Playing Customs Games with Our Northern Neighbors

I have the shipment sent to a close to the border Fed Ex station to be held there and pick it up in person. That way I take it across the border myself, declare what I paid for the item (you should see the looks of disbelief on the agents' faces, no not because the value is low but they simply can't figure out why a guy should buy a used amp or cd player and pay way way more than a new one at Best Buy), but save the horrendous so called "brokerage" fee charged by the shipping companies. The shipping is cheaper too. I know, I know, this is of no help if you live, say, in Edmonton or Cornerbrook.

No duty on items made in the US, just GST and PST. I got Linn products with a declaration that they are made in Scotland or GB or the EU across and never was charged duty either, just taxes, for reasons that escape me.

It is the law and laws must be obeyed irrespective of whether they make any sense. Are many of these taxes reasonable or fair?...no they most certainly are not! For example, an item originating from the UK and sold in the US will have US import taxes and sales taxes applied to it. This same item if sold used to a Canadian will have import duties and all sales taxes applied all over again....double taxation!!!

Oh and NAFTA....it is a complete farce. Americans apply protectionist taxes against many Canadian products (such as softwood lumber) and Canadians apply protectionist taxes against many American products (telecomms, banking, financial services, cars etc.)

The only things certain in life are death and taxes!

BTW....this will only get worse. The US has $1 trillion in debt...China has a seriously undervalued currency (Yuan) => more protectionism looks heavily on the cards!

Shadorne, your comments on budget deficits and Chinese economics are excellent thoughts. I thought however for the record I should point out the US budget deficit is now at $8.7 Trillion dollars. I wish it was only one, our dollar would be much strong.

National debt and budget deficit are not the same.

The national debt, not the budget deficit, is $8.7 trillion.

The budget deficit for 2006 is $250 billion.

Great thread. I had two buyers, one in Canada and another in Europe, in the last two weeks, back out of deals on a $7k+ purchase because of this. One suggested I use UPS and declare it "repair" or "sample" so he could get it through customs without taxes/duty. If it's seized, I lose the gear (though I would have his money) and I am also probably subject to some form of fraud prosecution. Since he doesn't actually receive it, he'd probably expect his money back as he never took delivery. The buyer has nothing at risk at least in terms of criminal act. Of course I said no way.

The other guy bangs me up on low offers for a week, which I finally move up enough to accept, then he wakes up and figures out he doesn't have enough money to cover GST/PST's and shipping/brokerage fees to go across the border. Seems like you'd know that before making an offer, right?

Lately it seems to be much more common to encounter these guys. Both had very low or non-existent feedback numbers so I was wary to begin with. Unfortunately there's really no way to warn others about them. I guess they're just wasting our time to see if we'll weaken and go for it.