Canadian tariffs, duties, etc?

Baddabob is right about the taxes (applies to new and used goods). In addition, depending upon the country of origin of the audio equipment there may be duty that is applicable. For example, gear produced in N America is duty free, but subject to the taxes above. Yet, speakers say from Netherlands (Kharma) get dinged with an additional 6.5% duty, beyond the taxes.

I just imported stuff into Canada via Bax, and the great thing is I that I had to clear the customs stuff myself by going to the customs office. I paid the applicable tax and duty (they will take Visa), but then there were absolutely no brokerage fees. On the other hand, as noted above UPS can charge rather hefty brokerage fees. USPS and FedEx sit somewhere in between. I think in the future I would rather do my own Customs and avoid an additional brokerage "tax" from the shipping company.

Good plan Thom_y. Do you actually have to go to the border to do this or can you have it delivered to a customs office in your city - for example Toronto or Vancouver? I too would like to save the UPS brokerage goudge.

Baddabob. There should be a customs office in every city. But shippers like DHL, Fedex, and UPS have their own brokerage agents, which I don't think you can bypass. Industrial shippers (not sure if this is the right distinction) like BAX Global do not include their own brokerage agents and so you have to go to customs yourself (BAX can only be used if you have a business account while Fedex and UPS have size limits as well as getting too expensive for large/heavy items, so the choice is often made for you). Keep in mind that you have to run around (from shipping company to get the required forms, to the customs office to clear the shipment, then back to the shipping company to arrange for pickup/delivery) and will most likely have to wait in line at the customs office, which may not be worthwhile for small ticket items. I recently had to go through this process to pick up my amp. It was worth it for me as it was a big ticket item. But since it was my first time, all that running around as well as waiting in line was a big hassle and a big waste of time (It was too heavy for me to pick the item up myself anyways, so my 1-2h time was spent clearing customs).

As to the original question. There should actually be a place on the form to mark whether the shipper or receiver is responsible for taxes and customs.

Well, it wasn't that much of a hassle for me on the east coast. BAX faxed me the paperwork to my office. I walked into the Customs office downtown. Virtually no line up. They asked a few questions about the goods, checked the exchange rate on the day of shipping and figured out the duty and taxes. You could pay with Visa, Interac, bank draft etc. Took less than 10 minutes. Then, I faxed back the papers to BAX and then they shipped the goods to my house. THe only hassle, I needed to find two strong guys help unload and uncrate the 200 lb speakers, to meet the Bax driver. I am not sure how much FedEx or UPS would have charged for doing that. Besides, in the past I have had camera gear sit days until the brokerage firm processed it.

Tax and duties are charged by Canadian Gov to Canadains. US seller has nothing to do with it. Canadian buyer like me should always take care the tax and duty if it occur, but I don't know why sometimes US sellers are hesitate to sell stuff to Canadian.

Canada Post charge $5 for brokerage and I never lost my stuff. Fedex and USPS charge you based on the value of the goods. Fedex just charged me $15 for a $50 s-video cable. USPS is worse. 2 years ago I sent a $800 cd player to US for warranty repair. Without telling me when I shipped the item UPS charged me $50 each way for brokerage fee, then they told me they lost my cd player. I also went to their depot in Canada. The working environment is bad. I saw the workers taking 15 min break outside and everybody is tired, quite and no expression on their face. They all looks like illegal immigrant in the labour camp.

I agreed with other people on ebay and audiogon. Always use USPS when ship cross the border. Fedex is your 2nd choice and never use UPS.