Tariffs on Decks

[DanielJUK]

I think this is an important thread to have, but we have to be cautious this doesn't descent into politics. We don't allow political discussions in the rules, so let's keep this to only discussing decks, costs and charges and the tariffs. Topical political discussions always just ends with everyone arguing in threads and then having to be closed, so let's move away from that and keep on topic.

 

Many months ago, I pledged for a Kickstarter from a UK artist, she has sold crowdfunded decks before and people bought the deck from all over the world. The deck was funded and she started sending them off around the world but the decks going to America in August, hit a problem. They now had a tariff on each deck, to be paid officially by the importer and then you can you receive it. I feel so sorry for the artist because it has become a nightmare with the tariff changing monthly. On July 30th, 2025, an executive order removed the long-standing de minimis exemption for shipments valued under $800 and for the next six months any parcels coming in to America under $800, are charged $80 flat rate tariff from the UK. After six months, it will be the exact tariff from the country it is coming from.

 

This is completely unaffordable for individuals with crowd funders and so she asked for the American customers to pay the extra costs and holding them for six months when the tariff from the UK will be 10% + £0.50 per deck, a change from the $80. The emergency tariff is more than the cost of the deck 😞 . In light of this, many European countries have suspended sending parcels of goods to America currently through domestic services. Gifts only or through large importers, carriers.

 

The other problem is the tariffs are arbitrary and constantly changing, depending on negotiations and discussions. I think one important part of it is China and Asia, where most decks are printed these days. The China tariff was 150% and currently 30% in August but may change to 100% this month. Mass market decks often come from America but printed in Asia, so tariffs will be in the price. Just read the de minimis exemption is back for China and Asia, up to $800, so that might help deck printing.

 

edited to add: the de minimis charges for anything up to $800 being imported in to America, changes depending on where you are. Countries with an effective IEEPA tariff rate of less than 16 percent:  $80 per item; between 16 and 25 percent (inclusive):  $160 per item; and above 25 percent:  $200 per item. This lasts for six months.

 

 

This is a fast changing situation but I think this is the best advice right now....

 

Living Outside America - There shouldn't be a tariff buying from America, however if the deck is printed outside America, you may have to pay extra and pay for the Asia to America tariff. There could be extra charges anyway to cover the cost of importing other decks. Beware of sending stuff to America that are decks or goods. You may have to pay the tariff / get it back from the customer. If none is paid, it will be held in the U.S and the customer will have to pay a charge to get it or sent back to you with a higher charge (most of these will be destroyed and not returned). It's possible countries might do reciprocal tariffs, and then there will be a cost from buying from America. It's easier to buy and sell from outside the U.S now in this complicated situation.

 

Living Inside America - You will have to pay a tariff on anything from outside America, so it's better to only buy from inside the country for now. Some countries / sellers won't sell or ship to America right now. 

 

I think the most complicated are crowdfunded / Print on Demand decks, you will see the extra charges / tariffs in real time and have to pay them.

Mass market decks could well go up in price to cover the costs but it will be hidden in the price points. We could see price rises on all decks in every country.

It seems easier with the tariffs to use an international carrier rather than domestic postal service if you need to send something.

 

It's removing the de minimis exemption, which is really going to affect crowdfunders and self-publishing 😞 

 

Anyway it's a minefield right now, all we can do is just think about this when buying new decks.

[Rose Lalonde]

Absolutely, @DanielJUK. Thanks for starting this thread and adding the info.

 

In a lot of cases, it's about not even being able to send to the US, as you mentioned. Last month I was sending a deck, but found out my country isn't sending packages until they figure out what to do about the fact that -- if I understood them correctly -- returning to sender isn't free for the post office, and there would be so many packages unclaimed because of the $80 that would need to be returned. And then the people here who originally sent the package would want their money back when the package returned to them. 

 

On Etsy, if you live outside the US and see a deck you'd like, but the seller doesn't list your country, you might want to message them. There was a seller this month with a lot of countries listed for shipping, but not mine. I asked whether he might be willing to ship the deck to me, and he said yes, absolutely. Etsy doesn't let him remove 1 country from their ship list; since he can't ship to the US at the moment, he has to individually add each country, and he hadn't had a chance to add them all. 

[Chariot]

Thanks for this thread @DanielJUK. We all need this information.

[Rose Lalonde]

9 hours ago, Rose Lalonde said:

In a lot of cases, it's about not even being able to send to the US, as you mentioned. Last month I was sending a deck, but found out my country isn't sending packages

Now that I said that, our post office just updated the site to say that gifts valued at less than $100 US can be posted again now without the recipient having to pay taxes or duties in the US. (We can also send above that amount, but the recipient would have to pay US customs when it arrives.)

 

If other countries are able to do that too soon, and if nothing suddenly changes again on the US side🫰🏻, then that would be good news.

[DanielJUK]

Like Customs charges and VAT / TVA / local taxes, the recipient (importer) is supposed to pay it "on paper". However what really happens is the carrier collects the charge on your behalf or it's left in U.S warehouse somewhere for months. The big carriers will collect it and then charge the sender. With customs charges, if you don't pay it and don't want the return, it will be destroyed. I think you are right @Rose Lalonde about having to pick up a costly returned parcel with all charges as some Europe senders are saying no returns! Maybe there is no choice for them but to get it back? Also I am seeing that many sites are asking for the recipient to prepay any tariffs charges. It's really complicated and changing, so who wants to deal with it? Others are asking for a mobile / cell number and email for them to be contacted in America to pay to get their parcel 🤷‍♂️.

 

When we left the EU, we now have to pay VAT in Europe on anything we buy from the UK. This is really complicated (like this situation) and ebay and etsy have intelligent systems which calculate this all on your behalf. So often you see something like "buy my self-published deck from my website in Europe, however UK buyers, please purchase from my etsy". So we often have to get from etsy which works out all the tax stuff. I could see this happening with tariff charges as well. I guess the big companies can afford the professional expertise to work it all out, but smaller don't really want to deal with it 🙂 .

 

We are just going to have to keep watching how this goes.