Item from US Converts to under 20CAD Yet GSP fee Added

I want to buy an item from the US costing 14.95 USD plus 17.12 USD for shipping. At this time the exchange is .756 making the CAD price at the border 19.77. (Assuming shipping is not to be included at customs.)

 

At eBay's Commit to Buy page there is a 5.99 USD GSP import fee yet it should not apply. I don't want to commit to buy if 5.99 USD is added. How do I find out before pressing that button?

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Item from US Converts to under 20CAD Yet GSP fee Added

If it is  on that page it will be added.

 

The import charge includes a processing/brokerage fee that will be added if the item is taxable or not, although this is usually buried in the shipping charge if the item is in fact non taxable.

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Item from US Converts to under 20CAD Yet GSP fee Added

I could be wrong, but I believe the value for duty is price+shipping.

Because otherwise, sneaky petes would invoice as $5 for the item and $15 for the shipping.

 

 

Which is one reason we sellers ended up paying eBay fees on our shipping charges.

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Item from US Converts to under 20CAD Yet GSP fee Added

In Britain the import tax is on item and shipping cost but only if the item value was over the treshold for tax (about £15)

This may be a common practice.

 

 

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Item from US Converts to under 20CAD Yet GSP fee Added


@afantiques wrote:

If it is  on that page it will be added.

 

The import charge includes a processing/brokerage fee that will be added if the item is taxable or not, although this is usually buried in the shipping charge if the item is in fact non taxable.


I thought that GSP items were subject to sales taxes and duty even if under the $20 CDN import limit since the items are entering Canada through a freight forwarder as one large shipment and there is no $20 personal exemption per item to be claimed by Pitney Bowes.

 

So for under $20 CDN the GSP charges grouped under Import Charges is the processing fee, the small amount of taxes due, the real duty cost if any, the reshipping cost within Canada. It may be rolled into the shipping cost to hide the actual breakdown.

 

The GSP is just doing some marketing magic to look like the buyer is getting the $20 CDN exemption but there is none in reality using the GSP.

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Item from US Converts to under 20CAD Yet GSP fee Added

My recollection is that in the early days of the GSP, import charges of a flat US$3.34 or so showed up on listings where the item had a selling price of less than C$20.

This, of course, confused some people who didn't understand the makeup of the "import charges" was more than just value-added taxes and duty, so that charge eventually got lumped into the shipping charge instead.

In provinces with 15% HST, the taxes on an item valued at less than C$20 would be less than C$3 if they were indeed applicable to a GSP shipment, while in provinces where only GST is applicable, the tax charge would be less than a Canuck dollar.  Pitney Bowes may have figured that it could afford to take a small hit on the HST sales and make it up elsewhere, i.e. the more expensive items in a GSP freight shipment.  Again, this is assuming that Pitney Bowes does have to pay taxes on sub C$20 items.

This is a roundabout way of getting to the OP's concern.  I suspect what's happened here is that when the listing first went up, the exchange rate was such that the item did exceed the C$20 tax/duty-free threshold and "import charges" appeared on the listing separate from the shipping charge.  When the exchange rate became more favourable, a calculation for "import charges" in the form of the item's customs processing and clearance charges remained because of a quirk in the programming of the eBay website.

Also consider that the exchange rate used in listings is a mid-market rate.  If Pitney Bowes or CRA is using an exchange rate closer to PayPal's, the selling price of the item that the OP saw is going to exceed C$20.

Long story short:  One is always going to be paying "import charges" of some sort on a GSP sale.  One is just not always going to see them, that's all.

 

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Item from US Converts to under 20CAD Yet GSP fee Added

Interestingly, the CAD has just declined to price this USD sale now over 20.00 CAD

 

Yesterday, eBay's converted price was 19.99 CAD and import charges were 0.00 USD. Today, those numbers are 20.10 and 5.99 ... so eBay's pricing seems to be working. This was not the case when I started this thread.

 

There was still a note saying Import charges 0.00 subject to confirmation at checkout. Since the then current exchange would have priced the item at over 20.00 I wonder if at checkout I would have been stuck with the GSP costs. Hopefully, there is a away to back out of this commitment to buy when that happens.

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Item from US Converts to under 20CAD Yet GSP fee Added

hitting buy it now on a GSP item is really just 'show me price'

You can then back away. Or hit the commit to buy button.

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Item from US Converts to under 20CAD Yet GSP fee Added

I've contacted sellers and asked if they could relist it without the Global Shipping Program and the ones I've asked did so....

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Item from US Converts to under 20CAD Yet GSP fee Added

ZOMBIE thread from 2017

 

 

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