To: All Americans From: Canadians

[ResurrecTed]

Hey all,

I was wondering if you can help me with a little problem.

As you know to those to ship from the States to Canada that duties are involved blah blah.

My question is Is there a diffence between the Value of the Good and the Insured Value of the good, or if Fedex or UPS just asks for one value.

Thanks in advance.

PS This is for a LCD Monitor.

 

[Corporate Thug]

insurance depends on the value of the item

 

[Antisocial Virge]

Do not ship fedex. Parents shipped me stuff for Xmas. Took 22 pages of paperwork, 4 phonecalls, 5 faxes, being charged $54 and then having stuff broken before it got to me.

 

[Adul]

Originally posted by: Antisocial-Virge
Do not ship fedex. Parents shipped me stuff for Xmas. Took 22 pages of paperwork, 4 phonecalls, 5 faxes, being charged $54 and then having stuff broken before it got to me.

ouch

what do you suggest?

 

[Budman]

Originally posted by: Adul
ouch

what do you suggest?

Buy Canadian,in the long run it will be cheaper & you'll get it much faster.

 

[thorin]

Get a US relative to purchase it for you and send it up as a gift. Gift's are taxed.

Thorin

 

[Budman]

Originally posted by: thorin
Get a US relative to purchase it for you and send it up as a gift. Gift's are taxed.

Thorin

That isn't always the case,I had a few things sent to me Clearly marked as GIFT but Canada customs still charged me GST on it. :|

sometimes they do,sometimes they don't,they go by the value marked on it.

Have them a marked value as something like 5-20$ then if you have to pay taxes on it it will not be much,but sometimes even that don't work.

 

[Spicedaddy]

Worst: UPS (they charge you their own ridiculous brokerage fee on top of the 15% duty fees)

All right: Fed Ex (no brokerage fee, but expect to pay 15% duties)

Best bet: USPS Express service or whatever it's called (most likely you'll get charged 15% duties, but sometimes you'll get charged nothing, especially on smaller items. Make sure it has a tracking number)


And yeah, marking it as a gift doesn't always work, and it's usually more convenient to buy from a Canadian store, even if it costs a few dollars more.

 

[Special1Sauce]

I remember seeing someone's stuff from UPS clearly marked "Fragile" and it seems like Fragile means to the UPS people drag behind truck.

 

[thorin]

Originally posted by: Budman

Originally posted by: thorin
Get a US relative to purchase it for you and send it up as a gift. Gift's are taxed.

Thorin

That isn't always the case,I had a few things sent to me Clearly marked as GIFT but Canada customs still charged me GST on it. :|

sometimes they do,sometimes they don't,they go by the value marked on it.

Have them a marked value as something like 5-20$ then if you have to pay taxes on it it will not be much,but sometimes even that don't work.

I'm sure you can challenge the charges.

Thorin

 

[DamnDirtyApe]

USPS is by far the best way to ship into Canada. I don't think I've ever been charged duty on computer components.

On the other side, I once received a parcel once via Fedex Ground. I also received a letter from Fedex a few days later informing me that I owed taxes/duties + a $25 brokerage fee. I called up the phone number listed in the letter, informed them that I would be happy to pay the taxes but that I refused to pay the brokerage fee. The person on the other line took that down, and I haven't heard from them since. I suspect it isn't worth their time to track down someone who owes such a small sum of money.

 

[Overkast]

Look into DHL. They specialize in international shipping. Most likely, they'll be your best bet.

 

[tenoc]

Spicedaddy, the 15% is not duty but pst and gst.

 

[tenoc]

Brokerage fees can apparently be avoided if the stuff is shipped in by air freight rather than ground.

Don't bother asking anyone why it costs to cross the border on the ground but not in the air!

 

[lazybum131]

It's because the cost of air shipping is so much more expensive then ground, the brokerage becomes included.

If you're not in any rush to get the item, ship using USPS as a gift, with a value of less then $60 CDN. As long as they don't open it up and reassess the value, then u won't get charged taxes.

If your buying from a store, then USPS is still best, since you only have to pay a $5 handling fee plus applicable taxes on the value. That is if you don't need it right away. It'll probably take at least one and a half weeks to get to you.

 

[ResurrecTed]

lazybum thats not a bad idea... but what if the package gets lost?

i think Fedex via Air is the best way to go it costs probably the same amount as the brokerage fee and its faster.

 

[Haps]

Ok first of all value. Anything less then $10 does not get charged duty. Anything less then $60 and marked as a gift does not get charged. UPS and FEDEX charge duty(basically just the taxes) plus a brokerage fee that usually runs around $30. USPS/Canada Post is the best arrangemnt because 1 they often don't charge anything on relatively small and cheap items. If the box is big enough that they can't leave it in your mailbox you'll pay. If it is valued at a lot you will pay. But for smaller stuff you USPS is usually good at lettign stuf flike that slip thru.

However the big advantage of USPS/Canada Post is that when you do pay there brokerage fee is just under $6.

 

[Kenazo]

THERE IS NO DUTY ON COMPUTER GOODS IMPORTED INTO CANADA FROM THE US!!!

boy, you guys need to learn about NAFTA. Ship USPS/Canada Post, they will charge you the taxes on the declared value (don't cheat though, that's illegal). I'm not sure where you live, ResurrecTed, but I'm in Manitoba, so I have to pay GST and PST (14% together), and then Canada Post charges like a $5 fee and that's that.

The other option is to have someone drive it across and claim it at the border themselves. This is how I do all my ebaying/forum trading. I have a postal box just across the border, I drive south pick up the items and claim them
when I come back into Canada. That way I only pay the taxes, and the shipper has the benefit of being able to ship to a US address, saving them money on postage.

Do not ship via any of the other courier services, they have outlandishly high brokerage fees, ontop of the taxes you will have to pay.

once again do not falsify the value. It's illegal, and immoral.