Have you ever been assessed a duty by customs?

On my last cruise, I exceeded for the first time my exemption amount (I think we spent about $2,500.00). I did declare eveything on re-entry and when presenting to the customs officer, she just asked in which country did we spend the most, made a few notes and sent us on our way. I asked her if we would be assessed duty and she said probably.

Anyway, we proceeded to get our luggage. Then on the way out gave the immigration form to the guy at the door. He looked at it made a few comments and sent us on our way.

So this leads me to my questions. Is this normal? Did they let us off without paying? Will they mail us a bill? What has been other people experiences with this? Did they let us go for being honest about it?

Anyone who has any experience with this I would be interested in hearing from you.

Thanks,

Jeff

You lucked out, you lucky dog! Usually, they are not that nice. You will not get a bill. Maybe it was a new guy, or maybe they were being nice for you being honest. But, that doesn't happen often!!

(26 prior cruises & 2 flights on Concorde)

It has been said that angels, while on Earth,
aren't allowed to show their wings,
but nothing was ever said
about not showing their whiskers. <^..^>

We've had to pay a duty for extra alcohol we bought but it was all done on the ship when the agents come on during embarkation. It was still cheaper than buying it at home!

i tried! i went over the limit on buying cigarets...by a couple of cartons...when i did the computation, it looked like i owed about $4...so being a good citizen, i filled out the form and brought it to the customs agent on the ship...he looked, laughed, and said...are you kidding? and ripped up the form and said don't worry about it....

I've had it go both ways. Sometimes they let me off; sometimes I have to pay. Don't worry. Niether is unusual. Just don't count on this sort of thing every time.

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We've never had a problem, everytime the customs agent see where we are from, he comments on it and then I do the famous Jim Nabors impression:
"Surprise, Surprise, Surprise" and we are on our way! [img]http://messages.cruisecritic.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]


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The same thing happen to us on a Caribbean cruise out of Houston. We were over our limit for alcohol. After the agent looked at my form, he said have a nice trip home. I asked if I owed any taxes. He said he had more important things to do. I thnink the taxes would have been less than $10.
Guess it just depends on the agent.

Each cruise we have always been over our alcohol limit (i think i have only bought alcohol in the caribbean!! HAHA), and have never been assessed a duty. Lucky i guess. They just send us on our way!

~SherryBerry~

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The customs folks I have encountered have always been very professional and nice to deal with - as long as you declare everything you have puchased. They will calculate what duty you owe and if its less than $10 they don't bother to collect it.

On our last cruise we went over our alcohol allowance and the duty due was $9.97, the customs guy laughed and said we should buy a lottery ticket because we had lucked out and no duty would be collected.

Be advised, they usually have a copy of your shipboard purchases from the cruiseline. I don't think they would be so nice if they found a bunch of stuff you failed to declare.

I saw one guy say he had nothing to declare when asked by customs, customs asked again if was sure he didn't want to ammend his declaration, he still said it was correct, then out came the list from the ship of the thousands he spent in the ship's gift shop - oops!

If you're a Canadian living near the border, this is something you get used to. I always declare what I've bought. Most times they wave me through. Occassionally, they'll do a cursory search of the car. Once they made me fill out a declaration form and pay duty on the excess. It's all luck of the draw and what kind of mood the customs officer is in. But I never argue with them like a friend did once. No no no not a good idea. He lived to regret it. [img]http://messages.cruisecritic.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_rolleyes.gif[/img]

Beth

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The only place I've had to pay was flying into Toronto a couple of years ago. I, being the nice honest sort of soul, declared that I had brought an extra carton of smokes into Canada.
I was assesed something like $17 U.S. Next time I'll just declare the limit.

Has anyone else noticed that the $ limit you can bring back has changed dramatically in the last year or so?? It used to be like $10,000 per person, now it's much lower and really confusing. I still don't understand why part of your liquor limit must have been purchased in either St. Thomas, or San Juan. I know they're U.S. Territories, but what's the difference? Just curious why they had to make things so confusing.
Stretch

BTW - Have you noticed that when purchasing jewelery in the various ports that they always ask what ship you are on?? That stuff gets reported to customs also when you return. The only way around it, I would think, is to only pay cash and never give out your name or ship. But then, the warranty wouldn't be any good.
Looks like Big Brother is really watching.

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If you would like to know what you can and cannot bring back, what your personal exemption is, what kind of things will be free of duty you can check out the CBP websight since Customs is now CBP - Customs and Border Protection. You can also call your nearest CBP office and they can send you pamphlets such as "Know before you go". There are different reasons you may or may not be assessed duty. Sometimes it depends on where you purchased things, If you buy certain items in certain countries it might be free of duty, and then there are certain items that are not dutiable regardless of where you purchased them. If you owe duty, it might be up to the officer to use their discression, if it's not a large amount, they may choose to waive it. Just be smart and declare everything - it's not worth being caught. If you try to be cheap by not declaring everything, you may end up paying a lot more in the long run.

??????????? November 2004
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[QUOTE]Originally posted by Littlegoo75:
If you would like to know what you can and cannot bring back, what your personal exemption is, what kind of things will be free of duty you can check out the CBP websight since Customs is now CBP - Customs and Border Protection. You can also call your nearest CBP office and they can send you pamphlets such as "Know before you go". There are different reasons you may or may not be assessed duty. Sometimes it depends on where you purchased things, If you buy certain items in certain countries it might be free of duty, and then there are certain items that are not dutiable regardless of where you purchased them. If you owe duty, it might be up to the officer to use their discression, if it's not a large amount, they may choose to waive it. Just be smart and declare everything - it's not worth being caught. If you try to be cheap by not declaring everything, you may end up paying a lot more in the long run.


Not to mention possibly being delayed and missing a flight home. They love it when you say that you're in a big hurry.
Stretch

The $10,000 is in cash or other negotiable securities and is still in effect. This is to control money laundering.

I have found always be polite and honest and declare everything and they will let the small stuff go. Do not try to sneak anything over on them because they usually know the answer before they ask the question.

When the immigration person checks your passport/ID they mark the customs form in some way if the computer shows up with you making the purchases they can track.

Bill D

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Just be polite, respectful, and honest and you will have no problems. The inspectors know that the majority of travelers are law-abiding people. Just be cooperative and everything will be fine. They know what they're looking for, so if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to worry about.

??????????? November 2004
Carnival Pride 4/27/02
Sitmar Fairsea 4/ 1983 ( I was just a little kid!!)

Customs information, consular info, and passport details are all listed on this page:

[url="http://www.travel-picks.com/editorspicks.htm"]www.travel-picks.com[/url]







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St. Thomas has no place to actually "pay a fee". After traveling there for years, nothing has changed. We take a reasonable amount of stuff home..liquor, cigs, jewelery. Have never been questioned....

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I have always gone over the alcohol limit( by 2 or 3 bottles), declare it on my declaration slip and have never been assessed. They have bigger fish to fry I guess

We just got off the Imagination at the end of May, It was my DH,my toddler,and myself. We bought 10 bottles of "BOOZE".Hubby went to the library early as requested. They made him pay 10.00. The lady told him it went buy the proof amount of the alcahol(sp?)? The Tequila had more alcahol than the Bailey's?!
Oh well he did not want to argue. He paid the 10 bucks!!!

Other times we've been told to just go home.
Who knows? I guess its who you get.

Trudy
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Till the Brilliance,and our 25th!

Like an earlier poster, I've had it go both ways. We've been "waved through" when declaring extra alcohol, and also had to pay $6/bottle when over the limit. I still believe it pays to be honest!

I thought my friend was going to have trouble today. She had two bottles of alcohol and two cartons of cigs - allowable was one of each. When the customs man asked her, she said she had 2 of each. He looked at her paper and she had only written one of each. She said oh, well two are her's (meaning mine! [img]http://messages.cruisecritic.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_eek.gif[/img]) He asked if I had it declared on mine while flipping over my paper. I said nope. Got nothing to do with this. He just told us to have a good day tho. Ugh.

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When I flew out of Cancun last month, I had 8 cartons of cigarettes (two 4-packs)...not even in a plastic bag, and no one said anything. Years ago, though, I was on a group cruise (Eastern Carib), and one of the ladies wore the gold/diamond/sapphire ... bracelets/necklaces/earrings that she bought in the Saints Thomas and Maarten. (we all wondered where she got the $$$! We still wonder!) The Customs official asked her if she had just bought that stuff, and she (gotta give her credit) answered honestly. She paid through the 14k nose ring!

Thanks for all the feedback. I guess I was lucky.

One other question though. A couple of posters said they went to the library as requested to declare items bought. I had seen this on a Carnival cruise a couple of years ago but not on RCI. I remembered it though and looked to see if they had a special place to go. I did not see one listed anywhere so just wrote down what I bought on the form and got off like everyone else. So...is there normally a place set up before getting off the ship or not?

- Jeff

I think there probably is. Yesterday when we arrived in NJ, people were asked to report to the conference room on deck 2 if they were over the limit.

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