Do you bring a checkbook in case they want a deposit?
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I wonder how a deposit would actually work? I sort of canāt imagine they would accept a paper check.
Yes, we brought a checkbook.
Numbers are okayā¦probably down for sure. There are open RV spots which is rare. And, we got another RV spot in August. Which, again, has not been the case the last two years.
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Not about showing, but if anyone has ever purchased horsey stuff from England/Europe- I believe that the tariffs have hit this sector as well. Iāve bought many things from Royal Equestrian and equiport, but only after the start of the new administration and the tariffs have I ever had to pay import duties. On my most recent order (about 3 weeks ago) I had to pay import duties around 100 dollars- a very rude surprise. All in all, even with the duties it was still cheaper than buying from USA, but hard to know what you will actually end up paying in duties these days with ever changing, and incoherent info from the white house.
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Was this from the UK? How much was the total? Curious, as Iām waiting on backordered clippers from Old Mill Saddlery and debating if I should just cancel the order. As far as I can tell, purchases under $800 may still be exempt.
Yes I did order from the UK, bummer that the cheapest place to buy horsey stuff is getting more expensive 
Hereās the specific numbers in case they help anyone else: my order was under 800, my total was 431 GBP or 531 USD (at least with the current exchange rate, I believe it was less at that time), and the import duties were like 110 USD, kind of insane.
I ordered from equiport this time after the tariffs, but in the past I have ordered from Royal Equestrian (although this was before the tariffs), and not had any import duties at all. I did notice that on the customs forms Equiport classified the order as commercial or business (I donāt remember exactly what it said but it was something along this line), when it was not- it was some riding shirts and jackets for just me, and when I ordered from royal equestrian it wasnāt classified in this way. In some ways it makes sense that an order classified for a business would have a higher import duty than for personal use, but I donāt really understand why the different stores would classify the orders differently, maybe its a good idea to check with the shop to see what they classify the order as for customs? This is at least the only thing that I think made a difference for my order from Equiport versus Royal Equestrian, since as you said stuff under 800 dollars is supposed to be duty free. Ironically my order from Royal Equestrian was over this limit (again, though before the tariffs) and that was the one I didnāt have any duties on.
Its really hard to tell what you will actually end up paying, I didnāt think that there would be any duties on my order (although I knew with the current situation it was possible), but I really didnāt expect to pay a 20% (ish) duty. Thereās no telling what will happen with your order with the ever changing and hard to understand tariff situation, but I hope this helps 
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Thank you! Iād really love to find an official policy/announcement that would help me to calculated this, but so far I have not had any luck. The closest I can find is this page, which has not been updated since 2024. Itās tough to keep up 
https://www.cbp.gov/trade/basic-import-export/internet-purchases
Yes, so tough to keep up. In theory you could try the White House website, but, haha, take everything with a huge grain of salt. The stuff on there is for one, very questionable, and two, not what is actually happening. I donāt think any news organizations have covered this either, as I checked after I got the bill for the customs and couldnāt find anything. Everyone is being bombarded with so much, especially the news organizations, so I think they just havenāt gotten to covering everything yet. Like discussed in the majority of this topic, no one really knows how it is going to impact them, which is rough on everyone- as you obviously have also experienced. If I were to order from overseas again the in foreseeable future, I would email/call the place first before I order and ask what their experience has been so far, otherwise, the amount that you pay in customs is kind of unpredictable.
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My question is that since there are legal proceedings that said all the tariffs are illegal, since Trump had no legal authority to impose them, whatās going to happen now to the people who have already paid those tariffs? Are they going to get refunds?
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At the moment itās going to appeal and it will probably end up at the supreme court. If Trump loses, then yes, they have to refund all the money collected under those tariffs. Wonāt come close to covering the damage to cash flow and decisions of course.
As for the $800 de minimus, Iāve been watching it and I had understood it was no longer applicable to China but still applicable to other countries. However duty applies based on country of origin which may not be where you are ordering from. So for example, if you are ordering a shirt made in China from a store in the UK, you pay duty on it as if it is from China. Not sure what the de minimus rules are for that example. And if I did know it would possibly change Monday anyway. Or actually Friday, they are dropping a lot of these changes on Friday afternoons.
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This group has been doing that for years, when theyāre hoping it will get less news coverage and attention over the weekend.
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Tariffs arenāt exactly the same as import duties and under the current administration you pay them on anything you import whether it is for personal or ācommercialā. It is based on country of origin so in this case you need to see where the items were made, not where you bought them. Possibly Mexico with a 25% tariff.
The rate is whatever is applicable the day they clear customs so yeah, that is changing constantly and is impossible to predict right now. tariffcheck dot org tries to keep track.
This has been covered extensively in the media and continues to be: like wall to wall coverage. I am really surprised that you think it hasnāt? Reuters covers it on a daily basis so does AP so do all mainstream and trade new organizations. Those are good places to stay up to date.
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@Amberley , Totally agree on the fact that tariffs arenāt the same as import duties, I was just surprised at the charge and thought I would share with others, thanks for clarifying it though- all information on this stuff is useful 
From my perspective, Iāve seen lots of coverage on the tariffs and how they will impact commercial imports but not much on personal overseas orders. Before I placed the order I looked for articles covering how the tarrifs would impact an order like mine, and couldnāt find any concrete answers, though maybe this is changed by this point. While I understand that tariffs may impact both commercial and personal sectors I didnāt realize this at the time with the conflicting coverage the issue was getting, and I do consider myself to be decently informed on this stuff (although not perfect). In recent weeks Iāve taken a break from watching the constant coverage because it can be pretty intense, and after finishing a political science course in college recently- itās a bit of an overload on the political/economic front- so I apologise if Iām slightly misinformed or not up to date, Iāve decided at this point there isnāt much I personally can do about it so why watch it so closely? This is just my decision and I totally get why others may want to keep up with all the happenings, and Iām sure that you are better informed than I am at this point
I also didnāt think about them charging the duty based on the country of origin which is a very good point. Out of my order most of the items were from China, however a least a three of them originated from France/Italy. When I reviewed my customs paper just now only three items had a duty placed on them. One item (no way of knowing which one on the DHL form) had a duty of 28%, one of 5.6%, one of 9.9 %, and one of 14%, but there werenāt even this many different countries of origin in my order, and the highest 28% which I am assuming is for China, doesnāt reflect the correct number of items that originated from China, and the 25% tariff that I believed was active at the time? Who knows, it changes every five minutes. All of this is to say, that itās all very confusing and doesnāt make a ton of sense, but your point about the country of origin is a great one that I will keep in mind for future orders.
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Thatās bizarre but they may be lumping tariffs with existing taxes or fees ok your invoice. Or it might just be wrong. I know they had to scramble to set up a system to even collect the tariffs so Iām sure itās, um, not perfect. They did it in the middle of half the workforce being fired or quitting no less.
At least you didnāt get the 134% on Chinese goods, whatever week that was in place.
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This is because tariffs are charged based on country of origin and then also the product category the items are declared as. E.g. socks have a different tariff rate than steel rods etc. If there are no clear labels of country of origin on the product it is treated as from China. To your point no real transparent way of knowing how much you will end up paying in the end.
De minimis is still in effect for all shipments except those containing products made in China. But as far as Iām aware they are working on closing that off too but no timelines have been given.
Also from my understanding, but have no direct experience, if your shipment contains at least 1 item from China, all of the items from other countries will be hit with relevant tariffs as the shipment itself is no longer de minimis exempt. As a reslut it might make sense to split up your shipments into Chinese and non-Chinese goods to save some money.
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@tohorse, That is so so smart and I will actually try to do that next time, this is all so complicated so thanks for the advice
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Ah! That is the key I was missing. Thank you!
For anyone planning/intending to go to the US to show or stay over the winter, here is a scary report from the Washington Post, shared from another post on this forum, with thanks.
Make sure your visas are in order, and donāt overstay.
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US citizens who plan to show or travel abroad, perhaps for riding vacations, etc., should also take heed. Even our allies (if they still consider themselves such after this) may respond in kind.
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Unfortunately all this coincides with the Real ID in the US and many countries, including the US implementing the ESTA/ETA. People coming to the US have to apply for this and those in the US traveling abroad have to apply for it depending on what country youāre traveling to. Itās easy enough to apply for and takes anywhere from about an hour to a week or so. I got mine for travel to the UK in about 20 minutes. Iāve heard of people getting denied their UK ETA for a number of reasons - some get overturned and eventually get their ETA, others have had to cancel their plans as theyād be denied entry in UK.
Its worth noting that this ETA has been in the works for some time with staggered implementation, so Iām sure this is adding to a lot of travel headaches.
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