That is how it works on every shipment I have had in.

Me too. I've never paid tax on a delivery from Amazon. Once had to pay duty on a region free DVD player from the States, but not on a DVD from .co.uk

Weird. Looks like there is no one answer, they do it differently at random, or have changed it and those stuck in our ways haven't noticed

I did a bit of digging on this and it might be that not everything sold on Amazon actually comes from Amazon. If it's coming from another supplier, they may use a courier firm and perhaps that's when the duty is collected.

Just had another thought; if the DVD, lets say, is bought for me by my Dad in the UK, would he have to pay VAT on it because he's in the UK - even though it's being shipped to me in Canada? Or would his purchase be VAT exempt, even though he's in the UK? If that is the case, surely the powers that be wouldn't know whether it had been paid for in the UK or Canada, or indeed, whether the person paying for it was in either of these countries!?!?

Whoever buys it does not matter so long as it is shipped directly from Amazon to Canada as far as VAT is concerned, Canadian tax would then be applied.

Conversely, if you buy something on Amazon UK and are in Canada, the item is shipped to a UK address, you pay VAT.

I have sperate accounts on amazon.ca, amazon.com, amazon.fr and amazon.co.uk. I use the appropriate one depending on which country I'm in, or to which country I want the delivery to go (for presents and such).

A much more interesting question is whether amazon.co.uk pays corporate taxes in the UK etc.

According to that esteemed journal Private Eye they employ elaborate global tax avoidance schemes to pay little or no tax anywhere.

I do hope you are not the only lucky one RivingtonPike....based on this thread I have just ordered series 4&5 of Merlin for our son from .co.uk

Last time I tried this I got hammered with "customs brokerage fees" by Canada Post as I recall. Just trying to remember what it was that I bought... hmm... I think it was some food items.

Same deal with buying from amazon.com in the US.

Some of the big mail order companies in the US are GST registered, so there are no brokerage fees, they collect the GST or HST so it's just like buying in Canada. I.e. painfully slow.

No it's more, you pay GST/HST/PST as well as duty, assuming they catch it. Plus the "brokerage fee".

I've had it with Canada Post, UPS, Fedex and Purolator, as FL says if it's a piffling amount for total value they don't bother.

I gave up on this whole thing years ago, I found that any money I saved on shipment #1 I lost on shipment #2 because of the brokerage fees. Have to admit I don't buy DVDs from amazon.co.uk though, maybe it's because they usually come from Jersey rather than the UK? No clue. There are two facilities for international mail, one in Mississauga and another one in Vancouver, maybe CBSA aren't as sharp back east, don't know about UPS logistics.

International shipments do not attract PST. Not all items attract duty either, you can check the tariff code to find what and if duty applies.

Actually there are 3 CBSA mail processing centres you missed Montreal so that would explain the not very sharp statement