Duty and Taxes

[nadia]

I'm new to the sport and perusing classified.

I've got a question for experienced BOL buyers:

What type of additional costs (duty, taxes, etc.) would you see shipping from the US to Canada, or back? For used boards/bindings/boots, etc?

Any ideas out there?

Thanks, and stay with the spring cleaning - keep the For Sale page flying!

[J'suis là]

A $350 USD snowboard of 158 cm shipped from Vermont to Ontario cost $50 USD for shipping via UPS.

The seller sent it via UPS.

For that, I paid an extra $100 CAD of fees and taxes to UPS when the snowboard was delivered.

[tex1230]

I've sent a few boards and other items North, and from what I hear, your taxes will depend on the declared value...I always mark the package "GIFT" and lowball the value by about 1/2 (unless you're shipping insured, then you have to declare the amount you're insuring)

[patmoore]

A $350 USD snowboard of 158 cm shipped from Vermont to Ontario cost $50 USD for shipping via UPS.

The seller sent it via UPS.

For that' date=' I paid an extra $100 CAD of fees and taxes to UPS when the snowboard was delivered.[/quote']

You got nailed by the infamous UPS customs clearance fee. Our shop ships a lot of product to Canada and will not use UPS for that reason. I can't get a straight answer as to why - UPS blames Canada and Canada says UPS is collecting the fee. It isn't charged for UPS expedited services.

Before we discovered the problem, we'd have a customer buying $150 snowboard pants and then paying something like $80 fees! Ironically, the pants (Powder Room) were made in Canada!

It' makes MUCH more sense to ship via UPS Priority Mail. Most of our domestic shipping is done via UPS but the unfair fee should discourage anyone from using the service to Canada.

About 30% of our business now is international. With the weak dollar, overseas buyers don't mind paying some import duties and shipping costs. When you consider that we have a lot of gear on closeout it makes a lot of sense for them to shop online from a US distributor. This past winter season I sold to 17 different countries including ski race body armor to Dubai!

[Corey]

The biggest portion of the costs are the UPS brokerage fees. If the seller can ship USPS you only pay $5 brokerage at the post office, plus the regular duty/taxes. Duty is typically 7% and you pay tax on the duty too.

Note that ski boots are duty free while snowboard boots get 7% duty. Hard boots look an awful lot like ski boots...

[Allee]

Agreed that USPS is the way to go. Service seems to be good, if you don't need it NOW, and the last $150 board I bought from the US was ransomed from Canada Post for $21.

The UPS clearance fee alone is $35. It's depressing when you want to buy stuff off SAC and the like, and they only ship UPS - grrrr.

[Zone]

Similar question for those who received shipping from Europe.

I have the option of having it sent to Canada or the US, same fees, or is one country cheaper from Europe?

[two_ravens]

shipping from the US to Canada, or back?

I've had one board shipped from Canada to the US - I guess it's supposed to take 5 days plus time in customs. My board, shipped via USPS Prioriy Mail, spent about 2 weeks in the black hole there. I hear that's unusually long. No extra fees though.

[andreac]

The biggest portion of the costs are the UPS brokerage fees. If the seller can ship USPS you only pay $5 brokerage at the post office, plus the regular duty/taxes. Duty is typically 7% and you pay tax on the duty too.

Note that ski boots are duty free while snowboard boots get 7% duty. Hard boots look an awful lot like ski boots...

Snowboard boots are 18% duty!!!! 7% on boards and bindings from Europe. Ask seller to use USPS and put "gift" on the customs sheet!

[Gtanner]

Shipping US-CAn and CAN-US, always use USPS/Canada Post. UPS sucks.

ALso on the subject of UPS sucking, they tend to leave packages on our doorstep. Last year we had ~$4000 worth of Pampered Chef stuff left on our doorstep, if anyone driving by knew what that was....well we'd have been in trouble. THey also left my wife's computer on her doorstep (in Ontario at the time)...Ya a big box with "DELL" on the side...maybe broadcasting to thieves??

THis past fall, they left a wedding present from my grandparents on the doorstep...we were away on our honeymoon. The packing slip said "SIGNATURE REQUIRED", but the driver wrote "DR" as in driver released and decided it was ok to leave it on our doorstep. The package was an afghan that my grandmother had been working on for over a year. Needless to say, it went missing. UPS has been very very poor with their customer service and attempted to blame us for not being home to recieve the package... They have yet to refund my family for the insurance/shipping...and we're now in a bit of a battle with the company.

Anyway, moral of the story, Don't ship UPS for anything...they cheat you on brokerage fees and have poor business ethics.

-Gord

[BlueB]

I have shipped and recieved a lot of boards across the border. Here's my findings:

- Always use Canada Post / USPS

- When product is not made in US or Canada, skip the country of origin on declaration

- Declare as Used whenever possible

- Declare as Gift whenever possible

- Declare a nominal minimum value, unless you wanted it insured

- If insured, you would have to declare the real value (not retail) of the deal, or the value of insurance if underinsured.

- Canadian customs will sometimes charge GST/PST on the declared value, but not always.

- In that case buyer will pay extra $5 handling fee to USPS, otherwise not applicable.

- UPS WILL charge hefty handling fees

- FedEx sometimes doesn't charge handling fees

- Delivery time with Canada Post Expedited (cheapest method) to US, can be anything from 4 days to 2 weeks. Often 2 weeks.

- Some of USPS shipping options will not allow a snowboard sized package. It has to go USPS Priority Mail.

- Canada Post Expedited has the Tracking Number

- USPS sometimes doesn't have the Tracking Number ?!?

- There seem to be slightly less paperwork shipping to US then to Canada.

It's easy - good luck.

Boris

[cail]

Nadia,

could you activate email in your profile? or send me one when you see this.

Thanks

[RDY_2_Carve]

You can still mark it as a gift but get it insured. Just because it's a gift doesn't mean it has no value.

[Ernie00]

I've found with USPS and Canada post that marking it as : USED snowboard Parts (made in USA) often avoids you from paying any taxes or customs.

Definitaly UPS is a big NO NO

[eaglez]

I just received a brand new in plastic 140 cm Sigi Grabner race board for my son today. The declared value was $350 US. The shipping that RJ paid was $29.50 for USPS Priority Air. It arrived in 4 business days from California to Ontario. I paid the GST/PST on $350 US + $5.00 Canada Post handling fee (that fee is always $5.00 no matter how much the item is worth, unlike UPS who uses the value of the item to decide the amount). So it cost me about $51.00 Cnd to spring it from the post office.

As BlueB said never ever ever use UPS. Their minimum brokerage charge is about $45.00. So, in theory, you could order something worth $10.00 and have a $45.00 charge plus taxes. Ridiculous! :mad:And it is a customs brokerage charge. If you are a business that has a broker that you use, you can direct UPS to have that broker clear the item for you. Then UPS doesn't ding you for the charge. But your broker will, and their charges vary.

I choose sellers in the US based on whether they will ship USPS. If not, they don't get my business, period.

D.

[Corey]

I actually broker my own stuff that comes via UPS. It's brain-dead simple, you just carry a piece of paper from the UPS office to Can. Customs and pay the duty/taxes. Then they stamp the paper and head back to UPS warehouse to pick it up.

This is all dependent on the offices actually being close to you... Call UPS and ask how to broker things yourself, I was stunned at how helpful they were considering how they make 2 or 3x the shipping cost again in brokerage!

[eaglez]

I actually broker my own stuff that comes via UPS. It's brain-dead simple, you just carry a piece of paper from the UPS office to Can. Customs and pay the duty/taxes. Then they stamp the paper and head back to UPS warehouse to pick it up.

This is all dependent on the offices actually being close to you... Call UPS and ask how to broker things yourself, I was stunned at how helpful they were considering how they make 2 or 3x the shipping cost again in brokerage!

I am interested in your process. When you say carry the piece of paper from the UPS office, would that be the actual office that has your item? Or can you get that document from any UPS office. Because, generally I got a call from UPS while the package was still at the border to ask about what brokerage arrangements I would like to use. So, in that scenario, if that document was at the border with the package, it would not be practical. But if it could be printed out at the local UPS store/depot, without the package actually being onsite, that would work. Then once the customs stamp is on it they forward the package to the local depot. I would be happy if it worked that way.

D.

[Corey]

The paperwork is at a special office, usually close to the warehouse. Here in Winnipeg it's close to the airport and the customs office. For your specific city it's best to call UPS to see where the three places are. I've also heard you may be able to do it by fax, I haven't bothered with that yet as the whole process takes me about 20 minutes.

I can't stress how easy it is to call them and ask. They bent over backwards explaining the details to me.

[Warpdrive!]

I hate UPS.

I purchased a snowboard and bindings from a US seller for $100usd + $40 shipping via UPS.

It cost me $60cdn to get it from UPS. I found out a couple of things:

The value of a Gift only goes to $60. Anything above that amount is taxed. It doesn't matter to UPS if it is listed as a gift or not, they charge brokerage fees based on the insured amount. In this instance I paid taxes on the $40 and UPS brokerage on the full $100 insured value. I could have asked the shipper to list the package as two items (board and bindings) and list them as gifts for $50 each, that would have saved me a few bucks on taxes but I would still have to pay the brokerage on the insured amount.

I don't mind shipping UPS, they have good tracking, but I will no longer consider having something shipped to me via UPS unless the deal is so good that it is still a deal after I factor into account the inflated brokerage charges.

[patmoore]

I choose sellers in the US based on whether they will ship USPS. If not, they don't get my business, period.

D.

All our international shipping is via USPS Priority. It's much cheaper although frequently slower and with poorer tracking. Bear in mind package size limits. Ironically, I was able to ship a snowboard to New Zealand but not Australia with USPS.

I recently sold some skis to England. They were over the length limit but the guy wanted them so badly he was willing to pay $203 to have them shipped UPS.

[J'suis là]

I choose sellers in the US based on whether they will ship USPS. If not, they don't get my business, period.

Up to now, all sellers of snowboards I've approached insist that USPS will not accept a snowboard and worse, insist on UPS. Regarding USPS, I know that's not the case.

So I won't buy from anyone who ship via UPS only.

I'm not the only one who considers it an irritation, there's a class action filed in the Province of British Columbia:

http://www.poynerbaxter.com/UPS.htm

[nadia]

Thanks guys,

Great to see the BOL community pool its experience together. Thanks for your 2 cents!

Bottom line: avoid UPS. Check.