# Will I owe any customs fees?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-i-owe-any-customs-fees/745833>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [February 11, 2016, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-i-owe-any-customs-fees/745833 "2016-02-11T17:37:21Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![boffking](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/858c86/32.png) [@boffking](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/boffking)\
**Post date:** [February 11, 2016, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-i-owe-any-customs-fees/745833/1 "2016-02-11T17:37:21Z")

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I ordered a refurbished business laptop a couple days ago, and got a great deal on it. I paid about $215. What I didn’t realize when I made the order, was that it is coming from Canada. I live in Maine, not sure if that makes a difference. Will I have to pay customs on it when it gets here? If so, how much?

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**Author:** ![Iggy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iggy/32/3364_2.png) [@Iggy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Iggy)\
**Post date:** [February 11, 2016, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-i-owe-any-customs-fees/745833/2 "2016-02-11T18:36:40Z")

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There is a daily exemption of $100 for packages received from a foreign country.

Above that, the USPS collect duty. There is a $6 customs clearance and duty fee plus the applicable duty. IIRC the duty is payable only on the amount above your daily limit.

How much duty , if any, is owed can be estimated here:

[http://www.dutycalculator.com/new-import-duty-and-tax-calculation/](http://www.dutycalculator.com/new-import-duty-and-tax-calculation/)

In part it depends on country of manufacture. I plugged in the data you gave with country of manufacture as Japan, Taiwan, or South Korea. It spit out $2 as the duty owed each time.

They might decide it is not enough to bother with and you’ll save $8.

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**Author:** ![boffking](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/858c86/32.png) [@boffking](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/boffking)\
**Post date:** [February 16, 2016, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-i-owe-any-customs-fees/745833/3 "2016-02-16T14:35:19Z")

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This came in yesterday and I didn’t owe any customs on it. It didn’t even have a customs slip on the package.