Taxes / duties on cross-border e-bay purchases?

[Tiger]

Thinking of purchasing a T43 off of E-bay from a seller in the USA. I am in Canada and wondering if anyone can shed some light on the issue of taxes and duties imposed at the border as the product makes it way to me. Is there a preferred way of shipping? As an aside, but still on topic, if one buys from a general retailer in the USA , such as Lenovo or Newegg, any duty / tax issues. Experiences of products traveling either way across the border would be greatly appreciated.

For those in Canada , or elsewhere, depending on the tax issue , here is a link to some great deals. Click on the popular add-ons. You can see what Thinkpads go for in Canada.

http://caipsgws001.can.ibm.com/store/ho ... arget=home

Thanks for a great forum. I would post my Thinkpad specs here but working on a celeron 500 i series with 64 mb of ram is kind of and .

[bigtiger]

If you buy from a legitimate retailer. They are bound to pay taxes, I think. If you buy from eBay, ask the seller to ship via USPS. I had some experience with friends (not eBay). I ship USPS and the Canadian government does not bother. But when I ship Fedex or USPS, they are checked by the customs office and my friends had to pay duties.

That is only personal experience though.

[dsigma6]

how ironic that i was just trying to figure this out early today. i came to no conclusion after searching for 20 minutes

in my case its just some cheap ipod knock-off, so i think even if customs was involved, it wouldnt cost much.

[Tiger]

I found this explaination of the process but was wondering on some real world advice and experience. Thanks all.

http://pages.ebay.ca/help/sellerguide/s ... rting.html

[klystron]

Tiger FWIW Try to get the vendor to ship via USPS if at all possible. Shipping via UPS will cost big time in brokerage fees. (not sure about fedex) I have read reports where some people have paid more for brokerage than the item was worth.

[jdhurst]

It depends also on value. I purchase from eBay and stuff gets shipped by FedEx, UPS and the Post Office. They all collect GST and PST if the value exceeds $100. Below that, sometimes the Post Office doesn't bother, sometimes it does.

Unless you are working illegaly, the taxes must be paid. ... JD Hurst

[tfflivemb2]

I know that this doesn't help, but I just had to point out the irony of "Tiger" asking a question and that the first response was from "bigtiger".

[dsigma6]

yea i thought that tiger and bigtiger thing was a conspiracy/double account holder!

[smugiri]

Even with taxes, buying from the US is still a good deal if you shop right.

Taxes are 15% of the total cost. If customs figures you are trying to stiff them on the value, they reserve the right to carry out an independent assessment and charge you duty on the assessment rather than on your declared price. Since they assess based on Canadian values, it is to your advantage to make sure that you avoid this.

Ship USPS and not UPS. USP brokerage fees for clearing an item though customs for you typically run atleast as much as the duty while USPS charges nothing.

- Steve