Duty tax from USA - Calgarypuck Forums - The Unofficial Calgary Flames Fan Community

Red · 10-31-2007, 10:49 AM

Hey guys,

What kind of overhead should I expect if I buy a $1500 item off amazon.com?

I understand that the GST, shipping and some brokerage handling fee is added plus duty. Anyone has an idea on what it should all come up to? I heard that UPS charges around $70 for brokerage/handling fee...is that true?

mykalberta · 10-31-2007, 10:53 AM

Here are the costs from UPS

http://www.ups.com/content/ca/en/shi...clearance.html

Whenever I have ordred anything from Amazon.com (not $1500 mind you but...) it has never shipped from the US.

You will also pay the summed percentage of the GST+PST.

That should be about it.

Ducay · 10-31-2007, 11:02 AM

As mentioned, there is no duty (NAFTA), but you will be charged GST and any brokerage fees (this is from the shipping company, UPS, if it does cross the border)
And if it does cross the border, it depends on which method UPS you used. If you chose UPS ground, you will most likely get hit with the $50+ brokerage.
Any of the more expensive methods through UPS include brokerage in the price. So most of the time, if you HAVE to ship UPS, its cheaper in the end to get express shipping.

USPS (Not UPS) is the cheapest option in terms of brokerage costs. UPS Ground in the WORST.

redforever · 10-31-2007, 01:42 PM

There are some things that amazon.com will not ship to Canada. For instance, I tried to order some draperies and bedding from amazon.com. Would not go through, so I phoned them and they said they were not allowed to ship those kind of products to Canada. I don't know if that is an internal policy within amazon.com or what, never the less, I was not able to get the products I was after. They suggested that if I had American friends, I could have them purchase and ship it to me.

They named some others toothat they could not ship, forgot all what. They did however say that there is never a problem with books, CD's, stuff along that line.

I should add that this was some time ago, almost a year ago, before our Canadian dollar was as high as it is now.

Red · 10-31-2007, 03:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by redforever

There are some things that amazon.com will not ship to Canada. For instance, I tried to order some draperies and bedding from amazon.com. Would not go through, so I phoned them and they said they were not allowed to ship those kind of products to Canada. I don't know if that is an internal policy within amazon.com or what, never the less, I was not able to get the products I was after. They suggested that if I had American friends, I could have them purchase and ship it to me.

They named some others toothat they could not ship, forgot all what. They did however say that there is never a problem with books, CD's, stuff along that line.

I should add that this was some time ago, almost a year ago, before our Canadian dollar was as high as it is now.

Thanks guys,

Yes, some retailers forbid amazon from shipping to canada, I am hoping it's not the case with my purchase.

burn_baby_burn · 10-31-2007, 03:15 PM

There is duty on products not manufactured in North America. NAFTA only allows products manufactured in Canada, USA, or Mexico to come north duty free.

Red · 10-31-2007, 03:19 PM

It's a swiss watch, what kind of duty am I looking at?

BlackEleven · 10-31-2007, 03:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by burn_baby_burn

There is duty on products not manufactured in North America. NAFTA only allows products manufactured in Canada, USA, or Mexico to come north duty free.

That's not entirely true. Some items such as cameras and photographic equipment are duty free. I know this because I order a lot of this kind of thing online from the States and its always duty free.

Find you're item in the list here and it will show exactly what the duty is
http://www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/trade-com...9/table-e.html

BlackEleven · 10-31-2007, 03:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Red

It's a swiss watch, what kind of duty am I looking at?

From the link I posted above, the duty on wristwatches is 5%.

Edit: so you can expect to pay $75 in duty and $90 in GST ($165 total). UPS will charge you a fee on top of this as well for doing the paperwork for you. Unless you call and tell them you want to do the paperwork yourself. You're not obligated to use their service.

Red · 10-31-2007, 03:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BlackEleven

From the link I posted above, the duty on wristwatches is 5%.

Edit: so you can expect to pay $75 in duty and $90 in GST ($165 total). UPS will charge you a fee on top of this as well for doing the paperwork for you. Unless you call and tell them you want to do the paperwork yourself. You're not obligated to use their service.

Thanks, that's a reasonable tax.

QuadCityImages · 10-31-2007, 03:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by redforever

I tried to order some draperies and bedding from amazon.com. Would not go through, so I phoned them and they said they were not allowed to ship those kind of products to Canada.

I guess we don't want you Canadians stealing our advanced window treatment technology.

jamesteterenko · 10-31-2007, 03:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BlackEleven

From the link I posted above, the duty on wristwatches is 5%.

Edit: so you can expect to pay $75 in duty and $90 in GST ($165 total). UPS will charge you a fee on top of this as well for doing the paperwork for you. Unless you call and tell them you want to do the paperwork yourself. You're not obligated to use their service.

I was in Houston a couple of weeks ago and brought back a Swiss watch. I declared it honestly and was charged GST for the amount that I was over my limit. They didn't charge me any duty at all. I was prepared to pay much more, but was glad that I didn't have to do so.

James

trew · 10-31-2007, 03:58 PM

Always get a quote on Fed Ex and UPS air / express shipping. The customs charges are included, and for small items, the total cost can often be less than using ground service.

Seems to me that most duties tend to be in the 6% range (or exempt). GST is always collected, though.

redforever · 10-31-2007, 04:49 PM

Quote:

Quote:
Originally Posted by redforever

I tried to order some draperies and bedding from amazon.com. Would not go through, so I phoned them and they said they were not allowed to ship those kind of products to Canada.

I guess we don't want you Canadians stealing our advanced window treatment technology.

That must be it. And I guess you Americans do different things with your bedding as well.

Hack&Lube · 10-31-2007, 06:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ducay

As mentioned, there is no duty (NAFTA), but you will be charged GST and any brokerage fees (this is from the shipping company, UPS, if it does cross the border)
And if it does cross the border, it depends on which method UPS you used. If you chose UPS ground, you will most likely get hit with the $50+ brokerage.
Any of the more expensive methods through UPS include brokerage in the price. So most of the time, if you HAVE to ship UPS, its cheaper in the end to get express shipping.

USPS (Not UPS) is the cheapest option in terms of brokerage costs. UPS Ground in the WORST.

NAFTA does not prevent duty, only to NAFTA goods. If you buy something that is made in the U.S.A. it falls under NAFTA. Goods made in asia that come through the U.S.A., not so.

Eddie Bronze · 10-31-2007, 11:44 PM

If it's shipped with UPS you should start expecting to pay about triple what you would if it was shipped with USPS. I paid $80 for a alloy fuel door for my car and paid no extra charges for it shipped with USPS. I paid $120 for fog lights and UPS charged me $70. I remember reading something about a guy in BC having a class action lawsuit against UPS.

trew · 11-01-2007, 07:23 AM

Yeah - I should qualify my last statement: Use USPS if you can.

Sadly, many US retailers don't send via parcel post, so, if you are forced to use courier, look at the air vs ground rates. At a bare minimum the customs "handling" charges are about $30, and go up with the value of the item. If the air shipping is only $50 more, it's probably a good idea to go that direction, as all of these BS charges are included with air delivery.

Some other things I've discovered when using couriers for US purchases:

UPS will also charge you a service fee for paying the customs and collecting it from you at the door. If you phone them and give them a credit card to pre-pay, you can usually avoid 7 or so bucks of charges. (Not to mention that the driver can then drop the package off without someone being there, if you want them to, that is). ... or in my case, leave $2000 worth of electronics on my neighbours doorstep, in the rain.

Bulk order if you can. An $80 handling charge on a $800 order is easier to stomach than a $30 handling charge on a $50 item.

Fed-Ex isn't much better. They charge pretty much the same fees, but send you an invoice in the mail, two weeks after you get the package.

Also, if dealing with a retailer and purchasing multiple items, make sure they send them all as one shipment! Otherwise you will get charged for multiple handling fees.

You can send it back and not pay for the handling charge. I've done this a couple times where I explicitly told the seller to send me via parcel post and it showed up in a UPS van.

Supposedly, you can also "Self Clear" your packages. It involves driving out to main UPS depot, picking up some paperwork, driving over to the customs building (also near the airport) and back. Probably takes about 30-60 minutes to do depending on traffic and lineups. I say "Supposedly" because I tried to do this with a Fed-Ex delivery and they told me that the parcel had to be cleared in Vancouver because that is where it entered the country.

The really criminal thing is not that they charge these handling fees, but that they are hidden until the driver shows up with the bill. This stuff should be included in the up-front shipping charges. Retaillers use the couriers exclusively because they think the service is better and cheaper than parcel post. (Which is probably true in the States). There's a lot of stuff that wouldn't be ordered if people knew what it was going to cost them.