Exporting to the US?...

I've had several enquiries from potential customers in the US. Does anyone know what the legal implications of shipping goods there would be, particularly with regards to US Customs, sales tax, necessary paperwork? My company is VAT registered; I sell children's clothes and a typical order would be for around £30-£50.

(Our shopping basket is only set up for orders from the UK and Ireland, but we have a PayPal account that we could use in this case).

Thanks!
Emma

Re : Exporting to the US?

Emma

No idea on the legal side of things, however on the technical side of things you would need to add in the ability for the user to choose the currency and then use the latest rate to update their shopping basket and switch over to that currency.

There are many sites out there that will feed you the latest exchange rate, though you have to pay for some of these - then pass the results to the screen and into your shopping basket. Or alternatively update the exchange rate manually.

You'll also need to consider what the shipping charge needs to be with regard these orders.

On the point of VAT your customers from the US would not need to pay VAT based on my limited understanding...

Tim

Re : Exporting to the US?

I don't know the direct answer as to what the 'correct process' is, however I do know of many people who run small online ventures that ship to the US and the only change they make as opposed to UK orders is that they charge more postage.

However if you are VAT registered things may be a little more complicated but the only extra consideration might be that VAT isn't added on top...

Li

Re : Exporting to the US?

Thanks Tim and Lianne (and sorry I haven't got back to you sooner, I've been away).

I know I don't have to charge them UK VAT, however I think they may need to pay US sales tax and am unsure of how to go about this - don't want my parcels to get stuck in US Customs! Somebody is looking into this for me at the moment - it's surprisingly hard to get an answer from anywhere!

As for payment, I don't think I'll go down the route of getting my shopping cart set up to accept US cards (in any case I don't think this is possible with my on-line merchant account). I've taken payment from other EU countries through PayPal before, and that usually works fine. It means a few more direct emails between us and the customer, but for this kind of non-standard transactions I prefer that anyway.

If anyone knows anything more about US transactions, I'd still appreciate the information

Thanks!

Re : Exporting to the US?

Might be worth posting a similar request on ecademy or other business related forums to see if anyone there happens to know - would be interesting to find out how these transactions work purely out of interest!

Dan
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Web Design

Re : Exporting to the US?

I'd be interested in this too.

Re : Exporting to the US?

Come on someone, give us the answer

Tim

Re : Exporting to the US?

I would tell you the answer... but I don't know, sorry!

Chris

Re : Exporting to the US?

The question of sales tax and import duty into the US would be the concern of the US buyers themselves. Normally if you wish to take care of these your end you would instruct a clearing US agent to do it for you. However at the level of order you mention that would be completely uneconomic.

Joe
http://www.figurewizard.com
Free Online Business Forecasting and Planning
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Re : Exporting to the US?

So perhaps it would be best not to worry about it then Emma and just carry on shipping as normal?

Re : Exporting to the US?

The biggest hurdle to overcome is insurance. This is what I have been told:

Your normal business policy will include product liability insurance so that if for example a child is injured by one of your garments (strangled, chokes, goes up in flames etc) then you are covered.

Most insurance companies for small businesses if not all will not cover USA because they are very litigious and the amounts of damages awarded by the courts are huge. You can't import into USA without becoming subject to US law (ie. they can sue you in the UK). US law in most states says that you can't import without product liability insurance.

Even if you want to import to USA without insurance and take the risk that you are breaking the law you are likely to invalidate your whole UK insurance policy.

Our insurance company made us stop sending to USA and we had to sign a declaration that we wouldn't.

It all seems very strange but that is all that I have managed to find out.

Other import matters aren't an issue - if you make it clear in your T&C that th customer will be subject to import duty then they will have to pay it on receipt of a letter from US customs advising the amount. Just make sure your customers realise this. Your obligation is then to complete the customs declaration correctly.

We sent children's clothes to USA quite happily until the insurance requirements changed. They paid with Paypal which they are very familiar with and we never had a problem.

Hope this helps but maybe not what you want to hear.

Re : Exporting to the US?

Interesting information here