Shipping to Canada; a rant
 

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!:cool:

Lin -- I hope that the package I sent didn't cause any grief :D

Ugh, I completely understand what you mean! I usually ask the seller to mark it as a gift and mark a lower value and that always helps. But there are times that some sellers won't do that, and unless it's something that I really want, I'll just try to find it somewhere else. I just bought a grooming table off of Ebay and it was sent by UPS. I had to pay $40 in brokerage fees. Only $8 of that was in taxes, and the rest was charged as brokerage fees. I wish the seller had sent it USPS.

Oh, and I guess I'll add another rant lol....Canada Post's ridiculous shipping charges! What costs Americans $1 to send, costs Canadians $6.20 to send to the US, and even more to send within Canada! If I want to sell something for $10, most people don't want to pay $6.20 for shipping (and that's just for shipping alone, it doesn't include mailing supplies). I have quite a few things I'd like to sell, but it's not even worth it since Canada Post charges an arm and a leg :thumbdown

Sometimes it is cheaper for me to mail to Canada than it is to destinations in the US. Go figure :(

Thanks for the info Lin :thumbup:

but I'm a little confused.. could you please state which is the best way to ship to Canada :confused:

Cindy;
The only grief was trying to get the package into the house without the 2 little guys grabbing it out of my hand!! Boy, they love Yorkie Yummies!

I forgot all about this one! Why can't we have a 'Media Rate' too?

Well, I prefer having a Vendor use USPS, even though I have to wait quite a long time. On the Customs form, they should either mark the real cost of the item (without any shipping or handling), or undervalue it a little so that I save a bit of taxes and they don't run the risk of getting fined, or if it is small, mark it as a gift but don't include an invoice. After all, we all have invoices on the computer.

Just my opinion, of course!

That is really good to know. I have never shipped to Canada and I'd love to avoid making that mistake when I sell to my future Canadian customers :)

Thank you!

:thumbup: Good post!:) :) :)

:goodpost: but I am still alittle confused on the first post.....I normally never ship outside the US, unless someone asks and "walks" me thru what to do! Ha! :blush: I do have a great uncle leaving in Canada and I sent a pkg to him and it cost $21...the mail lady said that it was just a hair over the weight limit for being a lot cheaper....and I know to send a card up there is more too!!

How long does it normally take for a package to get to you from the US? Do "they" hold it to check it before sending it on?

Good post! Thanks for sharing the info.

Don't you hate it when you're like .02 grams over the limit to have the shipping a lot cheaper?? I've had packages from the US come to me anywhere between 5 days to 3 weeks. It generally takes about a week or so. They don't usually hold it unless customs decides to charge taxes on it. If that's the case, the package can get delayed for a week or more.

I always have the sender mark it as a gift and under $20...even if it is more...so far so good after 4 years of having stuff shipped here to me in Canada!!

Dawn

Add Keywords
 

I just thought of this one. On the Customs form, there is a space where you can say what the classification should be. Those are listed on the Canada Customs website but you need a Law Degree to figure them out! Most people leave it blank and let Customs determine it. They do that by what you write in the description. When I am sending something across the border, I always add Keywords:

"Dog clothes - USED" or "Dog Clothes - CRAFTS"

Either of the above seems to get them classified into a Duty-free category.

I agree. If I am trying to sell something on eBay, I ask the Post Office to give me a quote for shipping it to Texas and Quebec. So often, it is cheaper to send it to Texas!! How silly is that! But, like I said earlier, I'd really like your 'Media Rate'.

Awesome post!
Thanks for educating people on how to ship to Canada!

I'm a huge internet shopper, since I can do it from work, lol.

I only have items shipped to me by USPS. If vendors don't ship USPS, I don't purchase. I HATE UPS with a passion.

I think I am going to have to go that route too!

I just got 'dinged' again! I ordered bullysticks. Because I knew I would have to pay shipping/customs charges, I ordered alot. My bill came to $66./$64. Cdn. The UPS charge was $14. to ship and $40. Brokerage and taxes!! After I picked myself up off the floor, I emailed UPS and asked for a breakdown. They sent the following, and a link to information on their website. I'm adding it all in here. Unbelievable!

It's definitely USPS for me from now on!!

With UPS, it's not only that they charge you an arm and a leg, they also have the worst customer service and they're incompetant.

A few years back, I had a shipment from UPS. I received that notice that they stick on the door because I wasn't home. So I left a cheque with the amount that I owe for their "brokerage, handling" and whatever bulls**t charges (about $27). The next day, UPS guy took the cheque and left the package. I thought all was well.

Months later, I receive a letter from UPS saying I owe $27, plus interest for a package I received and never paid. I called UPS, got the run around and spent HOURS trying to get to the bottom of it. Turns out UPS applied my cheque to the wrong account. While they were trying to locate what account they applied it to, I was getting letters from collections for $27!!! I called UPS and told them to stop the harassment, if I owed $27, I would pay the measly $27. The service rep on the phone said "yes, the letters will stop" but a few weeks later, I was getting phone calls from collections.

After months and months of me calling and complaining to leave me alone, UPS told me I had to contact my bank and get a copy of the cheque that I wrote them. So I did that, faxed it in and after about 8 months, it was finally settled.

After all this, you think I would get a letter of apology from UPS or SOMETHING. Nope, nada. UPS made a mistake, harasses me and doesn't even apologize.

So YES, I hate UPS!

Bringing a dog into Canada
 

As if all those taxes on goods were not enough.I just spoke to Canada Customs as I wanted to bring a dog in from Europe.Canadians are also taxed
Gst and Pst on the purchase price of a dog.For example if a Canadian living
in B.C purchased a dog at 3500 US and taking into consideration the currency conversation factor, it would cost and additional 445.51 in taxes.
Clearly just another tax grab!:rolleyes:

I sent some gently used dog clothes to a Canadian member yesterday and they madw me fill out a customs form. I put dog clothes on it and the postal lady said lets put used on it and value 5.00. It cost me about 4.oo to ship. I hope the receiver doesn't have any problems with it.

That package should get to them with no problem. Customs will not bother going through and charging taxes since it's marked as used and only $5 :thumbup:

I feel your pain. I'm a Torontonian living in LA currently. Online shopping became a lot less complicated when I moved here.

'Used' is one of those magic keywords that seems to slide things through the border easier. However, I find right now that things are taking much, much longer than usual! I am waiting on several items that have hit the 3 week mark!

I know! I'm a big time online shopper (cuz I can do it from work, lol) and everything is taking twice as long as it usually is, and the usual time is long enough. With the exchange rate and Christmas coming, I think things are now going to take a month to get here :eek: !

shipping to Canada
 

Well i always mark it as a gift and value it at under $20 even if it cost more than that. My customers in Canada told me to do this. I wasn't aware of all these fees that were behind it but I am sure it saved them lot of money by me doing that. Is it better if i do not mark the pack as a gift? I don't put my company name on the envelope on overseas items i just use my name.
Thanks for the info
Melinda
Sassy-Petwear

wow im sorry:( I shipped something to Canada before and everything went fine

As a Vendor, you just have to be careful. Canada Customs will randomly open packages and if they open yours and discover something worth a great deal more than you are saying it is worth or a commercial invoice inside, you can be fined.