Story by Andrew Holland / April 30, 2018
When a US Flagged Vessel first makes her arrival into US Waters she is required to make what is known as a formal entry and pay US Duty and Import Tax due on the boat. When planning your formal entry into the US to pay duty, here are the steps that you will want to follow.
First, you will need to contact US Customs and notify of them of your arrival and make them aware that you plan to make a formal entry into the US and pay Duty, or Import the vessel into the US . Once you notify Customs, you’ll then want to engage the services of a US Customs Agent who will purchase what is known as a TIB, or Temporary Import Bond, which covers your boat during the importation process.
The next step you will need to take is to place a value on the boat to determine the nominal figure at which the duty will be calculated. To do this, you will need to provide your customs agent with what is known as a “Pro-Forma Invoice”, value survey, or purchase agreement which provides the customs agent with an exact number to determine the tax due.
The Pro-Forma Invoice can be provided to your customs agent by a Licensed Yacht and Ship Broker or a Professional Surveyor.
Once a value has been placed on the vessel, the customs agent can calculate the exact cost of Duty that will be due and provide the owner of the boat with an invoice and instructions on how to make payment to complete the importation of the vessel.
Once the Duty has been paid, the owner of the vessel will receive US Customs Clearance Paper known as an “Entry Summary” or CBP Form 7501, which shows Duty has been paid on the vessel. This document should be saved and kept onboard the vessel for the life of her ownership to show that she can cruise freely in US Waters as a Duty Paid vessel.
US Duty Paid status is transferable between owners so long as the boat maintains a US Flag and registration between sales.
If a boat is US Flagged and Duty paid only to changes flags and leave the US after a sale, if the boat is later sold to a new owner who wishes to reflag her US and bring back into the US the boat would be obligated to pay the duty again upon her re-arrival to the US.
Yacht Broker Micheal Streng did a fantastic job helping us buy our dream retirement boat. He is pleasant, professional, smart, diligent, and totally focused toward ensuring the best outcome for us- his clients.
He helped us identify the key features we wanted. And, helped us then learn the market by seeing firsthand seeing all the boats available. How? By organizing a two day driving extravaganza to see as many boats available from dawn to dusk.
But, his crucial expert assistance continued throughout the whole buying process… helping us craft multiple offers and counter offers to ensure we “bought-right”!
His expertise continued with calmly helping us organize the multitude of details, from sourcing survey experts and renegotiating credits for issues… to ensuring our foreign manufactured vessel had duty paid receipts… thus all saving us much aggravation and thousands of dollars!
In closing, sourcing and buying a boat right has adventurous elements of the “wild-west”. Our Broker – Micheal Streng was our LoneRanger & Tonto… expertly guiding and helping us to help make our dream a reality.
Tom & Danielle
Waterford, Connecticut
We purchased a Lagoon 470 catamaran through Zvonimir (Zee) Kalinic, TMC’s broker in Croatia and Italy. Zee is the ultimate professional and by far the best broker we have ever had the pleasure of doing business with. Thankyou Zee for your professionalism, guidance and support in securing this purchase for our family! Not an easy task being Australian and purchasing in a foreign country but thanks to your help and the assistance of Andrew Holland in the office, this process was made so much more stress free.
Thank you Zee and The Multihull Compnay!
Andrew Hodgdon was a pleasure to have as a broker. He was always there for me and I appreciated his help and professionalism. Thank you Andrew!! Highly recommended.
Just wish to share our thanks with Cal Landau and The Multihull Company for their service selling our catamaran that we owned for nearly 15yrs. Cal our broker in West Palm Beach was THE BEST!
He worked with us beyond the call of duty in helping us prep and moor our boat during some horrendous weather that came through last Winter and always offered to lend a hand while we were in West Palm procuring supplies. etc. Cal was always present to show the boat, learned about our boat systems to answer questions from shoppers and made a very informative listing with great photos and video that attracted a lot of action. I wish to highly recommend Cal and The Multihull Co if you’re planning on putting your boat on the market.
The entire company was committed to my satisfaction as a seller. Andrew the broker went out of his way to help me prepare the boat for sale and in just 3 weeks we had it under contract. I had to be away from the country but Andrew the broker and Andrew (same name) the Chief Operating Officer walked me through all the paperwork needed and kept me informed at every stage of the sale. Boat owners don’t remain without a boat for long, if this is the case for me, I will certainly contact Andrew and the Multihull Company to be my broker.
Successful relationships cannot exist without it. At The Multihull Company we base every relationship on a firm commitment to earning and retaining our client’s trust.
Advice of any kind is valuable only when grounded in hard-won expertise. It too, must be trustworthy. Trust and expertise define the heart and soul of The Multihull Company. We are a team of skilled professionals who thrive on providing expert, trustworthy advice and service to catamaran and trimaran sailors around the globe.
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