USA to Canada. Ebay is overcharging HST to Canadian buyers
Summary: The discussion is about concerns over eBay reportedly overcharging Harmonized Sales Tax (HST) to Canadian buyers when shipping from the USA to Canada. 123redh initiated the conversation, and two others, marnotom! and dle_22, acknowledged the issue, but no further details or solutions were discussed in the responses.
Hello,
Long time happy eBayer here but eBay checkout is sometimes incorrectly charging HST on shipping when goods are sent from the USA to Canada via Ebay International Shipping (EIS). Over the coming days, if allowable, I'll post a few examples (screenshots) as well as addresses of Government of Canada webpages which demonstrate that for items sent via EIS the shipping portion of buyers cost is "zero rated" meaning HST exempt.
This does not involve a 3rd party remailer but an eBay Buyer's Consultant advised that when the buyer is double taxed then eBay will provide a refund for that too - example: eBay collects New York State sales tax and then a 3rd party import broker remits HST on the buyer's behalf.
I've made service requests with eBay seeking a partial HST refund and it's slow & difficult but 100% of the requests have been successful for a few dollars here & there. Assume this also applies to PST / GST provinces. About duty for USA to Canada, the checkout always says zero for duty.
An important consideration to keep in mind... items valued at 40.00 or less CAD which are purchased from the USA by Canadians are also HST exempt when sent via EIS, a courier or remailer however when the checkout wrongly applies HST to EIS shipping this may push the total value over 40.00 CAD which in turn casues the HST overcharge to be greater. Goods worth less than 40.01 CAD purchased in the USA and sent to Canada with EIS (or a courier or remailer) are HST exempt; EIS shipping services for USA to Canada are also HST exempt. One exception is when the seller ships direct to Canada with USPS and then the goods are only HST exempt when the value is less than 20.01 CAD; HST is not applied to the postage cost.
I wish someone at eBay would correct the checkout. Hundreds or perhaps even thousands of Canadians are being wrongly charged HST on EIS shipping every day and this is causing sub 40.01 CAD goods purchased from the USA to be wrongly taxed too. There is no HST payable ever (on courier, brokerage or remailer services) when shipped from USA to Canada via EIS. Goods worth less than 40.01 CAD are HST exempt when sent with EIS. Please hang on for some examples and reference info over the next few days... thank you ! 😃
dle_22
·9 months agomarnotom!
·1 year agoMy understanding is that that C$40.00 tax-free limit is calculated on the item charge only. Carrier charges, whether they are subject to HST or not, will not push the item above its declared value. This isn't a government of Canada website, but it doesn't mention anything about shipping charges being applied to the item's declared value and pushing it above the de minimis:
https://www.ghy.com/trade-talk/canadas-new-courier-de-minimis-thresholds-under-cusma/
You'll also notice that for couriered shipments, the shipment's origin--not the item's country of manufacture--is what affects whether or not the item is charged duty, so if you're looking at items valued at C$150 or lower, that may be why you're not seeing duty charges at Checkout for eIS-forwarded items.
For what it's worth, a poster going by the username @himmicane posted about this issue almost six months ago and came to the conclusion that "Place of Supply" conditions applied to EIS purchases. The thread with a CRA-ish link is here:
https://community.ebay.ca/t5/Buying-on-eBay/HST-on-top-of-EIS-shipping-charges/qaq-p/505636