Let’s say if I were to import a game console that’s close to ¥63,000 ($401) instead of paying $581 including sales tax if purchased in US, however would that alone save me approximately $180 after paying shipping costs? There’s no sales tax as the item is sold abroad as you are the one importing it, but the real question remains: is there a guarantee that the package will arrive tax free or not?
I work with this stuff all day. Will you be able to provide the HTS code to Customs? That along with the country it’s made in determines the duty rate on the invoice value . If I remember correctly game consoles have a pretty straightforward HTS so I can check it tmrw at work. Do you know the country it was manufactured in?
It’s a Japanese version of the Switch 2 (日本語・国内専用) and those are manufactured in Vietnam from what I’ve heard. So, there are two countries: Japan being the one holding the inventory while Vietnam is the one making the units that are being sold in Japan. I think there’s a 12.5% tariff on both Japan & Vietnam, would it be 25% (WTF?!), add duties on top of that. The customs value of this specifically is ¥62,980 ($401).
For duty purposes, it’ll only matter where it was made. The HTS code for game consoles is 9504.50.0000 and you are correct that being made in Vietnam it will have a 12.5% duty. There is also an additional Customs fee of $34.58 called a “Merchandise Processing Fee” on the goods, so all together you’re looking at est. $84.71 in duties and fees on the import. Plus you’ll have to pay for the shipping and for the courier service (or whoever) to actually do the Customs Entry, so there may be additional charges there.