People ask me:

"Lady ada, how the hell am I supposed to know what the HST code is for my products!?!?!?"

And I'm all...

"I'm not an import/export attorney, but there's a lot of places you can research to get the best match!"

This mini tutorial will cover how to find the best tariff code to match your product. Finding the right code is annoying but you only have to do it once, and getting it right will help you get your product through customs faster!

Using the Googles & FAQs.org

FAQs.org has a full indexed list of a massive number of rulings on tariff codes, you can search it from google by querying site:faqs.org tariff for example to search for the ruling on PCB tariff codes, search for "printed circuit board tariff site:faqs.org."

The nice thing about this is not only can you often get the ruling tariff code BUT you can also get a feel for how the codes are often decided (say how to categorize a toolkit set that contains a few different items but must have a single code).

Using the USA HST / Tariff classification system

Next up, the official place to go is the US HST website.

For most electronic goods, you'll want to head to chapter 85.

For example, if you're selling a resistor pack, or something that contains only resistors, youll want to check out subsection 8533 which is all about resistors!

It's rare that you find the absolutely best choice for the tariff code right there, which is why we use both search techniques!