Alesia Gitter
CREATOR
3 months ago
Project Update: Tariffs are based on COUNTRY OF ORIGIN
I keep seeing a lot of confusion about things on other projects and I can't really comment on them since I didn't back them.
Like the title says, tariffs are based on COUNTRY OF ORIGIN not where they are being shipped from. I make my pins in China. I pay the tariffs when I receive the package at whatever rate (still waiting on the bill atm) for what I receive to me.
When I mail the pins I had made in China to Canada, Canadians are paying the tax for CHINA on whatever it is I send to them. We have something called harmonization system codes we have to put on everything we sell. This lets customs know what category the item falls under so they properly asses the tax that needs to be applied for that order since not everything has the same tax rate.
If I order pins from a Canadian maker who makes their pins in China, I pay the CHINA tariff NOT the Canadian tariff. I think this is where a lot of people get really confused about tariffs. It may be coming from Canada, but many of us make our products with manufacturers all over the world. Even stickers can come from all over the place or we make them at home. I make my stickers in the US so when I mail those, they will be originating from the United States and whatever tariffs countries have on us for that product will be what is charged to the person receiving.
People in the US will not be impacted by extra tariffs from me to them beyond what the project cost was. People outside the US receiving a package from me will still be impacted by the fees but their countries have (as far as I know) always had to pay tariffs/VAT to begin with. This has been a complete adjustment for the US because we have been spoiled for so long.
Hopefully this helps. As far as how much you'll be paying for different items, I have no idea. Frankly, everything is up in the air and I know a LOT of US backers pledged to international creators either way. I just wanted to clarify this so when people are getting bills for their products from other creators, they aren't in shock. Most of my backers are US while very few are UK/Canada/Mexico/Australia/New Zealand. We've almost always been restricted by other countries tariffs for our projects already, which is probably why the removal of de minimus has been so impactful across the world for chinese goods especially.
I can't answer everything, but if you are confused about something, feel free to ask a question! I don't mind trying to find the answers.
PS this is less about my project and more about projects spreading information that seems incorrect.
Update 5/8/2025:
Like the title says, tariffs are based on COUNTRY OF ORIGIN not where they are being shipped from. I make my pins in China. I pay the tariffs when I receive the package at whatever rate (still waiting on the bill atm) for what I receive to me.
When I mail the pins I had made in China to Canada, Canadians are paying the tax for CHINA on whatever it is I send to them. We have something called harmonization system codes we have to put on everything we sell. This lets customs know what category the item falls under so they properly asses the tax that needs to be applied for that order since not everything has the same tax rate.
If I order pins from a Canadian maker who makes their pins in China, I pay the CHINA tariff NOT the Canadian tariff. I think this is where a lot of people get really confused about tariffs. It may be coming from Canada, but many of us make our products with manufacturers all over the world. Even stickers can come from all over the place or we make them at home. I make my stickers in the US so when I mail those, they will be originating from the United States and whatever tariffs countries have on us for that product will be what is charged to the person receiving.
People in the US will not be impacted by extra tariffs from me to them beyond what the project cost was. People outside the US receiving a package from me will still be impacted by the fees but their countries have (as far as I know) always had to pay tariffs/VAT to begin with. This has been a complete adjustment for the US because we have been spoiled for so long.
Hopefully this helps. As far as how much you'll be paying for different items, I have no idea. Frankly, everything is up in the air and I know a LOT of US backers pledged to international creators either way. I just wanted to clarify this so when people are getting bills for their products from other creators, they aren't in shock. Most of my backers are US while very few are UK/Canada/Mexico/Australia/New Zealand. We've almost always been restricted by other countries tariffs for our projects already, which is probably why the removal of de minimus has been so impactful across the world for chinese goods especially.
I can't answer everything, but if you are confused about something, feel free to ask a question! I don't mind trying to find the answers.
PS this is less about my project and more about projects spreading information that seems incorrect.
Update 5/8/2025:
USPS
So I asked my local post office about packages coming in and thus far they haven't had to charge anyone anything but they did say if anything was being held, customs seems to be the one handling it (so far). They are going to ask their boss to verify so I'll check back on this later. They have not had to collect anything but it doesn't mean they won't have to. It sounds to me like they aren't really even set up to handle it anyways, but we shall see.
UPS
UPS said that any orders people receive will need to be paid before they receive the package which seems to be different than what artists who have been receiving orders have stated. I need to add links for this stuff later, but it seems clear that UPS can charge whatever they want whenever as brokerage fees etc and apparently surcharges.
Delivered Duty Paid (DDP): https://www.ups.com/us/en/supplychain/resources/glossary-term/delivered-duty-paid
Delivered Duty Paid (DDP): https://www.ups.com/us/en/supplychain/resources/glossary-term/delivered-duty-paid
DHL
DHL has been most of what I have seen people linking to for tariffs. I haven't received any packages from DHL myself recently so I can't confirm this at all.
My husband also linked me this that he found today: https://blog.adafruit.com/2025/05/08/high-tariffs-become-real-with-our-first-36k-bill/
My husband also linked me this that he found today: https://blog.adafruit.com/2025/05/08/high-tariffs-become-real-with-our-first-36k-bill/
FEDEX
I have no information for this despite having received packages this way. They do have this page that is confusing and I don't see anything about tariffs but did see something about surcharges and late fees, so not sure what that is about.
Frankly, their site just has a lot of information. I'll throw down some links but I don't really see anything specific about them collecting from us yet.
Duties & Taxes: https://www.fedex.com/en-us/shipping/international/duties-and-taxes.html
Shipping Fees: https://www.fedex.com/en-us/shipping/rate-changes/additional-shipping-fees.html
They also have some freight tariff thing: https://www.fedex.com/en-us/shipping/freight-services/tariff.html
_________
I had a root canal earlier so I'm way behind in posting this but we dug into this stuff on the drive a little more. I will say I keep using tariffs and VAT as if they mean the same thing, but they absolutely do not. VAT means Value Added Tax. This is generally charged to someone for a % based on the whole cost of the order. I think sometimes businesses pay this in advance and the customer pays for it at the time they send it, but there are different ways businesses can handle shipping to (including to the US) so their customers don't have to pay this after. Since I was driving, I don't have the links and will get them from my husband later and break this down more clearly as well.
Different countries handle this differently so I will probably edit this later with other links.
UK Vat Link: https://www.gov.uk/how-vat-works
Canadian Duties & Taxes: https://www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/travel-voyage/dte-acl/est-cal-eng.html
Canada Trade & Tariff Stuff: https://international.canada.ca/en/global-affairs/campaigns/canada-us-engagement
This isn't well thought out. I need to come back to edit this later lol. My face is annoyingly numb still.
Update 5/9/2025
Seems things may improve as negotiations are happening. We'll still have tariffs but man anything under what it is now is significant. I may hold off on updating this further since this could change soon (hopefully for the better).
Also this was sent out by Pirateship about Canada Post: https://support.pirateship.com/en/articles/11324142-a-possible-canada-post-strike-this-month-may-affect-usps-shipments
Frankly, their site just has a lot of information. I'll throw down some links but I don't really see anything specific about them collecting from us yet.
Duties & Taxes: https://www.fedex.com/en-us/shipping/international/duties-and-taxes.html
Shipping Fees: https://www.fedex.com/en-us/shipping/rate-changes/additional-shipping-fees.html
They also have some freight tariff thing: https://www.fedex.com/en-us/shipping/freight-services/tariff.html
_________
I had a root canal earlier so I'm way behind in posting this but we dug into this stuff on the drive a little more. I will say I keep using tariffs and VAT as if they mean the same thing, but they absolutely do not. VAT means Value Added Tax. This is generally charged to someone for a % based on the whole cost of the order. I think sometimes businesses pay this in advance and the customer pays for it at the time they send it, but there are different ways businesses can handle shipping to (including to the US) so their customers don't have to pay this after. Since I was driving, I don't have the links and will get them from my husband later and break this down more clearly as well.
Different countries handle this differently so I will probably edit this later with other links.
UK Vat Link: https://www.gov.uk/how-vat-works
Canadian Duties & Taxes: https://www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/travel-voyage/dte-acl/est-cal-eng.html
Canada Trade & Tariff Stuff: https://international.canada.ca/en/global-affairs/campaigns/canada-us-engagement
This isn't well thought out. I need to come back to edit this later lol. My face is annoyingly numb still.
Update 5/9/2025
Seems things may improve as negotiations are happening. We'll still have tariffs but man anything under what it is now is significant. I may hold off on updating this further since this could change soon (hopefully for the better).
Also this was sent out by Pirateship about Canada Post: https://support.pirateship.com/en/articles/11324142-a-possible-canada-post-strike-this-month-may-affect-usps-shipments
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