Targaff

mca wrote in news:424908.1032965391
@britishexpats.com:

    > Actually, I believe it's the receiver of the gifts who pays the duties,
    > not the sender.

Just to clarify: the receiver didn't pay anything either.

Quite right too after the amount it cost to ship the damn stuff in the
first place...

--

Targaff

Rete

Yup I meant the receiver pays the duty. Funny story is we were in Halifax this summer with stepson and [step]grandson. Well the little helped to pack when it was time for us to leave. He packed his dad's jeans in our suitcase. So, of course, we mailed them back when we discovered it. Clearly marked that the package contained used jeans that the little had packed in our bags. Well when stepson went to PO to pick up the package, they wanted him to pay duty on them. Right ... so he said ... open the box. They did and saw his faded very used jeans and let him have them without having to pay duty.

Rete

nickson

He should wear the ring on his little finger at the POE so it can be deemed "used"! No mucking around with these ridiculous forms.

Pulaski

Heidi,

Sorry to have to break the news to you, but your fiancé is a cheapskate if he bought you an engagement ring worth less than the $400 limit on goods brought in from overseas.

Pulaski

I'm with you Targaff, in the age of the internet import taxes are rediculous. Import duties only protect inefficient producers/suppliers from competition.

And when it comes to importing gifts or holiday purchases it is even more rediculous. If I buy glass from Venice, whisky from Scotland, lace from Belgium, crystal from the Czech Republic, etc etc, I am buying it there because it is simply not available back home. Why hit me with taxes?

Sioneva

Pulaski,

Sorry to have to break this to you, but some of us are students without permanent jobs who can't afford to put ourselves into massive amounts of debt for what is essentially the product of the wedding industry and De Beers' price inflation techniques, not to mention abusive to workers within the industry itself.

*phew*

After that rant, anyhow, yes, it was under $400 and I know because I was there when he bought it and chose it myself, and no, he's not a cheapskate. Frankly, I would have been perfectly happy with just a proposal and a stick [inside joke], as I don't see his love for me as being in direct proportion to the size of the rock on my finger!

cheers,

-Heidi

hmiller

Isn't it funny how society likes to prove a mans love by the size of the diamond he buys? I can only imagine what people must thing of my fiance!

We bought identical sterling silver bands will I was visiting him in Holland this last spring. They cost about 12 euros...each. No diamonds or stones of any kind. And yes, we are planning on using these as our wedding bands and having them engraved. Yeah, they are cheap. And sure in all my vanity I probably hoped for something big and shiny. But they have sentimental value and that is what is most important. And besides, he's already planning in using the money he saved to take his new wife and daughter on a trip to Europe next year Now THAT is what I call proof of love.

mca

We also have identical sterling silver engagement bands.

Just felt like sharing ;)
mca

Jim K

From recent hands-on (wallet-on) experience I can tell you that import
duty on a ring (USA into Canada) is 25% (whew!) with a $60 exemption.
I just proposed 3 weeks ago and decided to declare rather than take
the chance at the border these days and screwing things up for the
future.

On Wed, 25 Sep 2002 05:23:56 GMT, mrtravel
wrote:

    >Sioneva wrote:
    >> Lest I sound like an idiot, yes, I have been in and out of the country,
    >> many, many times. As I recall, the amount of the exemption is fairly
    >> high, at least entering into the US, as my engagement ring was well
    >> under the limit for "items acquired abroad". If the cost of the ring is
    >> going to cause problems, then by all means the original poster should
    >> either pay the duty or buy the ring in Canada.
    >The free limit for US customs in most cases is only $400.

Rete

I have to say that I married a Canadian as well and we got engaged in Canada so he bought my ring there and I wore it home and didn't declare it. However, I had also purchased in the States an engagement ring for him, gold with a black onyx and small diamond insert. I didn't declare it at customs so didn't pay duty on it. At the time, I never even thought about declaring it. I guess I fulfilled Andy's criteria and am now a known smuggler.

Rete

Rete

Ooops but then perhaps not since Jim wore the ring when he entered the US as a K-1 recipient 8 months later. So that is within the 12 months someone stated the ring had to be brought back into the States.

Rete

Pulaski

OK Heidi, fair comment, but rightly or wrongly, if you say "engagement ring" it typically means diamond engagement ring.

As is all too common on internet message boards the advice and comments are not always helpful as people don't always say exactly what they (think) mean.

I assumed an engagement ring was a diamond ring, and that you thought that it was OK to bring in upto a, say, $3,000 ring to the US with out declaring it. It isn't fair to give people that impression if you are talking about $12 rings, as some people are here.

Mrs_blackross

if my husband had spent $3,000.00 on an ring I would have made him take it
back! the previous poster is right...spending that kind of money just
because the industry tells you to is ridiculous.

my husband brought my engagement ring to Canada from the US without
declaring it at the border for two reasons: 1. it never even occured to him
to declare it, 2. we were both in the car and it was a surprise he had
planned for after we got back to my place in Canada, and 3. I seriously
doubt it was more than the allotted exemption anyways.
and for the record, its not the price tag on the ring that is important,
it's the thought behind it. Anyone who thinks a person is a cheapskate for
not spending the three months salary recommended by the jewelry industry is
a very shallow and materialistic person.



"Pulaski" wrote in message
news:426995.1033130904@britishexpats-
.com...
    > Originally posted by Sioneva:
    > > Pulaski,
    > >
    > > Sorry to have to break this to you, but some of us are students
    > > without permanent jobs who can't afford to put ourselves into massive
    > > amounts of debt for what is essentially the product of the wedding
    > > industry and De Beers' price inflation techniques, not to mention
    > > abusive to workers within the industry itself.
    > OK Heidi, fair comment, but rightly or wrongly, if you say "engagement
    > ring" it typically means diamond engagement ring.
    > As is all too common on internet message boards the advice and comments
    > are not always helpful as people don't always say exactly what they
    > (think) mean.
    > I assumed an engagement ring was a diamond ring, and that you thought
    > that it was OK to bring in upto a, say, $3,000 ring to the US with out
    > declaring it. It isn't fair to give people that impression if you are
    > talking about $12 rings, as some people are here.
    > --
    > Posted via http://britishexpats.com

Targaff

Pulaski wrote in news:426995.1033130904
@britishexpats.com:

    > OK Heidi, fair comment, but rightly or wrongly, if you say "engagement
    > ring" it typically means diamond engagement ring.

For the record - it was a diamond engagement ring. Also for the record,
it's irrelevant to the topic at hand because it's not that engagement ring
that's being talked about anyway.

--

Targaff

saledevo

Why not just buy the ring in the US...?? Then no worries, no problems! Your money spends the same way over here...
sal