Buying speaker and amps from Canada to the US.Tax?

There should be no duty/tax when purchasing Canadian made gear going into the US. Thats not to say that a freight service like UPS wouldn't charge brokerage fees. But buying European products via Canada might incur somem duty - at least thats the case when buying Euro gear via the US - 6% if memory serves me right.

I believe Rgd is correct on duty, but duty is different from Tax. Nafta does not protect us against the taxes. Fortunately, tax going from Canada to the US is not the problem--it's going from US to Canada where Canada charges the VAT which is pretty hefty (don't know the figure right now, but perhaps someone else does).

I know that anything being shipped from Canada into the US via UPS will end up getting you some type of customs brokerage fee tacked onto it. I do not know if this is directly related to declared value or not. All i know is that it raised the price of an amp that i bought a month after it arrived. UPS sends a bill to the recipient after the fact, so it was pretty much a complete shock to me to have to come up with this "extra" money. As such, it made me change the way that i think about doing transactions across the border. I do not know if one would encounter the same thing going into or coming back from Mexico or not.

Having said that, i have used the Postal Service to have low weight items ( DAC, preamp, etc... ) shipped to me from Canada. There was no extra charge that was passed onto me that i was ever aware of. As such, i would try to use that method if possible. Shipping speakers and hefty amps through the Postal Service might be a bit much to ask though... Sean
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Ups is the Issue not Canada or US Law. UPS money grab. They charge you a brokerage fee. Rip off fee is what it should be caled. If its under 70 Pounds Use the Postal service cross border. I bought a DVD player last week took 7 days to arrive. I paid the 15% Tax that was due and a 5.00 processing fee. Thats how easy it is. If UPS had handled it. They would have added about 40.00 to the transaction.