Shipping stuff to Canada

[kmk]

Someone from Canada who inquired about an item I was trying to sell worried about shipping costs and customs fee.

I was wondering whether I could ship small items as "gifts" without breaking the law or whatever?

http://www.mac.doc.gov/NAFTA/7104.htm

According to the above document, I can send gifts valued less than US$48 without any issues.

Can't I just declare that the item I was trying to ship is less than $48?

[bigsteel15]

I have had many e-bay items shipped to me and most people put the declared value at whatever I paid. I've never seen it listed as a gift, but I know if the value is over a certain amount (around that $48 mark), we have to pay duty.
If you're shipping used items, I can't see a problem with calling it a gift.

One thing I would state is that your least hassle will be shipping by postal service, not courier.

[final_t]

Don't do this. If someone is asking you to violate postal laws, you'd have to wonder if they won't try a fast one with paypal (pay, let you ship, and then claim a fraudulent charge - pp will yank it from you without a question). Buyers from CA should know that ordering anything from the US will cost a duty charge.

Shipping to Canada is a silly hassle, but recently usps.com makes it simpler to get the 5-part forms filled out.

[bigsteel15]

Don't do this. If someone is asking you to violate postal laws, you'd have to wonder if they won't try a fast one with paypal (pay, let you ship, and then claim a fraudulent charge - pp will yank it from you without a question). Buyers from CA should know that ordering anything from the US will cost a duty charge.

Shipping to Canada is a silly hassle, but recently usps.com makes it simpler to get the 5-part forms filled out.

I wasn't suggesting breaking any laws, just that used items shouldn't qualify either government to make money on them. Most of the items I've had shipped to me were used.
The person you should ask about this for sure is either Jeff @ T-nuts, or komatoast (e-bay seller). I bought about $200 CDN product from komatoast and had to pay about $20 duty. My order from Jeff came through duty free but was under $100.

[rickd]

hi,

i have purchased quite a few items by mail from the u.s.(i.e. rockler, jeff's t-nuts, leeway shark guard etc.) as well as buying across the border in bellingham, wa. and driving back. There is pretty much only one rule that i have come across:

under nafta, any item that is shown as being made in the u.s. or canada (or having no marking of origin) is completely duty free - no matter what the cost of the item! It works because i have done it several times. i was even able to get my grizzly dc across from bellingham without paying duty even though it was clearly marked 'made in taiwan' - just got a nice customs lady that day.

you still have to pay cdn. and provincial taxes on the item, but at least you are duty-free!

[Turaj]

Some detailed information!

Here is what I have found (from USPS web site):

7. Certain types of merchandise must be marked to show country of origin in the manner prescribed by the Canadian customs regulations.

8. Goods valued under 20 Canadian dollars are duty and excise tax exempt. Goods over 20 Canadian dollars will be subject to the applicable duties and excise taxes. Gift shipments received by mail that are valued under 60 Canadian dollars are duty and excise tax exempt.

9. For all casual and commercial items valued under 1,200 Canadian dollars, Canada Post will collect the assessed duties and excise taxes and a handling fee of 5 Canadian dollars from the addressee. For EMS items, the handling fee is 8 Canadian dollars. All commercial mail items over 1,200 Canadian dollars will be held by Canada Customs and Excise until proper invoice and accounting documentation is provided by the addressee.

I have been told (cannot find any thing concrete) that Canada Post may still charge handling fee even if there is no duties and taxes to collect (just for completing the customs form).

A problem with other couriers (such as UPS) is that their handling fee is not fixed and could be as much as the value of the item itself!!

I'll continue to dig in more!

[Stick]

Yep...country of origin matters, but so does end use. There are lots of exemptions. For example, under NAFTA Harley parts are exempt from duty, as are farm equipment parts, no matter where they're made.

I buy stuff from the US all the time, insist on the mail only, and very seldom ever get charged duty. One recent exception was the set of router bits I got the other day from Holbren. There was duty and GST charged, but no post office fee.

I've never been charged a fee by the post office where there are no duties or taxes to collect.

Some of the package services are worse than others for fees, with UPS being the absolute worst. How about a "brokerage fee" of 390% of an item's value, that was duty free to begin with. So just exactly what are they charging this fee for? Had it gone through the mail, it would have taken the shipper 30 seconds to fill out one customs declaration and stick it on the package.