Trump and Budget Lights from China [Future of Budget Lights]

Off-topic Chatter
1

Hello,

I have seen that president Trump does not like Chinese importation much and he will probably take some cautions in my opinion.

What will happen in your opinion? (I am asking about things that can affect us directly)

I think he will make customs fee (tax) limit something like $20 - $30 just like in Europe. If product price passes that limit, you will need to pay tax. I hope this won’t happen but as US is probably the biggest market for Chinese lights, some Chinese factories may cease production because of this. And this will affect people who live in another countries like me.

2

We are about to have GST (sales tax) added onto imports below $1000 in Australia after lobbying from rip off bricks and mortar stores such as Harvey Norman. Supposedly the retailer will have to collect the GST. Can’t see it working well in practise - are GearBest, Banggood, et al, really going to collect GST? eBay are also threatening to stop Aussies buying from foreign sellers, even though their payment system (PayPal) could easily handle it.

3

Wellcome to the VAT world US fellas

4

Leave it to Governments to make our lives more difficult, and figure out ways to wring more money out of us so they can give themselves a raise.

That’s their way of expressing gratitude for our votes.

5

I wouldn’t get too concerned about it just yet. China owns 10% of the US debt and neither country wants anything bad to happen where it would damage economies. But sooner or later, some agreements will have to be made or flashlights will be the least of our worries on a global scale.

6

Step back into reality. Everything you purchase online can (and is) be tracked to you.

If this is implemented, you will pay the tax one way or another.

Mark my words.

7

Trump will follow the same agenda every other US president does. Meaning that, flooding the US with cheap Chinese goods to keep us happy, fat, and lazy, won’t be impeded anytime soon.

8

We have 10% tax added as of the first of July.

9

No, you need to step back into bureaucracy :smiley: We have tax in Canada and it mostly goes unpaid for stuff shipped directly from China. Packages under 20$ are exempted and the stuff from China is usually marked as gift or some other ridiculously low value. Unless you buy something of obvious value (eg. computer, TV, etc), I doubt they’ll bother as it costs more to do the paperwork for a 40$ item than they collect in taxes…

Besides, if the gov do this, what they’ll be after are the retailers who import stuff by the container. That’s where the real money is and where it is somewhat easier to add tax.

10

Meh, not really a big deal. If it brings manufacturing jobs back to the US, that’s more important to me than saving a couple bucks on a flashlight. I’m tired of paying 50% income tax to support all the unemployed.

11

To be fair, though, even if there was suddenly a 20% import tax, that still wouldn’t be enough to bring back jobs to the US. Stuff from China is so ridiculously cheap that I’m not even sure if a 100% tax would be enough. Think about how much money it would take to make the Convoy lights in the US and pay everyone in the company a living wage along with health care, 401k, taxes, business licenses, etc.

I have a friend in the US trying to start up a business and just to apply for the business license including legal fees, etc is costing her $20k with no guarantee that it will even be approved.

All the import tax will do is just give the government more money to burn.

12

Yep, he didn’t clean out the swamp…

13

Or benefits to illegals

14

Do you REALLY believe that? If a tax is imposed it will affect individuals, not corporations. Too many corporations and big campaign contributors make big profits thanks to imports sold here at inflated prices. Thanks to the Citizens United decision corporations have the same rights as citizens and money = free speech.

15

I am sorry but if tax comes, it will always be risky to purchase a product which has price point set below than threshold if you are concerned about whether you need to pay or not even though seller marks it as a gift.

In Europe, there is VAT instead of sales tax and theoretically, you can not completely avoid paying it unlike sales tax (Correct me if I am wrong. Notice I am not talking about legalness) . And it sucks being it 15–20.You are lucky that your tax is like maximum 10% as far as I know. I know you are shouting to me that we have free hospital free school etc. . And I can tell you that it is bullsh*t. Maybe only Germany, France and Nordic countries are exception. You pay your insurance and schools but at least you are being treated “ok”. In eastern Europe or pseudo European countries like Turkey (Where I live)… Doctors are denying evolution :slight_smile: While elementary schools still has religion courses.

Back to the topic, in my country which has a government that steals and adopts laws from European countries and US, according to our “stolen and adopted law from modern countries”, customs can open the package and determine real price by typing the product name in Google and setting the tax according to “Google price” if they do not believe the cost of the package. For example you can tell Chinese seller to set package as gift and set price to $0.1 for for example Convoy L6. Most Chinese sellers will do what you want but after packages arrives to your country, custom officer will say that “This cant be real!!!” even if you really bought it at $0.1. And officer will open the package and will see the shiny and beautiful flashlight. If the officer gets disturbed enough by thinking “I can not have this light for $0.1, so purchaser should not have too!” he will open google and type Convoy L6 then he will open the first site which will probably be Gearbest or some other official reseller and will mark the price as what he see in Gearbest and calculates the tax according to that price. You will need to pay this tax to postman who brings it to your home or post will be sent back (refer @ARsee) . Option 2 is: customs officer will send to the address an official document that says please send us your invoice and credit card log-summary-extract (do not know the English word) to their mail address. When you send your documents, it is up to the officer for tax alignment. Do not forget adding 1 more month for arrival with this way :slight_smile: .

Due to a lot of people trying to trick customs by making sellers marking packages as gift and making prices low, customs usually do not care about small packages. Because they work for government and government does not put some extra care for this (as pointed by @fixed it) . However, as the US is liberal enough, your government may make this process handled by private small companies. That way officers will probably open each package they have to collect more money and this will be a mess. I hope things do not come to this point.

Do not say that it won’t be implemented for individuals because of less income to government. Because the point is not that. In Turkey, online buyers are only 2% of population (makes like 1.5 million of people) and who knows how much of that corresponds for imports. But we have $30 tax threshold for 20% tax.

Governments can not earn any serious money by involving tax to this process. It may even cost for the government because of paperwork. The point is that when people can buy cheaper from outside, they will not buy from inside! Would you buy a $20 light from China or same quality light at $100 from your country? Like $3 sk68 from China or $70 sk68 clone marketed as “Tactical Military Zoomable Flashlight” selling in local markets . Tax is for closing this gap. As more as the gap collapses, more people will choose buying from inside. You will also pay for people who brings the product to US from China. This way you create a job in your country :slight_smile: And Mr. Trump loves this :heart_eyes:

In Turkey, threshold was $150 when it was 2008-2009. It became $75 in like 2011 (In 2011 a new law appeared that makes individuals impossible to buy more than 5 products from outside of the country in a year. It got removed in something like 2015. This is highly unlikely for US though). Then it became $30 in 2017. According to related ministry for customs, this adjustment was done for ‘fair competition’ for local sellers. The adjustment demand was also came from local sellers.

Our country is more government based unlike yours, we do not have very much private companies. You have much more private companies that can insist on government for this tax thing. I mean it is really risky for you guys.

Sorry for English, I hope you understand me. I also want to ask you something, currently what is the tax threshold in your country?

16

Some say it won't happen, but we just implimented a 20% tax on softwood lumber into the United States from Canada. It's retroactive going back 90 days. Collection efforts will begin soon if not already. I imagine there will be a run on softwood lumber here before retailers jack up the prices to match their new cost to replace.

17

Referring to Australia’s forthcoming sales tax on imports. I don’t really mind paying it for goods that can be bought in Australia (it’ll usually still be cheaper to buy from China) but it really annoys me to have to pay tax on something that cannot be purchased from Australia in the first place (such as a lot of lights and accessories). It is also not going to help Australian manufacturing industry, which has been dead for decades.

18

I feel bad for you Australian people. You already pay a lot of things like internet much more than people from US or Europe according to some comments I have seen though the internet.

I want to ask, what will be the price limit? (threshold?) And what will be tax amount? I hope it won’t be 20% !

19

We pay 10% GST on pretty much everything. There was a limit which I dont recall when bringing things in from overseas that was tax exempt. They want 10% GST paid on everything we bring in regardless though I imagine on some items it may cost us three times that (just a figure) to collect the 10%.
Saying all that I suppose we are like most other countries in that we pay tax on top of tax on top of tax.

20

The Australian law explanation is here (big file)
http://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/download/legislation/ems/r5819_ems_4304999d-0509-477f-a6ee-665cfd7e5f7c/upload_pdf/620164.pdf;fileType=application%2Fpdf
Can’t find a minimum, but it seems the seller has to charge Australian GST if it has a GST turnover over $75,000/annum. For smaller sellers, the distributor will presumably collect the GST.