Customs And Duties

Declaring items you’ve purchased from the US with their proper values clarifies what you are bringing into the country. Nearly every shipment that enters a country is subject to customs duties and taxes. Consequently, each country has its own rules when it comes to the assessment of duties and taxes.

A customs declaration is an essential part of the shipping process. The customs & duty officers are responsible for making sure that prohibited & restricted items declared by their country stay out and correct customs fees and duties are paid.        

Identifying & marking your items as merchandise, gift or document is important and goes a long way in correct calculation of customs fees. If for any reason, you can’t recall what’s inside your box, Vyking Ship can fill the form for you.

Provide a description of each item, including things like brand name, color, size, etc. After that, provide the quantity of the item and then the cost for each item.

If you wish to provide the harmonized code (Need more information on what harmonized codes are? Click here) for your items, you can enter that in the HS code box. There are many tools to lookup the HS codes for your items: you can find one from the US International Trade Commission here.

Providing HS codes can help your shipment get processed through customs more quickly, as these codes are used to determine the tax rate of the items inside your shipment. The customs broker assigned to handle your shipment will look up and provide HS codes for your items if you do not provide them yourself.

If you want to designate your item’s country of origin, you can do that through the country of origin dropdown menu.

Please note that the HS code and Country of Origin fields are optional. We recommend that you do not complete the HS code field unless you are comfortable using an HS code lookup tool.

Anything that is alarming becomes a clause for return without refund from customs offices. 

Keep descriptions alphanumeric, avoid symbols and use English to describe your items. It is best to avoid using trigger words; for example if you’re shipping a glue gun, call it a ‘glue dispenser’ thus avoiding the trigger word ‘gun’ altogether.  

If the item may be similar to a hazardous item, for example a water based perfume (non-flammable) to a regular perfume (flammable), make sure to describe it so that it is clear to anyone reading the description that it is not a problem.