Import duties:

An import duty is a tax collected on imports by a country's customs authorities.  Fancy Chess has no control over these fees can cannot estimate or include them in the price during checkout.  The import duties are solely the responsibility of the customer.

The process for paying the import duties may vary depending on the country or shipping carrier.  In most cases the shipping carrier may charge you directly and will call you when your package is clearing customs to inform you how much to pay and how to pay it, such as on the UPS or FedEx website.  For this reason, it is important to have an accurate phone number entered in the checkout page.

There are sites that can help to estimate the amount of import duties you may need to pay such as: https://www.simplyduty.com/import-calculator/

NOTE: Shipping carriers such as UPS or FedEx may also charge a fee to clear your item through your country's customs department.  For example, we've seen UPS charge a $10 brokerage fee.

 

How to reduce the amount of import duties/fees you may owe per order:

The duties collected by a country is usually dictated by the value of the package, and each country has a different threshold for when duties are charged (see country info below).  When ordering multiple items, you might consider splitting it into different orders so each order is below your country's threshold; however, remember that doing so would also increase your shipping costs, which might negate any duties you might have saved.

Another thing to consider is how many shipments your order will require if ordering multiple items.  Since we ship items from different warehouses, if you order 3 different items (ex. a board, chess pieces & clock) it's possible that they may all come from different warehouses, which would result in 3 different packages being sent.  Since the carrier (such as UPS) now has to clear 3 different packages through customs, they will charge their customs brokerage fee on each package (ex. 3 x $10).

That's why you should pay attention to the "Origin" listed in each item you add to your shopping cart to check which warehouse it comes from.  When possible, try to make all items from the same warehouse so they can be combined into 1 package, which saves you extra customs brokerage fees.

If you're in the U.S., you usually won't need to worry about import duties, since most of our products are already in the U.S., so this advice is mostly for customers in other countries like Canada.

We currently ship from these warehouses:

• Turkey
• Georgia, USA
• 2 warehouses in Alabama, USA

 

Canada:

Canada has a very low import value limit for charging import duty taxes (approx. $20).  So Canadian customers should always expect to pay import duties and keep that in mind when making an order.

You can estimate the import duties you may need to pay for orders imported to Canada here: https://www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/travel-voyage/dte-acl/est-cal-eng.html

See here for how to estimate Canadian import duties:  https://www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/import/guide-3-eng.html#s4

Example:

US$100 x 1.15 = CAN$115 (value for duty) $115.00 (value for duty) x 4% (customs duty rate) = $4.60 (customs duty) $115.00 (value for duty) + $4.60 (customs duty) = $119.60 (value for tax) $119.60 x 5% (GST) = $5.98 (GST) Total of customs duty and GST payable (in Canadian dollars) is $4.60 + $5.98 = $10.58

 

United States:

The U.S. has a higher import value limit before import duties are applied (approx. $800), but the U.S. Customs agency is always the final authority.

 

Taxes:

Please note that if you don't see sales tax charged on your order, you may be required to pay Sales or Use Taxes in your state or province.

We currently only register for, and collect sales tax for the states or provinces that we are required to based on the Nexus threshold rules in those regions.  For the states/provinces where we don't collect sales tax, we are required to inform customers that they may need to pay a Use Tax on their purchases themselves to their state or province.

Canada:

In Canada we collect HST in the following provinces:

• Ontario
• New Brunswick
• Newfoundland and Labrador
• Nova Scotia
• Prince Edward Island

In the other provinces we only collect GST, therefore if you live in another province, you may need to pay PST/RST/QST in that province.

United States:

In the United States we currently don't collect sales tax in any state.  If you live in a state that has sales tax, you may need to pay a Use Tax on your purchases.  Please see your local state tax office/website to find out if you need to pay a Use Tax and how to pay.