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Brooklyn electronics company Adafruit hit with surprise $36K tariff bill: "pay in one week" [1]

['Mark Frauenfelder']

Date: 2025-05-08

When DHL delivered mail to Adafruit Industries last week, it wasn't a typical invoice but a gut punch: a $36,126.46 customs duty bill that had to be paid within seven days.

The bill comes from Trump's multi-layered tariffs that can stack up to 170% on certain electronics components. For Adafruit, a company that supplies makers and engineers with specialized electronic parts, this creates a perfect storm. These components were ordered months ago before tariff changes, can't be sourced elsewhere due to intellectual property restrictions, and must be paid for immediately — not after sales are made.

"Unlike other taxes where we collect on behalf of the state or only pay if we're profitable, tariff taxes are paid before we sell any products and are due within a week of receipt," explains Phil Torrone, who co-runs Adafruit Industries. The company now faces an impossible choice: dramatically raise prices and risk having unsold inventory, or absorb massive costs they hadn't budgeted for.

"We'll have to increase the prices on some of these products, but we're not sure if people will be willing to pay the higher cost," Phil says, "so we may well be 'stuck' with unsellable inventory that we have already paid a large fee on."

It's easy to envision the lewd grin spreading across Vladimir Putin's necrotic face as he reads reports like this.

Previously:

• Why Adafruit thinks it's legal to stamp Harriet Tubman over Andrew Jackson on the US $20

• Ladyada and Adafruit featured in the latest issue of Make:

• Adafruit debuts 'Circuit Playground' — a kids' puppet show about electronics

• Adafruit interviews Tai Lopez, new owner of RadioShack

• Adafruit's Tempest in a Teacup: the world's smallest MAME cabinet

• WaterColorBot: drawing robot kit

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[1] Url: https://boingboing.net/2025/05/08/brooklyn-electronics-company-adafruit-hit-with-surprise-36k-tariff-bill-pay-in-one-week.html

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