18 T H E C U B A R E V I E W 



BREAKING THE OFFICIAL TARE ON MERCHANDISE 



SHIPPED TO CUBA 



By Dean R. Wood, Xuecitas, Cuba 



In most Custom Houses what is kno^\^^ as an official tare is placed on floods; that is to say, 

 the tare is subtracted fn ni the grossweight of the V;ox or i)ackap;e and the remainderpaysduty 

 as merchandise. As a matter of fact there are many cases where the official tare is less than the 

 actual tare and in such cases the merchandise pays duty for a greater weight than actually 

 exists, or in other words, merchandise which does not exist is paying duty. For example, if a crate 

 of merchandise weighs one himdred kilos and the tare is S^Jf ,then 95 kilos of merchandise must 

 pay duty, but in case the actual weight of the merchandise is onlyCO kilos, then 3o kilos excess 

 merchandise must pay duty. With the above exjilanatory remarks it is hoped that the readers 

 of this article will understand the official tare and its api)lications. 



In most Custom Houses it is considered that the official tare can only lie i^laced on a box 

 or package when only one class or kind of merchandise is placed therein and if any other mer- 

 chandise,no matter howsmall its value or little its weight is placed in the package, then each 

 class of merchandise will pay duty on its actual net weight. 



There are two Custom House principles w'hich are supposed to generally determine under 

 what paragraph goods shall pay duty, as follows : 



First. — Goods must pay duty according to the material which determines tlu^ value of the 

 goods. 



Second.— The use or application to which the goods are to be put also enters into the ques- 

 tion of under what paragraph the goods shall pay duty. For example, an article which is a part 

 of machinery, and can have no other application, miist pay duty as machinery. 



Of course it is hardly necessary to say that these questions originate never-ending contro- 

 versies and often it is not easy to say just what material actually does determine the value of 

 the goods and certain goods or articles may have various uses. 



The principal object of this article is to explain just how the official tare may be broken 

 and give some idea of the classes of goods on which it would be advisable to break the tare. 

 On some kinds of goods the saving is so small that it does not pay to make any effort to break 

 the tare. The following arc all cases which have actually taken place in certain Custom 

 Houses : 



Shipment of brass beds which pay duty at the rate of $0.20 per 100 kilos, tare on goods is 



57c- 



Xos. 1375-80. Six crates w^eighing 760 kilos gross, contents as follows: 



Brass beds, 273 kilos, net value $187.50 



Tooth picks, 1.360, net value $0.36 



Box packing, 485.640 net 



Duties as follows: 



273 kilos brass beds at $20 per 100 kilos $54.60 



Tooth picks, 25% ad valorem on $0.36 .09 



Box packing, 485.640 kilos at $0.16 per 100 kilos .77 



Port improvements at the rate of $0.70 per 1,000 kilos .54 



Total $56.00 



In this case the tare was actually broken by using the tooth picks, one package in each 

 crate. If the tare had not been broken the duties would have been as follows: 



Xos. 1375-80. 6 crates, 760 kilos gross, bass beds, actual net weight 273.000 kilos, gross 

 weight 760 kilos less 5% tare, gives 723 kilos on which duty must be paid. 



