Quote:
Originally Posted by EllesBelles
Here's a common scenario. You take your Argentinian or Canadian-built Antares into the US, pay the duty, then sail outside the USA, then bring the boat back into the USA.
Do you have to pay US import duty a second time?
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That is an interesting issue indeed. My short answer, worth what you paid for it, is "no", subject to a few caveats.
Let´s talk theory first. I assume you are a US resident, the boat is registered ("documented" in US dialect) in the US, you did not get a cruising
license or claim a duty exemption based on where the boat was made or on a promise of future reexport (as in temporary import or "drawback") and you paid duty. A summary of my
current understanding is that you do not need to pay duty again provided:
a) The boat was taken abroad for noncommercial use by a US resident and returned by the same person;
b) Either you declared the boat when clearing out using CBP form 4455, (see
http://forms.cbp.gov/pdf/CBP_Form_4455.pdf ; when you file this they would probably check that you have paid the duty!) or the boat is USCG registered and the USCG
registration did not change while the boat was outside the US (in which case I have no idea who/when would check that duty was paid) .
c) The boat was not modified while away from the US.
Quote:
Originally Posted by EllesBelles
I read this on McClary, Swift & Co. – Customs Brokerage Services
"Liability for Duties on Re-Importation Dutiable merchandise imported and afterwards exported, even though duty thereon may have been paid on the first importation, is liable to duty on every subsequent importation into the Customs territory of the United States .." (19CFR141.2)
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I am afraid the quote from 19CFR 141.2 is incomplete (I added points and closing quotation marks in your text to mark that). If you look at the statute (see
19 CFR 141.2 - Liability for duties on reimportation. | LII / Legal Information Institute) you will see that it keeps going as follows:
".., but this does not apply to the following:
(a) (SNIP - wording for personal/household effects);
(b) (SNIP - wording for tools of
trade, etc));
(c) Automobiles and other vehicles taken abroad for noncommercial use (see § 148.32 of this chapter);"
A boat is a vehicle and there you have your exemption.
If you want the detail of how this works go to § 148.32 (see
19 CFR 148.32 - Vehicles, aircraft, boats, teams and saddle horses taken abroad. | LII / Legal Information Institute) that says:
"§ 148.32 Vehicles, aircraft, boats, teams and saddle horses taken abroad.
(a) Admission free of duty. Automobiles and .. .. boats.. , together with their accessories, taken abroad for noncommercial use and returned by a returning resident will be admitted free of duty upon being satisfactorily identified.
(b) Identification of articles taken abroad. Upon the request of the owner or his agent, the port director will cause any article described in paragraph (a) of this section to be examined before it is taken abroad, and will issue a certificate of
registration therefor on CBP Form 4455. On the return of the article, the certificate may be accepted as satisfactory identification of the described article for the purpose of admitting the article free of duty. In lieu of CBP Form 4455, the following may be accepted as satisfactory identification of such articles taken abroad:
(1) (SNIP - wording for cars)
(2) (SNIP - wording for aircraft) ; and
(3) For a pleasure boat, the yacht
license or motorboat identification certificate.
(c) (SNIP - wording for
repairs, alterations, etc while abroad)
I understand that the text in the McClary, Swift & Co site (not from CFR) that says "Therefore, a foreign manufactured boat imported into the U.S. may be subject to duty, even if that boat was previously registered in the U.S", uses the word "may" to refer to a myriad of cases that are not covered in my assumptions. For example: boats
sold away from the US after duty is paid, boats
sold in the US after duty is paid to someone who is not a US resident, who does not file the 4455 from when leaving the US and then sells to boat outside the US to a US resident who brings it back.
Now let´s worry about practice. It seems that because of the wording of the statute that refers to "the yacht license or motorboat identification certificate" so far they have taken a USCG registration certificate as proof that you are eligible for the exemption, even though a USCG reg certificate does not prove payment of duty. I went through this the other way when I tried to import my US-built but foreign-flagged boat back in to the US when I had no evidence that the initial export to the first buyer had not benefited from drawback, etc and they kept insisting on the USCG registration that was irrelevant. That said, a few things I have read suggest to me there may be an uptick in enforcement based on something other than checking USCG registration..
Cheers
Charlie