Buying Canadian goods and shipping to the US

[merl]

If I buy a kite in Canada (online store) and have it shipped to the US (MA) what is the deal with taxes and fees and how would they need to be payed?

[madworld]

Customs Duty Information

https://www.cbp.gov/travel/internationa ... -duty-info

[merl]

Hard to follow. Maybe someone knows what happens in practice? If I get something sent to a friend's address, will it just arrive if it is marked as below $800? Or would they get a tax demand first which has to be paid in advance?

[Slappysan]

it's probably too far from MA but what many of us do in Canada is order from the USA to a small town just over the border on the US side then drive down and pick it up. When we bring it back in to Canada we just have to pay tax on it but if it's under $500 often they just wave you through.

[GregK]

... Maybe someone knows what happens in practice? If I get something sent to a friend's address, will it just arrive if it is marked as below $800? Or would they get a tax demand first which has to be paid in advance?

When taxes and brokerage fees ( if the value of shipment exceeds $800 the carrier [ UPS, Fedex, USPS, etc ] will charge a fee to clear the shipment through US Customs ) are paid depends on the carrier. Some will contact the recipient in advance of delivery, typically via email or telephone, and request payment, while others will request payment when the shipment is delivered.

Should also add that who & when taxes & brokerage are paid also depends on the sender and the conditions they set with the carrier when the paperwork for the shipment is filled out. Also, under USCMCA ( new-NAFTA ) there shouldn't be any duties on the goods if the sender lists the country of origin as Canada.

[kitemancan]

Find a Canadian friend to buy and ship it to you to save the tax

[GregK]

Find a Canadian friend to buy and ship it to you to save the tax

That will back-fire because the friend will have to pay Canadian sales taxes ( GST and provincial sales tax ) where-as if the seller is savvy on Cdn sales tax rules, a sale to a US resident in which the goods are shipped by the seller out of Canada is exempt from Cdn sales taxes.

Once the goods enter the US, there shouldn't be any US duties, but if the recipient lives in a state with sales tax ( MA sales tax is 6.25% ), the carrier will be obligated to collect the state's sales tax.

[Cab Driver]

If I buy a kite in Canada (online store) and have it shipped to the US (MA) what is the deal with taxes and fees and how would they need to be payed?

The goods have to be "imported". Depending on the country of origin (where they are manufactured), there will be an import duty. A gift from a friend across the border is a different world, but a consumer buying from a foreign business and importing the goods is going to result in some extra costs like potential customs and brokerage fees, higher shipping cost, and duties. Some of these costs are difficult to estimate especially if using courier shipping. Courier's goal is to get the goods to you in the time that they have estimated and often will incur lots of extra fees for you in order to achieve the deadline. Good luck!

[Flyboy]

If I buy a kite in Canada (online store) and have it shipped to the US (MA) what is the deal with taxes and fees and how would they need to be payed?

There may be duties and taxes owing. However, as the US doesn't have a national VAT system or national sales tax, the tax collected is hard to predict. Also, it's hard to know if merchandise coming from Canada will be charged duty based on the country of manufacture, as duty will already have been paid when it was shipped into Canada (assuming it wasn't manufactured in Canada).

In practice, my experience with shipping kiting equipment into the US (into New York state) from Europe has been NO duty or state tax has ever been charged. You can figure out how to classify what you're importing by looking through the harmonized tariff schedule. Choose a description that can be applied to kiting stuff that has little or no duty. Ask the sender to use that tariff item number.

https://www.usitc.gov/2015_htsa_basic_edition.htm

Commercial carriers automatically charge a custom clearance and brokerage fee. With UPS this amounts to .21% of the value - so on a $800 shipment that would come to $168! If the package goes Expedited or Express (by air) then the shipping will cost more, but the brokerage fee is included. Use the postal office to ship the item rather than a commercial carrier. It may take a couple of days longer, but in my experience they don't charge any brokerage to clear the package.

[IWantToFly]

For a specific example, I recently bought a foil kit from Canada costing ~US$1000 marked as manufactured in China. UPS collected ~$100 in customs and ~$40 in “agency” fees.