[linm]

I have to rant! If you have ever shipped a parcel to a Canadian, please read on.

Today I received a package of Dog Bows from a Vendor in the US. The bundle cost me $15. plus $3.50 for shipping. It was sent USPS. When the mailman arrived at my door, he wanted $17.56 in Customs Taxes and Handling fees. At today’s exchange rate, that was 30 cents more than I had paid for the bows and the shipping combined!

Sounds silly and it was. The Vendor had inflated the Value on the Customs form to $100. She thought she was doing me a favor. In case it got lost, we could claim all that in Insurance! I’ve also had Vendors add shipping and handling fees to the Customs Declaration thinking that if lost, the extra amount would pay to re-ship!

I do a lot of ordering and shipping from the States and now with our dollar being so high, so are more and more Canadians. Because of that, I thought I would share what I have learned over the years. If any others would like to weigh-in with their experiences, please do. I’m honestly not trying to be negative; just trying to help.

First of all, that ‘Declared Amount’ on the little green form is the amount that Canada Customs uses to determine Taxes and Duty.

Duty varies depending on the classification of an item but a good rule of thumb seems to be around 10%. Fortunately, many Dog related items are duty-free.

If a fee is to be charged, Canada Customs adds on their ‘Handling Fee’ or Brokerage Charge. I found the chart below somewhere on the ‘Net and, in my experience, it is fairly accurate.


Estimated Canadian Brokerage Charges:

$0-20
No Charge
$20.01-$40
$5.75
$40.01-$75
$13.50
$75.01-$100
$17.25
$100.01-$200
$25.50
$200.01-$350
$33.75
$350.01-$500
$37.50
$500.01-$750
$42.25
$750.01-$1000
$47.25
$1000.01-$1250
$53.00
$1250.01-$1600
$56.25

Then, there are taxes. We all pay a GST (Goods & Services Tax) which is currently at 6%. On January 1, 2008, that is being lowered to 5%. I’ve never figured out what value will trigger Taxes. Lower values seem to slide through tax-free.

Next, there are Provincial Sales taxes (PST). That varies by province as you can see from the chart below. Even how it is calculated varies!

Provincial Sales Tax Rates:

British Columbia 7%
Alberta no PST
Saskatchewan 5%
Manitoba 7%
Ontario 8%
Québec 7.5% (1)
Newfoundland and Labrador 14% HST
Nova Scotia 14% HST
New Brunswick 14% HST
Prince Edward Island 10%
Northwest Territories no PST
Nunavut no PST
Yukon no PST

(1) The sales tax is applied to the total of the selling price plus the GST.


HST: The provinces of Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick now charge "Harmonized Sales Tax", or HST. Instead of charging a provincial retail sales tax as well as GST, only the HST is charged, at a rate of 14%.


And then, of course, there is the Carrier you send your package with. My experience has been best with USPS. It takes a little longer. (I always guesstimate 10 working days) but there aren’t usually any monetary surprises. All of the Courier companies tack on their own Handling rates with UPS being the absolute worst. I calculated one time that they were adding in the neighborhood of a 9% Handling charge to any parcel, in addition to all of the charges above!

Many people ship items and mark them as “Gifts”. Well, there are problems with that also. If it is valued at over $60. Canadian, then all of the Duty & Taxes are applicable for the full amount. If Canada Customs happens to open the parcel, which they will occasionally, and they find an Invoice inside, then all Taxes are charged, and the Vendor is fined for lying on the Customs Form! Vendors that mark an item as a ‘Gift’ and use their Company Name as the return address are just asking to have the package opened and inspected! Vendors can also be fined if they are caught under-valuing an item to save the Recipient the taxes.

OK, so I’m getting down off my soapbox, now. I hope this information is of use to others. I love cross-border shopping and I thrive on getting the best deal around, but somehow, it just isn’t such a hot deal when the Man in a Blue or Brown suit is at your door with his hand out!