Shipping our goods to Canada, in whose name?
 

Hi,

My wife and children are Canadians with valid Canadian passports. I, on the other hand, am a UK citizen who has applied via London visa office to be sponsored by my wife for a Canadian immigrant visa.

The situation is this: we want to ship our goods to Canada for a certain date, as we have enrolled our oldest child in school in Canada to start in September. So whether or not I have my COPR, we want our goods to arrive in Canada for September, since my wife and children have to be in Canada at that date.

We initially thought we would have to hold our goods in the UK in storage because we would have to import the goods in my name. But on second thoughts is there any issue with importing all our goods in my wife's name (as a returning Canadian resident). She has been out of the country for > 6 years so no issues with her time out of the country. In addition, there is no item with a value greater than 10,000 CAD.

I can't see any problem with this approach. Anyone else know more about this? Any drawbacks to not importing the goods in my name? (Apart from not being able to know when I can do this, since I don't know when I will receive COPR).

Thanks,
Alastair

Re: Shipping our goods to Canada, in whose name?
 

I can't comment on what is SUPPOSED to happen, as I can't remember the legalities and am half asleep this morning so too lazy to look it up. :P

However, I returned to Canada in December after just over 5 years living in the UK. I put a whole load of stuff on my Goods to Follow list, including household stuff - dishes, linens, etc. When I got to the CBSA agent I said I was a returning resident and re-establishing residency. She sent me to the secondary point, they looked at my lists, entered it all in their computer, stamped a bunch of stuff, and I was on my way.

So your wife should be able to import everything under her name. :) Just make sure she arrives BEFORE the goods arrive. (Generally, the order should go your money, then you, then your stuff.)

HTH!

Re: Shipping our goods to Canada, in whose name?
 

Thanks for the quick reply. Two follow up questions:

1) Did you have any paperwork to prove that you had been out of canada for a while?

2) What's the reason for money being transferred over first?

Thanks,
Alastair

Re: Shipping our goods to Canada, in whose name?
 

Ooh, this is relevant to me too. Whilst getting a quote from Pickfords the other day that made me think that shipping in my name (as the Canadian part of the family) was probably sensible, just in case COPR hasn't arrived for my husband by then, and that caused any problems with clearing the goods. The man was going to check and let me know so I can let you know what he says.

We are also arriving so our son can start school in september.

And I would also like to know what the reason is for transferring money first. And if you do it that way, how much should be transferred (is there a minimum/maximum amount)? Our house sale should have gone through well before then, short of any disaster with the sale, then but we were going to just transfer when we got the best rate.

Re: Shipping our goods to Canada, in whose name?
 

As long as one single item does not exceed $10,000 then you can ship the goods in the name of the Canadian citizen
http://www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/publicati...2-3-2-eng.html

As for the money then thats a personal choice but when renting or getting utilities hooked up a Canadian bank account is preferable for cheques and direct debit.

Re: Shipping our goods to Canada, in whose name?
 

Alright, I've been searching around to work out where I read that... I think I've pieced it together. HOPEFULLY I have this all right in my head... obvious disclaimers that I am not an expert etc, this is just my understanding! :)

First, I was mistaken on the money side of things. What you do need to watch is that if you do leave money in the UK and transfer it after you've landed, you have to pay tax in Canada on any gains/interest. http://www.cicnews.com/2000/12/trans...ing-12381.html So it doesn't HAVE to go first, but it's easier if it does. Reasoning:

When you land, the exchange rate on the day you land is "locked in", so let's say when you land the exchange rage is 1.70 ($1.70=£1.00). You have £50,000 in the UK you want to transfer. If you did it on the day you land, then that would give you $85,000. You decide to wait to transfer funds to get a better exchange rage, and one year later it goes to 1.85. In addition, you've earned 2% interest on your money in that year, which has paid you around £1,000 of interest. So you transfer a total of £51,000, and $94,350 lands in your bank account. You've made a gain of $9,350, and you have to pay taxes on that as you've made $9,350 of income. So that needs to be declared on your income tax form at the end of the year.

Conversely, if the exchange rate drops to 1.55 and you decide "screw it, let's just transfer" so you transfer £51,000 and it hits your bank account as $79,050, you've technically made a loss of $5,950. You can ONLY offset this loss against other capital gains - so if you sell a house in Canada at a profit, for example, you can offset your forex loss against that gain. You CANNOT offset the loss against any non-capital income. And you'd still have to pay tax on the interest earned anyway (the £1,000 of interest that was paid in the year you were waiting).

So for these reasons it's advisable to transfer your money before you arrive in Canada, or otherwise shortly after you arrive.

So that's the first bit.

As for the goods, those should definitely arrive after you've landed in Canada. In order for them to clear customs duty-free, you need to have landed and have your Goods to Follow lists stamped by CBSA. When your goods arrive in Canada you take your GtF list to the agent and they'll release the goods without penalty. If your goods arrive before you've landed, then you either have to pay the company to store them for you, or pay import duty on them if you don't want to pay for storage.

So with all that in mind, the general order that makes sense is your money, then you, then your stuff. If you don't send money first, then just be aware of the implications of sending it after, both in terms of tax liabilities and what happens in the event of a gain/loss.

Hope that helps :)

Re: Shipping our goods to Canada, in whose name?
 

We arrived in Nov, with hubbie coming in on a visitor visa whilst his app was still in London processing - we put goods accompanying and goods to follow in my name - no issues at any point (at landing, nor at clearing goods when they arrived a couple of months later).
My docs were copies of leases, letters of employment.
We did money later once we'd set up a cdn bank account (the day after we arrived).