# Taxes and Duties When Importing From The US



## JBFairthorne (Oct 11, 2014)

I recently bought some pickguards from Warmoth, shipped via USPS. I was expecting to have to pay another $20 ish when they were delivered. I was pleasantly surprised when I didn't have to pay a cent.

Does anyone definitively know the rules/exceptions regarding duties taxes when importing from the US, particularly when they are or aren't charged? I'm not worried about border processing fees as I generally would ship via USPS which seems to screw you far less than other major carriers.

Is it based on value? Personal discretion of the border agent? Does it matter if you're buying used or new? Does it matter if you're buying from a private seller/business? Does it matter how often you're importing?

Taxes and duties have always been a major consideration for me when deciding whether or not to buy from the US, which seems to have much greater availability on many items.


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## Lincoln (Jun 2, 2008)

I've ordered a lot of stuff out of the US over the years and maybe 1 out of 10 times I'll get an extra charge for tax/duty. A single large item like a guitar, always seem to get it. However, a box of parts that may add up to the same value comes through with no extra fees. USPS is always the way to go. I think there must be a dollar value involved in the process, but I believe some of it is discretion as well. I've never been able to figure it out or come up with a list of rules governing it.


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## bluzfish (Mar 12, 2011)

I haven't ordered anything big from the US but I have never been hit with any additional charges when orders were shipped USPS. However, when shipped FedEx or the UPS pirates, brokerage and fees were formidable enough that I will never order anything from the States unless they can ship it USPS.


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## Robert1950 (Jan 21, 2006)

There is the key phrase....



bluzfish said:


> I haven't ordered anything big from the US but I have never been hit with any additional charges when orders were shipped USPS. *However, when shipped FedEx or the UPS pirates, brokerage fees were formidable *enough that I will never order anything from the States unless they can ship it USPS.


Brokerage fees for the uninformed are what are charged to process and collect taxes and duties when something comes into the country. CanadaPost charges $5 unless it has gone up in the last couple of years. FedEX and UPS charge an arm, a leg and your first born.


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## jbealsmusic (Feb 12, 2014)

JBFairthorne said:


> I recently bought some pickguards from Warmoth, shipped via USPS. I was expecting to have to pay another $20 ish when they were delivered. I was pleasantly surprised when I didn't have to pay a cent.


Always a nice surprise!



> Does anyone definitively know the rules/exceptions regarding duties taxes when importing from the US, particularly when they are or aren't charged? I'm not worried about border processing fees as I generally would ship via USPS which seems to screw you far less than other major carriers.
> 
> Is it based on value? Personal discretion of the border agent? Does it matter if you're buying used or new? Does it matter if you're buying from a private seller/business? Does it matter how often you're importing?


_In my experience, t_his has more to do with NAFTA than anything else. _There are applicable fees for_ any orders greater than $20, _though they are not always charged_. The charges (if shipping via USPS) are a $9.95 handling fee, a duty fee_ (if applicable)_, and the GST/HST on the total value of the products being shipped (all in $CAD). If you're getting shipments of products not protected by NAFTA and you're not seeing those fees then CBSA is _letting them through_. _Lucky you!_


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## Lincoln (Jun 2, 2008)

In contrast to most musical items sliding through the border unmolested..........

I recently ordered some toothpaste & deodorant online (amazon.ca) that's only sold in the USA. They hit me hard for that stuff. I think I paid $30 tax/duty on $20 worth of products! And it came USPS.
Won't make that mistake again.


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## Steadfastly (Nov 14, 2008)

Just keep your orders coming via USPS and unless it is a very expensive order, there are usually no extra fees. Avoid the couriers companies like the plague because that's what they are.


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## sulphur (Jun 2, 2011)

It's a crapshoot, at best.

Three different orders, from the same place out of the US.
The first one was left at the door, the second I had to pay extra and the third was again left at the door.
These are US made products, out of US grown wood. Explain that one.

All my direct orders from Bearfoot FX have all just been left in my mailbox.


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## knight_yyz (Mar 14, 2015)

It's completely random as to whether you get taxed or not through USPS to Canada. There is no way Canada Customs can ding every single package that crosses the border. It partially depends on how it is sent. From my experience (5-10 packages per month) that Global Priority almost guarantees it will be dinged. Other than that their doesn't seem to be any set rules. I have had 400 dollar items slip through on occassion, yet I have been dinged on 40 dollar items as well.


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## boyscout (Feb 14, 2009)

jbealsmusic said:


> <snip> This has more to do with NAFTA than anything else. You should be getting charged for any orders greater than $20 that are not protected by NAFTA. The charges (if shipping via USPS) are a $9.95 handling fee, a duty fee, and the GST/HST on the total value of the products being shipped (all in $CAD). If you're getting shipments of products not protected by NAFTA and you're not seeing those fees then you're either paying for them in the initial shipping cost or CBSA is sleeping on the job when your packages are going through the border.


NAFTA only applies to DUTIES (another form of tax) that may or may not apply on imported products. Despite the NAFTA "free trade" agreement, a dizzying array of products cannot be freely traded, they are subject to duties ranging from a few percentage points up. The guide for determining whether an item is dutiable or not runs to several hundred pages. Often obscure rules. For example (from memory, don't rely on it!) I believe that a guitar case is subject to a 6% duty, but if it has a guitar in it the case is duty-free. (If I've got that wrong, similarly-weird circumstances can be found.)

All shipments above a minimum dollar value are subject to either HST or GST (depending on the province into which the goods are being imported), NAFTA has no effect on those taxes.

CBSA "sleeping on the job"? Probably not, and I'd hate for language like that to start upsetting the apple cart and getting all shipments diligently processed for full taxes and duties.

It's not hard to guess at the volumes involved. There's just no way that CSBA - without a huge and costly staff - can handle everything in the daily flood of shipments from the U.S. I think they're doing what they SHOULD do... trying to capture most high-value shipments and the biggest shippers and collecting on those shipments, hitting the smaller stuff when they can, all with a priority of getting the shipments through to their destinations asap. They have agreements with big American shippers like Amazon to charge the Canadian tax at transaction time and remit it across the border, and other sensible measures. I'd guess that if they were spurred by comments like "sleeping on the job" to start hitting everything, we'd wait WEEKS longer to get our shipments. Thanks to all CBSA employees for having half a brain and doing what's right!


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## jbealsmusic (Feb 12, 2014)

Let's make a quick resource to break it down for all of us:

GST / HST / PST: Charged on any goods worth more than CAN$20, and/or gifts worth more than CAN$60.
Handling Fee: CAN$9.95 charged by Canada Post, unless the item is duty free.
Duty: Charged _on applicable goods_ worth more than CAN$20.

The list of duty fees and exemptions is very large, but here is a handy-dandy calculator to help people anticipate what the duty fees might be on certain products crossing the border.
http://www.dutycalculator.com/new-import-duty-and-tax-calculation/



> CBSA "sleeping on the job"? Probably not, and I'd hate for language like that to start upsetting the apple cart and getting all shipments diligently processed for full taxes and duties.


I think something has been lost in internet/text translation here... I meant that comment in jest. As in, none of us are complaining that a few packages slip through the cracks while they blink a little longer than usual. Besides, I don't think anyone at CBSA is going to read my post on the GC forum and suddenly restructure the entire border service so they nail every package.



> It's not hard to guess at the volumes involved. There's just no way that CSBA - without a huge and costly staff - can handle everything in the daily flood of shipments from the U.S.


No need to guess. The numbers are public info: http://www.statcan.gc.ca/tables-tableaux/sum-som/l01/cst01/gblec02a-eng.htm

Probably going to reach nearly $375 billion in 2015. Getting close to a trillion total combined imports/exports. The border is CRAZY busy!


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## WCGill (Mar 27, 2009)

And then there's this:

http://www.vintagemartin.com/CITES.html

I am at the moment exporting a pre-convention instrument for sale and found out I can't just take it or send it across the border. It's a long, expensive process.


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## boyscout (Feb 14, 2009)

jbealsmusic said:


> <snip> Duty: Charged on any goods worth more than CAN$20 (some restrictions apply). <snip>


False, unless your "(some restrictions apply)" is a peculiar way of recognizing that many thousands of products are duty-free thanks to NAFTA or country-of-origin rules. Many thousands of products are subject to duty, many thousands are not. Nowhere *CLOSE* to "any goods worth more than CAN$20" are subject to duty. Are you being incautious in the way you state things, or evasively argumentative?!

Your original post said that the reason people were receiving packages with no extra charges was "more due to NAFTA than anything else." False. If the shipment is above a minimum value it is ALWAYS subject to at least HST/GST, and may be subject to duty as well depending on what's in the shipment. However sometimes its just not practical to collect the taxes and duties on lower-value shipments while maintaining reasonable cross-border shipping times, and some shipments are sent on their way without collection processing.

I'm grateful that the Canada Post / CBSC employees do it that way, and I'm sure they're wide awake when they're making decisions about what to process on any given day.


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## jbealsmusic (Feb 12, 2014)

boyscout said:


> False, unless your "(some restrictions apply)" is a peculiar way of recognizing that many thousands of products are duty-free thanks to NAFTA or country-of-origin rules. Many thousands of products are subject to duty, many thousands are not. Nowhere *CLOSE* to "any goods worth more than CAN$20" are subject to duty. Are you being incautious in the way you state things, or evasively argumentative?!


Hence my very next sentence, "The list of duty fees and exemptions is very large, but here is a handy-dandy calculator to help people anticipate what the duty fees might be on certain products crossing the border.
http://www.dutycalculator.com/new-im...x-calculation/"

Up until this point, I thought this thread was about sharing resources and clearing up information about importing goods. Perhaps I haven't been clear enough, or perhaps we just have different ways of communicating the same ideas. Either way, it seems like all you want to do is pick a fight with me, which is neither interesting nor helpful to anyone.

To summarize the points so far in as clear a way as I can:
- There are billions of products that can cross the border. Some have a duty fee, some do not. Look up NAFTA for more info.
- Sometimes the CBSA will charge duties, taxes, and handling. Sometimes they do not. In my experience, the times I haven't been charged have been mainly on cheaper items that were exempt from duty fees. Though that is not always the case.
- See this post for a breakdown of the fees.

For more information, see the following links:
http://www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/import/postal-postale/duty-droits-eng.html
http://www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/import/postal-postale/gst-tps-eng.html
http://www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/import/postal-postale/hst-tvh-eng.html

Here are some other helpful resources:
http://www.dutycalculator.com/new-import-duty-and-tax-calculation/
http://www.vintagemartin.com/CITES.html

I have edited my original posts to help clarify the things you found ambiguous or misleading. This is the last I'll post in here because I'm not interested in internet text-fighting.


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## JBFairthorne (Oct 11, 2014)

jbealsmusic said:


> Up until this point, I thought this thread was about sharing resources and clearing up information about importing goods. Perhaps I haven't been clear enough, or perhaps we just have different ways of communicating the same ideas. Either way, it seems like all you want to do is pick a fight with me, which is neither interesting nor helpful to anyone.
> 
> I have edited my original posts to help clarify the things you found ambiguous or misleading. This is the last I'll post in here because I'm not interested in internet text-fighting.


It WAS an attempt to get some definitive answers due to the fact that, from my limited research, there seems to be little rhyme or reason to it all.

Please don't let anyone prevent you from replying. As a person, whom I assume imports regularly, your opinion and insights are appreciated by many, if not all.


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## ezcomes (Jul 28, 2008)

I talked to Canada Customs today...if the guitar/instrument is North American made, all you pay is rhe taxes for the province youre in based on the value of the product in Canadian money...in Ontario 13%...no duty bc of NAFTA

brokerage...well...thats up to the shipping company...aparantly USPS is $5...but i dont know for sure

FWIW of course


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## ezcomes (Jul 28, 2008)

was flipping thru the KINEK website and found this...UPS brokerage fee chart...

http://www.ups.com/content/ca/en/shipping/cost/zones/customs_clearance.html


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## 4345567 (Jun 26, 2008)

__________


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## allthumbs56 (Jul 24, 2006)

The cost of duty and taxes are paling next to the cost of currency exchange at the moment. You can pretty much add almost 30% to your purchase cost right off the bat.


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