anyone ordered to Canada with a bag declared at full value? i've exhaustively searched google and tPF and haven't found the information that i'm looking for! does anyone know exactly how things are taxed and what customs are charged? ie. what is VAT? and what else is charged? i'm ordering a bbag from the states to ontario and shipping through USPS. if ANYONE could give a little insight, that'd be great!
Customs to Canada?
- Thread starter ikim23
- Start date
It seems that if the declared value is more than $60.00 they will charge you custom fees.
Once I had some apple conditioners shipped from the U.S. by UPS Ground. The total value for the goods are just around $25. However, later I received a bill from UPS asking for some taxes and custom charges of around $20. That's ridiculous...I could not quite figure out what were those fees for but still paid that bill since UPS said that they only did that by law.
However, I never had issue with custom while shipping by USPS. But neither did I have my bags declared at full value. The sellers did them below $100 for me.
Once I had some apple conditioners shipped from the U.S. by UPS Ground. The total value for the goods are just around $25. However, later I received a bill from UPS asking for some taxes and custom charges of around $20. That's ridiculous...I could not quite figure out what were those fees for but still paid that bill since UPS said that they only did that by law.
However, I never had issue with custom while shipping by USPS. But neither did I have my bags declared at full value. The sellers did them below $100 for me.
If the item is declared at full value (and I'm not sure of the exact calculation) I think you can expect to pay about 15 - 20 % in taxes. I just bought a Balenciaga bag, declared at about $800, and I paid $140 in taxes. Ugh! If you ask the seller to undervalue it for tax purposes, then it can't be insured for it's 'real' value, and if it gets lost or damaged in the mail, you're stuck. So, it's a risk you take.
Do a search on Customs in the Ebay subforum and you will find literally dozens of threads on this topic
...but long story short, you will be charged your provincial tax rate (8%) plus GST (5%) plus duty (8-23%) which is dependent on how the seller has marked it (where she marked it as made, whether she specified it was leather, whether she specified it was a handbag) and a $5.00 Canada Post handling fee if coming Express Mail from the US. VAT is Value-Added Tax and is in Europe- nothing to do with Canada! Our equivalent is GST. That's it, in a nutshell!
...but long story short, you will be charged your provincial tax rate (8%) plus GST (5%) plus duty (8-23%) which is dependent on how the seller has marked it (where she marked it as made, whether she specified it was leather, whether she specified it was a handbag) and a $5.00 Canada Post handling fee if coming Express Mail from the US. VAT is Value-Added Tax and is in Europe- nothing to do with Canada! Our equivalent is GST. That's it, in a nutshell!thanks stylefly! its hard because there are a lot of threads complaining about customs, and asking about customs and how everything is charged, but it doesn't really ever seem like there's anything definite, KWIM?
oh well i've decided to suck it up and pay whatever customs fees they end up charging me thanks for all your advices!
mods feel free to close this thread!
oh well i've decided to suck it up and pay whatever customs fees they end up charging me thanks for all your advices!
mods feel free to close this thread!
hmm, I can tell you about my limited experience so far..
Seems to me that canadian customs don't charge for taxes if you get your shipment posted by usps-canada post.
I recently got my second bal
and it was postmarked as 'gift' with a $400 value through a fellow tpfer and paypal shipping. Even when i bought something from an online retailer from England, and it was sent through the royal mail-canada post with a value of over 100 CAN, there was no taxes paid by me, that i know of!
hope it helps!
Seems to me that canadian customs don't charge for taxes if you get your shipment posted by usps-canada post.
I recently got my second bal
and it was postmarked as 'gift' with a $400 value through a fellow tpfer and paypal shipping. Even when i bought something from an online retailer from England, and it was sent through the royal mail-canada post with a value of over 100 CAN, there was no taxes paid by me, that i know of! hope it helps!
hmm, I can tell you about my limited experience so far..
Seems to me that canadian customs don't charge for taxes if you get your shipment posted by usps-canada post.
I recently got my second bal
hope it helps!
personally, i'd prefer to declare it at full value and have it insured for the same amount. not just for myself, but for the seller as well. i prefer to maintain the most professional relationship and it's best to be honest! obviously i would have loved to find the EB GSH PT in canada so there would be no border-crossing or customs-clearing that needed to happen, but since it was unavoidable, i paid the tax (which is what i would have needed to do if i'd bought it at a retail store here anyway).
thanks for your input though!
well i wasn't charged nothing.. but i'm fairly happy with the end result!
ok so let me update what happened when i received my bag. (honestly, i was having dreams that fluctuated between me having to pay $60 and other dreams where i had to pay $600)
so i went to the post office ready to pick up my bag (and anticipated anywhere between $200-$500 in customs) but i was only charged tax for the bag which was declared at full value (that i bought it for-$1550US). So customs canada did a currency conversion based on the day's rate and charged me ontario tax and a handling fee of $8CAD. so in all i ended up paying $255.16 in tax+handling, but nooooooo customs fees! so i think i'm pretty lucky, but from now on.. i think i'll stick to canadian online retailers or holt renfrew for my big-ticket items.
*on a happier note. i'm DELIGHTED with my new bbag!!!!! she's delicious and bright and gorgeous and i took her out today and she was perrrrrrrfect!
as you can see i changed my sig and av respectively
! can't wait to show her off at church tmr! lol thanks for reading!