25 customs/tax fee to ship audio to Canada ??

This is a sticky wicket indeed. As a Canuck who has done a few cross-border deals (both ways) I can advise that indeed since NAFTA that any audio gear manufactured within the US and Canada is entitled to traverse our border without duty. But its just duty thats involved not taxes. As the unit was destined for Ontario, Canada Customs would have take the $2500 US converted it to Canadian funds at a ratio of 1.6 and then tacked on about 15.5% taxes (7% GST which is Federal and 8% cumulative Provincial). Doing the math the buyer should be looking at $2500 X 1.6 X 15.5% = $620 Canadian funds. So the $700 seems somewhat high but is in the ball park. Can't get away from taxes irregardless where the unit was manufactured or even originally purchased!!!

If you declared the value at $2500.00 USD I would say that most of that $700 is made up of tax. At the current rate of exchange $2500.00 USD is about $3967.50 CDN, tax here in Ontario is 15%, this makes the tax portion alone $595.00 CDN. Along with some brokerage fees and the usual processing fees I can see the total hitting $700.00 no problem. In this case duties are most likely not a factor unless the NAFTA forms were not properly filled out. When things are shipped from the US to Canada by courier you are almost certainly going to end up paying your provincial and federal sales tax.

Gene

Your canadian buddy should have known better. You must admit that charging off of the insured rate is fair. However, canadian customs are a bunch of pigs. See if they will ship it back to you and call the deal off? That's why a lot of folks won't ship to canada.

I will get to the tax issue a bit later but first...
Not a big deal if you follow common sense. Chances of UPS or FED EX to LOSE the package is almost nil, with the sophisticated tracking system they have. It's actually fun to see your package on the Net as it's getting closer to it's destination.

The real problem is that there is a chance that they will damage it more than lose it. In the case of a $ 2,500.00 amplifier, a $ 500.00 insured value would be more than enough to repair some damaged part on the amp. Of course, double-boxing makes the chances for damage academic, but it can happen still as we all know, especially with speakers.

Now, if a $ 2,500.00 amlifier is insured for $ 500.00, then any taxes or duties applicable should be on this same amount of $ 500.00 The absence of an invoice in the shipment means that the value will be based on the insured value. If there is an invoice, then this will serve as the basis for establishing the tax. You figure the rest yourself.....

Happy shipping to Canada all....