ladylord

Had a knock at the door this morning from Mr DHL. He wanted me to sign for a package with a value of $28 equivalent. Inside package is a shirt. Mr DHL wanted me to provide a credit card and pay a furher @20.07 before releasing the goods, which I refused to do.

Read up on exemption limits, $20. That should buy a pair of drawers. Buyer beware it's not worth it, or maybe DHL are the issue.

iaink

Be grateful it wasnt Fedex or UPS, their brokerage charges are outragous.


I didnt realise the UK threshold was as low as $20 nowadays.

Oink

Too right bro. I had ordered some books and they wanted about $50.00 per book extra. I told them to naff off and three days later they just re-delivered them at no extra cost.

sandylns

$20 applies to all goods imported into Canada. On top of that you include GST, PST or HST. If it comes via Canada Post they want an additional $9,95 for handling. As you say small items are no longer worth importing.
Another wrinkle is that the goods to be tax free must be made in the US. CBSA will charge the full rate for goods from countries other than the US. There are a ton of different tarrifs depending on country of manufacture. Lots of us have been caught and charged extra even though we ordered from south of the border.

mumof2

Same applies to HMRC in the UK sent my mum some stuff at Xmas & even though I didn't "identify" that the children's clothes for my niece weren't for my mum - I was charged MORE in duties Than the cost of stuff I sent !!!

UK is only allowed £36 per person although I think that was being lowered again & probably has been by Christmas - empty cases springs to mind when visiting either ways !

iaink

That used to be $6, it must have gone up recently.


Sadly though, given the rip off pricing of many things in Canada, its still worth it in many cases to mail order from the US...

Case in point...Adidas Sambas. US MSRP $60 Cdn MSRP $95...

iaink

If anything its worse sending stuff to the UK as the import taxes cover a wider range of stuff and they are far more efficient at collecting whats owed.

Here half the time stuff coming by Canada post never has the tax collected in my experience.

ninaDGBCA

I get regular parcels delivered with DHL from Germany, always worth more than $20 (birthday/christmas presents) and never ever had to pay. Then again my brother never puts an amount on as German customs told him as long as it's not business but private to just put "presents" and no value on. We've been here 3 years now and never had any problems with that.

magnumpi

Didnt know sausages were ok to import into Canada

ninaDGBCA

haha yep sausages and Lederhosen oh and a David Hasselhoff Biographie lol

ladylord

Using the online calculator, there is no duty to pay if it's delivered to the US.

Aviator

Of course there would be no Canadian duty to pay if a product is delivered to the US? There may be US duties though. If you want the product and live in Canada, you still have to bring it into Canada and pay taxes and duty, plus drive across the border.

There are no duties and taxies under NAFTA if a product is manufactured in the US or Mexico. If manufactured elsewhere you would need the tariff code to determine duty, all products (most anyway) attract sales tax.

ninaDGBCA

Even if manufactured in the US or Mexico you pay taxes just no duty.

ladylord

The customer is exempt from duties and taxes if the total value of goods is under:

$200 USA
$1,000 Australia (lucky Australians)
$20 Canada

Also because M&S place the delivery document with value on the outside of the packet it's easy to pick out. I've not had problems with small packets delivered via Canada Post when the invoice isn't visible.

roberto_the_besto

This is really bizarre because I have just posted on my other thread about my prescription medicines that I received today after a week of them getting posted in the UK. I was getting so worried, but they arrived today.

I will bear this in mind in future.