Canadian Importing taxes and duties?
 

I was about to place an order from RedWolf until my friend had told me about the canadian importation taxes and duties. He wasn't sure what percentage they charge. I've tried the canadian government site and other sources however I too cannot find the rates. I was hoping someone here could tell me either from knowledge or personal experience how much someone would get charged for something like this. If it makes a difference the order is around $600

Welcome to Airsoft Canada.


Just a few questions.

1. Are you importing guns?

2. With whom are they shipping with?



If the answer to question 1 is anything but no, then cancel your order or simply don't place it and take a few minutes to peruse the faq area of airsoft canada and read about our importation laws. Sufficed to say if you attempt to import guns into Canada they will in all likely hood be seized.

As for customs charges that varies depending on what you purchased and who is shipping it (and to some extent where its coming from and where it was manufactured). As 600 dollars in Marbles will cost a different amount then 600 dollars in clothes. And 600 dollars in clothes shipped with UPS will have different customs fees compared to 600 dollars in clothes shipped with Fedex. It also depends on the specific shipping option as some will include brokerage in the shipping fee's.

for more information about customs tariffs check out

http://www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/trade-com.../menu-eng.html


Cheers

Oh alright thanks for the link.. yeah i know that i cant import guns xD im just getting alot of parts thats all

You're not ordering guns.....right?

It also depends what service you use to send the package. Also, the package could get by without any extra charges at all in some cases.

oh yeah what do you mean but who its shipped to?

The duty calculator might help
http://www.aacb.com/tools/dutytax.asp

The shipping agent. Ie UPS or Fedex ect...

Their rates sometimes include brokerage at no extra charge depending on the shipping method. This can save alot of money when dealing with extremely high value items of low weight.

how are they shipping it?

if it goes FeDX they will pay all the applicable canadian taxes and charge you an astounding FEE to do it

other couriers like UPS don't hurt that bad but expect that the taxes at 15% and some fees


I did once receive an express item through HK post and the Canadapostie had a charge for %15 of the packages declared value.Everything else came through free and clear.

whatever happens you should probably have an extra $100 + lying around for when the doorbell rings



I've never ordered from

Usually consumer goods are charged at around 18% customs fee's but again this depends on exactly what your ordering and from whom and where it was made ect.

People make a good living understanding this system and as such its not an easy to explain system.

Sufficed to say Order local if you can.

I just received my Redwolf order after waiting for Canada Post to get their heads out of their asses and deliver my damn parcel already (one month wait from the time it arrived in Vancouver, BC and got stashed away in some CP warehouse before ever seeing CBSA on the 27th, practically a month after it had arrived in town, lol).

Shipped EMS, $200.24 CAD worth of stuff in there. Duty charged was 3.5% which translated to $7.01 (customs guy classified my stuff upon opening as "guns/air less than 500 fps - I'm pretty sure that's not right, but I'm not sure fighting over $7 worth of duties is worth it; might have been a WA 2011 mag that threw him for a loop? That's about all that looked remotely like a gun part). GST/HST column reads $10.36 (ew HST). PST reads $14.51. $8.00 handling fee. Amount charged upon picking up my parcel was $39.88.

Oh alright thanks guys so i should expect like 15~20 percent for taxes and duties?

I placed an order with Red Wolf Airsoft couple months ago that was also about $200 worths of parts including pistol gaz magazine and the mailman showed up and I never paid any custom fees at all.

As a matter of fact I never paid customs a single time for any ordered shipped (no matter what the price is) via Hong Kong Post being regular Airmail or EMS. Count in that at least 25 transactions with a couple of them costing around $200.

I paid once $70 worth of fees/taxes with an order from the US because I had ordered it through UPS, that was the very first order that I placed when I started paintball 3 years ago and that was the first and last time that I was not dealing with only either USPS or Hong Kong Post.

If you want to save on customs (that it is at your own risk if the package is lost or damaged though) you can reduce the total value of the package. Usually I go half the price (you can go even lower if you want). So on an order that's worth 200$ and they declare only 100$ for your package the custom agent has no clue whatsoever that some internal airsoft parts and some mags could cost more than 100$. And from my own experience the risk of having a lost/damaged package when you have a tracking number is extremely low.

The rule of thumb is you will be paying GST and PST or rather all sales taxes in your province. Plus a handling fee of about $8 as this is the only way the government can ensure they recieve money when you buy something online outside the country. Yes it sounds lame, but that is the real reason why asc has always been so good to its users, our classifieds have no pst or gst. In country helps a ton but if you really need to get HK stuffs, the declared value is the only thing that guides those percentages.

GST is applicable and the duty is 3% on legal airsoft products....

I have ordered thousands of dollars worth of parts and gear from overseas...the only time I ever paid a fee was when a package was shipped via UPS.

If you're shipping with EMS, you could have none. I've never had to pay a cent for "fees" with EMS.

Spike speaks the truth. Avoid UPS like the plague! They hate Canadians, and will charge you a border fee of $35-50, plus the taxes on that fee and your purchase plus the customs fees and taxes on those as well. I've had a UPS package arrive with $89 in fees. I told em to shove it, and keep the package. Never used them again.

If you're driving it across the border the most you'll have to pay is 9% (5% GST & 4% Customs - Although I wonder if HST will be added now...). If you're shipping it, there are a lot of different scenarios as already mentioned.

Oh alright thanks guys =]

If you have a CBSA office a reasonable distance away you can avoid the brokerage fee charged by couriers by paying the duties and taxes directly to the CBSA. Here is how:



A courier need your permission to represent you as a broker. The authority for this is found in D1-6-1 http://www.cbsa.gc.ca/publications/d...d1-6-1-eng.pdf

"4. Any person who proposes to transact business with CBSA as the agent of another person is responsible for ensuring that the proper authority has been granted. The written authority is often referred to as an agency agreement or a power of attorney."

This means of course you always have the right to clear your goods yourself or using any broker you want. Generally couriers get permission to act as your broker when you sign for the goods, in fact the LVS (low value shipment) regulations specifically allow for them to do this, however they also give you the right to decline to use them.

Now I should mention the information I am referencing for this post is only LVS courier casual goods. That means the goods have to be valued at under $1600 Canadian and not be controlled, prohibited or regulated by an act of Parliament. To qualify as Casual the goods have to be for the personal use of an individual and not be commercial goods.

We find the regulations for LVS courier goods in D 17-4-0

http://www.cbsa.gc.ca/publications/d...17-4-0-eng.pdf

"1. The Courier Low Value Shipment (LVS) Program streamlines the reporting, release and accounting procedures for certain goods imported by courier. Couriers authorized by the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) to participate in the program may have qualifying goods released by presenting a cargo/release list to the CBSA. To qualify under this program the goods must:
(a) be valued at less than CAN$1,600; and
(b) not be controlled, prohibited or regulated by an Act of Parliament"

So what does LVS mean?

from D17-4-0 again

"11. The cargo/release list for authorized participants of the Courier LVS Program is to be used in place of individual cargo control and release documents for goods valued under CAN$1,600. The list must be presented to the CBSA by the courier before or as soon as the shipments arrive in Canada. It must contain a concise description of the LVS qualifying goods so that the border services officer can determine the admissibility of the goods."

So the courier gives customs information on the goods they are bringing in to Canada.

Next if the goods are not being released at the office they enter Canada at they can move inbond to the office of release. This is important to note because UPS will often argue that the goods have to be released at the office of arrival but this is not true and we know it is not true because the LVS regulations tell us so.

Again from D-17-4-0

"16. When Courier LVS goods arrive in Canada at an office other than the office of release, the in-bond movement of the shipments to the office of release is permitted, provided that the entire container or load is moved inland."

So the courier following these regulations moves your LVS parcel in bond eventually to a distribution centre near the importer. At this point the goods have not been accounted for, that is no duties and taxes have been paid yet, and the courier can not release them to the importer until they have.

So now the goods are in the UPS warehouse near your house and they bring them to your door. Lets see what the D 17-4-0 says about what happens next.

"Release and Accounting
54. Once the CBSA releases the casual goods, the courier delivers the shipment to the importer. The duties and taxes owing are paid by the importer to the courier. Afterwards, the courier or its agent accounts for the goods on an “F” type entry which is presented to the CBSA before the 24th day of the next month, with the duties and taxes payable by the end of that month."

Ah so you pay the courier your duties and taxes (and brokerage fee), receive your goods and then the courier goes ahead and acts as your broker and pays the duties and taxes with an F type entry the next month.

So what happens if you decide you don't want to pay the duties and taxes and brokerage fee to the courier? Surely the regulations state that the goods have to go back to the office of arrival right? and you have to pay the duties and taxes at that office right?That's what UPS told my friend. Wrong.

D 17-4-0

"56. If an importer wishes to account for the goods himself or herself, the courier does not release the shipment to the importer but holds the goods until the importer presents satisfactory proof that the appropriate duties and taxes have been paid directly to the CBSA. The importer must note the unique shipment identifier number and contact the courier to determine where the goods are held in a bonded warehouse until the release is effected."

So the courier hangs on to the goods which are still in-bond at their warehouse. The courier must provide the importer with information as to where the goods are, what the unique shipment identifier number is (they would have provided this to customs earlier as part of the cargo/release list noted in section 11). Now you the importer can take that information along with a bill or invoice from the shipper to your nearest customs office and get a B15 done for free. Customs will do all the work. Take that back to UPS and then as noted in section 56 of D17-4-0 they must release the goods to you.

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Now simply put if a courier, say UPS, arrives at your door and you refuse to pay the duties and taxes, you want to do this:

Ask them where the goods are going now, which will be the nearby warehouse. (they may threaten to take them back to the border warehouse but this does not make sense from a economical sense on their part, is not supported by the LVS regulations and even if they do you can still clear your goods at the office closest to you)

Next ask for the unique shipment identifier number.

Print out a copy of the invoice from the shipper (most online shippers email this to you if not request a copy after you place your order)

Take these three pieces of information with you to your nearest CBSA office and ask for a B15.

Return to UPS with your B15, which will show you paid your duties and taxes and receive your goods.

If they give you any kind of hassle print out a copy of D 17-4-0 to support your right to clear the goods yourself and show that the goods do not have to be accounted for at the border entry office.

Armed with this information my friend was able to get a number from UPS that he brought to customs and was able to get UPS to accept a B15 and release his goods.

Hope folks that are forced to use a courier find this useful. Knowledge is power. By the way all the customs regulations can be found on the CBSA website at http://www.cbsa.gc.ca/publications/dm-md/menu-eng.html

Oooh I understand. thanks everyone for the help =]

I have never paid a single cent of duty or brokerage fees on airsoft supplies and I've ordered from Redwolf, ASGI and many ebay orders from HK.

Beware of Redwolfs shit customer service. They'll answer your first email and then it takes threats of complaining to PayPal before they respond again and just do sweet fuck all to remedy the situation. ASGI are great with customer service.

The real problem is not that some get charged and others get nothing, like ups and ems. Its the fact that ups has to be accountable to the government of the country it opperates in, and the customer. If a business is legit and they don't pay any duty on supplies from out of country, then they become tax dodgers. Read, on paper it is wrong to not pay tax (duty is applied to foriegn items so the government can make up for a non-taxed purchase) and so anyone allowing it or involved is bad.

EMS is just regular post. That ends up being handled by strung out postal employees of both the originating country and recieving. The CBSA checks out boxes and items that have not been marked as a gift. Some make it through deemed as "not-taxed" items even though they should, sometimes they under charge but rarely over charge. Its just how the parcel is marked, if it gets marked as a gift you probably wont get charged any duty no matter how obviouse it was purchase.

No, they're just a tad slower than smaller businesses (generally took 2-4 days to reply to my emails). They get stuff done though, and that's a GOOD thing.

Guns
 

I know that ordering guns from outa the country is a pain but I was wondering about parts I.e. Metal bodies and everything needed to build a gun.

i know others will come to back up my point but the lower reciever (or the component that bears the Serial number) is prohibited from importation..

everything else, just no reciever.

"lower" is not always the case. More accurate to describe the limitation as "receiver".

The receiver of different items will vary from model type to model type. Basically...whatever part on the real firearm version contains the "action" (firearm term...google it) is considered "the firearm" and thus controlled for import.

Everything else is just an "accessory" of the firearm. The barrel, grips, sights, RIS/RAS, dustcovers, selectors, etc....

For example...
M4 - Lower Receiver
SCAR - Upper Receiver