Ask HN: Should I smuggle components from Shenzhen to California ? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Should I smuggle components from Shenzhen to California ?

8 pointsthrowaway17444511 comments

Greetings HN. I am the CEO of a small consumer electronics company. Our product is designed, assembled, tested, and packaged in the US, but some of key components come from China.

Two weeks ago we placed a $6000 order electronic components (1000 units at $6/each) from our supplier. Our tariff bill has since ballooned $9000. We would not have placed the order at $15/each but it's too late to cancel. The order won't be complete for another three weeks and if this keeps escalating we may have to abandon the order and temporarily shut down.

There are two evasive actions we are considering mostly out of protest to being taxed without Congressional approval:

1) Break this shipment into 8 orders spread out over a month with a declared value of $750 each ? That would be below the $800 de minimis value which is exempt IIRC. Or does a US department keep track of the total shipments to prevent this loophole ?

2) Fly to Shenzhen pickup the order and fly back to SF with it in a back pack without declaring it. All the units would fit in a shoebox. We could have an invoice mocked up showing it's total value is below $800.

Does any U.S. citizen have experience with not declaring the value of expensive merchandise purchased overseas ? A shoebox of 1000 small circuit boards almost ensures I'll be questioned, but since it is a custom circuit there is no way to confirm the purchase price isn't what I declare it to be.

Thanks in advance for any feedback.

You might be underestimating both China's and US's capability to link this message to your itinerary. Perhaps don't plan crimes on a public message board.

Perhaps relocate to a country that is not attempting a global trade collapse and fascism. That is still legal for you. It might not be in the future.

> There are two evasive actions we are considering mostly out of protest to being taxed without Congressional approval:

I don't think you have a moral duty to pay tariffs, but evading the tariff doesn't seem like a very effective form of "protest", as if you are successful at evading it, probably nobody else (except maybe a couple of HN readers) will ever know.

If you're interested in the protest angle in the sense of telling someone with some kind of power about your problem, you might contact your U.S. representative's office and talk about how the tariff is threatening your U.S. manufacturing business.

> A shoebox of 1000 small circuit boards almost ensures I'll be questioned

Depending on the airport (maybe depending on the specific flight) there may not be any individual examination of most passengers' baggage. On the other hand, intentionally misleading the agents who are examining you could potentially get you in a lot of trouble, as you can be punished just for that, separately from the tariff evasion.

You’d be trading business consequences (profit loss) for personal consequences (prosecution). Probably not the best tradeoff.

I would never smuggle contraband or want other people to do it either.

But one time I was flying back from Canada, and the guy in the seat next to me was not shy about his critical mission to hand deliver 5000 parts from one of the major capacitor manufacturers, directly to a plant in Mexico that was suffering a shortage. This has to be carry-on, checking them as baggage is not an option.

What are the odds, this can't be that uncommon.

I think people would pay extra for a foreign manufacturer or distributor to courier the essential package ASAP and handle the paperwork no differently than the way they have been doing it for others.

HN is probably not the best place to ask. I would start with your legal department and as if the risk is aligned with the reward. I do not have experience with what you are asking but I see articles all the time of people smuggling things into the country to avoid some tax and it never ends well.

They have difficulty paying $3K. Do you really think they have a legal department or any department whatsoever?

> They have difficulty paying $3K

$9k, actually. He wrote that the unit price increased from $6 to $15. But your point stands nonetheless.

Do you really think they have a legal department or any department whatsoever?

That is actually the point. If they do not have one and are using HN as legal advice then essentially I said it was a bad idea by pointing them to their legal department.

No freight forwarder in Vietnam you can use?

Sorry but if an expected $9k expense is hurting to the point that you are seriously considering such risky and costly (what's your time and attention worth?) plays... Do have any buffers or margins? It sounds naive to just expect everything to work out within budget when you're trading cross-border. Hopefully you can address that before you grow further in other dimensions.

de minimis is being removed due to things like this, and drugs.

3rd option make the parts in the US if your going to sell them in the US.

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