCoopers advising on duty planning reduction, compliance assurance and risk management for importers.

www.tariffaxe.com

weekly home cleaning Highland Park ..

In The News:

Scammers nearly stole an Apple account by exploiting the support system with authentic-looking tickets and phone calls, users can protect themselves with safety steps.

FoloToy restored sales of its AI teddy bear Kumma after a weeklong suspension following safety group findings of risky and inappropriate responses to children.

Threat intelligence firm Synthient uncovers one of the largest password exposures ever, prompting immediate security recommendations.

Viral video shared by Elon Musk shows Tesla's Optimus humanoid robots performing tasks from cooking to construction, garnering over 58.5 million views on social media.

Chinese hackers used Anthropic's Claude AI to launch autonomous cyberattacks on 30 organizations worldwide, marking a major shift in cybersecurity threats.

Apple's new Sleep Score feature gives you a rating for your nightly rest quality. Learn how to set it up on your Apple Watch and iPhone today.

Essential phone settings to enable before losing your device, including Find My network, location services and security features for iPhone and Android.

The Fox News AI Newsletter gives readers the latest AI technology advancements, covering the challenges and opportunities AI presents.

Cybersecurity research shows weak passwords remain a major threat, with simple patterns and number sequences putting millions of accounts at risk.

New Android malware BankBot YNRK silences phones, steals banking data and drains crypto wallets automatically. Learn how this advanced threat works.

FDA approves first human trial for Paradromics' brain-computer interface that could restore speech for paralyzed patients through neural technology.

New phishing platform QRR targets Microsoft 365 users across 1,000 domains in 90 countries. Learn how to spot fake login pages and protect your accounts.

OpenTable now uses AI to track your dining habits and share insights with restaurants. Learn what data they collect and how to protect your privacy.

Google's discontinued Nest thermostats still secretly upload home data to company servers despite losing smart features, raising serious privacy concerns.

New Android malware NGate steals NFC payment codes in real-time, allowing criminals to withdraw cash from ATMs without your card. Learn protection tips.

DoorDash confirms data breach exposing customer names, emails, addresses after social engineering attack. Learn how to protect yourself from scams.

Concerned about Google's AI scanning your Gmail? Learn how to disable Gemini features that access your emails, Drive files and Chat messages for privacy.

Google warns Android users about dangerous fake VPN apps hiding malware that steals passwords, banking details and personal data from phones and tablets.

Apple's digital passport feature lets iPhone users breeze through TSA checkpoints this holiday season using Digital ID technology at 250+ airports.

A new phishing scam targets family photos with fake "Cloud Storage Full" alerts. Criminals steal credit card information through fake sites. Learn protection tips.

South Korean scientists create ultra-thin fabric muscles that turn clothes into robotic assistants, lifting 33 pounds while weighing under half an ounce.

Archer Aviation has acquired Hawthorne Airport for $126M to launch an LA air taxi network ahead of the 2028 Olympics, featuring AI-powered eVTOL operations and next-gen aviation tech.

Stay up to date on the latest AI technology advancements and learn about the challenges and opportunities AI presents now and for the future.

Fake AI apps disguised as "ChatGPT" and "DALL·E" are flooding app stores with dangerous malware that steals data and monitors users without detection.

Fake buyers demand specific vehicle reports from unknown sites to steal credit card information from car sellers, but warning signs can help identify these scams before paying.