Canadian tariffs, duties, etc?

I live in Canada and have purchased stuff from US Audiogon members. I always ask for UPS shipping. Yes they charge a lot for brokerage fees, but as the buyer I am the payer and their handling is great - none of the packages I have received have even been opened for inspection and everything has arrived in good condition. The key is to honestly declare what is inside and what it is worth. A large and heavy package declared as a gift is a red flag for customs. My experience has been that the biggest chance of damage comes from customs handling, and not shippers. I always ask the shipper to send via UPS and I pay the usurious fees brokerage fees. These are fees that they charge to steer the thing through customs. Basically UPS does a pre-screening and if it looks legit, they will bulk the stuff through. As others have pointed out, there is always a 15% Canadian government goudge (8% provincial/7% federal) at the border, which the buyer also always pays. The way I look at it, I am saving enough by using audiogon to make the additional costs justifiable. The provincial goudge varies by province. Ontario is 8%, Alberta has no sales tax and charges nothing. If I am buying from a fellow Canadian, the tax goudge will probably be worked into the price somehow since they had to pay it when buying new. Bottom line is be honest, and things will work out better.

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.