Under subheading 9608.50.00 of the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States 2012 pen parts i.e. kits should be tarriff free except for the refills. I find that interesting. It is also something you should know if you get anything coming in via FedEx or UPS because they don't seem to know it.
If you order kits from Taiwan or China I believe you should tell the shipper what harmonized tariff subheading the items come under and have them put "ballpoint (or fountain) pen parts" as the item on the commercial invoice that will accompany the shipment. The tariff on the refills seems to be .4 cents each plus 2.7% of the value. The value reflected on the invoice should probably be the value of the refill or ink cartridges.
I'm going to look deeper into this, but It looks like some of us might have been worrying about nothing vis-a-vis customs.
If you order kits from Taiwan or China I believe you should tell the shipper what harmonized tariff subheading the items come under and have them put "ballpoint (or fountain) pen parts" as the item on the commercial invoice that will accompany the shipment. The tariff on the refills seems to be .4 cents each plus 2.7% of the value. The value reflected on the invoice should probably be the value of the refill or ink cartridges.
I'm going to look deeper into this, but It looks like some of us might have been worrying about nothing vis-a-vis customs.