My personal experience bringing 3 Hermes exotics into the USA from France

[MetzFan]

it's good you mentioned this as i forgot to!

the morning of my flight the member Bethscloset texted me to remind me that if i was traveling with anything of value from the USA to France, I needed to bring all documentation that proved I had purchased it before the trip.

So for example, I brought in my carry-on every receipt for my Cartier pieces, Hermes fine jewelry, and CITES for my watch strap and CDC-- for every significant piece i would not want to pay unnecessary duties on. I had the little certificates with the serial numbers for each bracelet and ring with the date of purchase, and thank goodness as customs actually looked at the inside of each piece for the serial number to make sure they matched. if i hadn't have had the receipts for those pieces, i would have had to pay duties on them too! since a lot of them look 'new' and could have been purchased on the trip. they paid no attention to expensive costume jewelry like from chanel or clic clacs, but anything that was 'real' i needed proof of USA purchase before arriving in France.

** this is all done upon your return, it isn't like you can show them before leaving the USA 'here is what i am traveling with, make note for when i return'. so no declaring before leaving, unfortunately.

Actually, I believe you can do some of it before you leave. See the U. S. Customs and Border Protection website for info on registering items, AS LONG AS they have serial numbers, using CBP Form 4457. My dad used to register his Leicas before taking them abroad. It might save some hassle at 3 a m.

 

[QuelleFromage]

Thanks for the information. My brother had quite a different story.

Leaving Spain, he kept piling up all the items that he purchased, it took up all of the counter, that the officer just gave up, exclaimed "Stop, enough!", took all the receipts and stamped them without referencing the items.

In that "pile" were jewellery from Cartier, watches from IWC, Richard Mille, some exotic Bs and Ks from H, and footwear from Louboutin and Saint Laurent.

He called this tactic "Shock and awe".

He didn't even declare these upon arrival, and not one officer questioned him upon entry. Even going through customs, he only declared a pack of peanuts he'd bought to eat. Most likely reason they left him alone, he dressed like a bum.

Sometimes its good to be the book that gets judged by its cover.

Ahh here I think we have quite a good example of cultural differences between neighbouring countries! I have lived in both.

Thank you LG for the detailed story and reminder to think when we travel Better safe than sorry and MUCH better safe with croc than sorry sans croc

 

[ldldb]

it's very tempting to evade customs when coming home, but LG did the right thing. if you travel a lot, the last thing you want is to have a mark on your record in their system b/c then it's a clearance nightmare every time they scan your passport. like someone said, better safe than sorry. not worth saving a few bucks and have a horrible time with customs every time you go overseas!

but i had to chuckle at the "shock and awe" comment as i've seen many vat people stamping willy nilly just out of sheer exhaustion (esp when there's a long line!). i do wonder how these passengers manage to clear customs when passing through their own home country though!

 

[Suzil]

Hi everyone, I wanted to put my experience with customs, travel and detax in writing so hopefully it can help future travelers who may be stressing about Hermes exotics. again I want to thank everyone who posted replies to me, it was so helpful to hear past experiences and challenges so i was prepared.

As a preface, my situation became much more involved with customs because I was traveling not only with 3 exotic leather pieces, but also with 2 african butterflies from a taxidermy store, my own dog, as well as a passport that showed i 'lived' in paris for a month in an apartment, not a hotel.

Here is how it went:
1. I arrived at the airport 3 hours early to leave time for long VAT de-tax lines. I am glad I did! Even though the line was very short (only 5 people) I was held at the VAT office for about an hour. This wasn't even customs-- this was to get the VAT stamp on my receipts. For some reason, Hermes in France won't give you the full-page CITES document like we are used to when buying a CDC or bag. If you are buying less than 5 items, instead they put these official CITES stamps on your invoice with the names of the animals (i.e. alligator, mississippi crocodile, whatever). I figured I would have trouble with this at customs, but oddly the VAT officials didn't want to give me the refund without it. They also insisted on seeing and touching and feeling each of my purchases and it was clear it had NOTHING to do with their job, I could understand if customs needed to inspect the skins but the VAT tax refund office had no legitimate reason to touch my stuff. It was simply curiosity. They did put on fresh gloves which I appreciated. They also asked what about my income, employer, etc etc. which also seems more normal from customs, not that de-tax kiosk. Bottom line, they finally decided to stamp my receipts from Hermes. Hermes had marked the spots to stamp, on my receipt to keep AND to send. They didn't want to stamp my receipts I kept, but I absolutely insisted upon it as the 'Hermes Guide to Detax' the flagship gave me said it was important.
2. When this was all done I chose not to mail the de-tax envelopes. I still haven't, I want to scan all of it as proof in case they are 'lost in the mail'.
3. All of these purchases were in my carry on, if I had packed them it would have been so much more of a headache.

** Here is the important part**
4. When I landed, I decided to be 100% honest and declare everything at their actual values. Thank goodness I did. Because, even though de-tax in France and the United States customs border control are completely separate entities, they communicate with each other.
The customs line was about an hour long. When I walked up to the customs desk, before I even showed them my declarations form with the purchases on it, they scanned my passport, and something must have popped up on the screen for my name. He said "Did you or did you not declare the $X,000 handbag? We also need to take a look at the butterflies." Which means, when a certain value of purchase crosses the de-tax desk in Paris, they may give customs a heads up at your final USA destination that you may try to illegally bring the purchases past without paying duties.

As an aside, a sales associate at the flagship told me one of her clients did this, got the de-tax refund for a crocodile bag, and then lied to customs when they asked if she had anything to declare. At that point they already had been informed by VAT of the bag on its way with her, and she was hit with an insane fine for trying to evade duties.
So... thank goodness I was honest on my little form. As they already knew what was coming.

5. At this point they took me into a secondary, and then a third room (3 hours in total). I was very tired as it was 2am Paris time when I landed, and then heading into the long customs line and then into a 3 hour questioning by customs. In fairness, this wasn't all because of the exotic leathers. It took time for them to look up the species of the butterflies to make sure they weren't endangered and illegal, as well as inspecting my dog, her health certificates, scanning her microchip, inspecting her EU passport. But then came the intense interrogation about the Hermes pieces and the diamond jewelry. They wanted to know exactly why I spent so much time in Paris, what I do for work, what my income was, who my employer is, why I purchases the items, if I had proof I wasn't selling them, how I paid for them, then into my political beliefs, and a long list of personal questions about my life. It was very draining as there were about 8 customs officials coming and going from the small room I was in, who then went through my 2 checked luggage to make sure I wasn't hiding anything else. It was very draining. 3 hours later I was free to go.

I was charged between 5-5.3% on the exotics. Which is actually a lot less than I expected-- I was prepared for 10%, that is what Hermes had estimated. Do I have regrets about doing de-tax and honest declaration? Not at all. First, the VAT refunds were 10-15% so I ended up making $ back this way. Second, it was inevitable I would get pulled aside because of my dog, so they would have found the Hermes items in my bags even if I hadn't de-taxed. In which case I would have had to pay duties or a fine for lying, with no tax refund.

So that's that! My dog isn't in quarantine, the butterflies made it too, and all the Hermes stuff is with me as well. Success!!!

I really hope this helps, as it is clear the customs and de-tax experience can be very different for exotics than regular leather.

This valuable information is exactly what I was looking for! THANK YOU SO MUCH!! So glad to know your adventure ended up well! I am going to Paris for the first time for our 5th wedding anniversary. It is 2 years from now but I am already obsessing over all kinds of information that I can get on the dos, donts and how tos when in Paris and when coming back to the US, especially since LV and Chanel goodies are coming back with me I am already super excited and saving $$$$. My husband thinks I am crazy and I just want it to be Spring 2016!!