Taxes and duties buying international

[rocketscollectibles]

Hi. I'm not used to this and been scared to buy from US and international sellers since i'm using ebay. What's the import fees when we buy international? Is it the same for everywhere or US and oversea are different? The same for any price? I did read that US buyers only pay fees on 800$+ so i wonder whats ours. Anywhere i can find those informations and is this collected by ebay when we buy?

[femmefan1946]

From the USA - You have a $150 duty free allowance and a $40 tax-free allowance.

So if you buy an item for $29.00Cdn (~$23USD) you would pay no import fees.

If you bought an item for $50Cdn (~$40USD) you would pay whatever your province charges for sales tax PLUS a service fee (sometimes called customs brokerage) to the shipper.

From the rest of the world- You have a $20 duty and tax free allowance

BUT- Canada has Free Trade agreements with dozens of other nations, the important ones being TPP (with 12 other Pacific Rim countries including Australia and Japan) and CETA with the European Union. Those affect duty but may not affect sales taxes which would still be applied to imports over $20.

BUT- CBSA tends to ignore low value imports because the officers realize that it would cost the taxpayer more for them to assess and collect import fees on low value items.

BUT- couriers like UPScan't ignore the law.  EBay's Global Shipping Program can't either.

If you buy using the GSP, you will see how much those import fees will be before you pay and you can accept that or move on. 

GSP charges the import fees on purchase.  But other shippers will charge you on delivery.

Most of the import fees you will be charged will be Sales Taxes  (from 5% to 13% depending on your province) and service fees (cheapest is Canada Post at $9.95 others start at $25).

There is more detail here:

https://www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/travel-voyage/dte-acl/est-cal-eng.html

[rocketscollectibles]

There is more detail here:

https://www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/travel-voyage/dte-acl/est-cal-eng.html

I messed around a bit there and whatever the category i'm choosing and whatever the price i put, it's always 0% duty and 15% (QC taxes for me). Is this really reliable? Cause it does not fit with the numbers you did put below

[marnotom!]

It depends on the item’s country of manufacture and where it’s being shipped from, but there are actually a lot of consumer goods that enter Canada duty-free now.

There are other duty calculators online if you need a second opinion. Just Google “duty calculator Canada” to find them. Keep in mind, though, that many of them are on websites for outfits that specialize in customs clearance and may include fees that are levied by the outfits themselves.

[reallynicestamps]

Since the CBSA is the body that charges and collects import fees (including provincial sales taxes) that would be as reliable as any and more reliable than most.

When you are exporting, you might want to add the HS code (which is international) to any customs form you attach. You will probably have to do this manually.

https://www.canadapost-postescanada.ca/information/app/wtz/entreprise/trouvercodesh?execution=e1s1

[rocketscollectibles]

I'll avoid anything outside GSP for the moment, If i understand US sellers shipping with it every import charge is included in the listing. So it's less a puzzle... But all cards listings, both GSP from US, the other day i seen an auction at 100$ charges were around 20$. Today i did bid on one other at an amount considering i would have around a 20$ import fees, i won it and actually had 0% taxes 0$ fees to pay i'm confused

So if it's GSP and said when i paid it was 0$, i wont have a bad surprise and have to pay something else right?

I did my first sale to US a few days ago too, for only 6$, and ebay charged taxes to the buyer. I'll do more researchs but this is not that clear. Does every sales Canada to US charge taxes auto to buyers?

[t_bjarnason]

I did my first sale to US a few days ago too, for only 6$, and ebay charged taxes to the buyer... Does every sales Canada to US charge taxes auto to buyers?

Congrats on your first US sale!

Tax varies by state. Most pay tax, a few don't. eBay also collects sales tax/VAT from other various countries. You don't need to worry about any sales tax that eBay collects from the buyer. This is collected, handled, and remitted completely on eBay's end and requires no action from the seller. Keep in mind that the 12.35% variable fee that you pay on each sale also includes eBay collected taxes so you'll pay a fee on this tax, though it will likely only be pennies. 

[t_bjarnason]

I did my first sale to US a few days ago too, for only 6$, and ebay charged taxes to the buyer... Does every sales Canada to US charge taxes auto to buyers?

Congrats on your first US sale!

Tax varies by state. Most pay tax, a few don't. eBay also collects sales tax/VAT from other various countries. You don't need to worry about any sales tax that eBay collects from the buyer. This is collected, handled, and remitted completely on eBay's end and requires no action from the seller. Keep in mind that the 12.35% variable fee that you pay on each sale also includes eBay collected taxes so you'll pay a fee on this tax, though it will likely only be pennies. 

[pjcdn2005]

There is the global shipping program and eBay international standard delivery.   If  the listing shows that it was sent with the gsp then there should not be any extra charges when it is delivered.