CBP Refunds 2.5% Duties Paid on Rare Cars, Classifying Them as Collector's Pieces
An individual importer, Ricardo Vega, will receive refunds for a Porsche imported in 2023, according to a stipulated judgment filed at the Court of International Trade on June 17. Similarly, importers Yellowbird Enterprises and Vantage Point Services will receive refunds for duties paid on a Jaguar also entered in 2023.
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Vega, Yellowbird and Vantage Point paid 2.5% duties on the automobiles but will get refunds, since CBP agreed to classify the cars as "collector's piece[s]" (Ricardo Vega v. United States, CIT # 24-00163, and Yellowbird Enterprises v. United States, CIT # 24-00121).
Vega's automobile is a 1998 Porsche GT1 Strassenversion, which is the street version of a car designed to compete in the GT1 class of sports-car racing. CBP classified the car under Harmonized Tariff Schedule subheading 8703.33.01, which is dutiable at 2.5% and provides for motor cars and other motor vehicles "principally designed for the transport of persons (other than those of heading 8702), including station wagons and racing cars" with a cylinder capacity exceeding 2,500 cc and "only compression-ignition internal combustion piston engine (diesel or semi-diesel)."
After Vega filed suit, CBP agreed to liquidate the car under subheading 9705.10.00, a duty-free provision providing for collector's pieces.
Yellowbird and Vantage Point imported a "1955 Jaguar D-Type XKD Chassis 526 competition sports car," which was classified under subheading 8703.24.01 "as a motor vehicle principally designed for the transport of persons." The companies will receive refunds under the same subheading as Vega's Porsche, 9705.10.00.