juststickit your neighbour bookstotheborder has occasionally posted about the paper work needed for bringing goods into the USA for shipping.
I have a friend who got caught bringing his stock from his US home to his Canadian home (he is a Canadian citizen and his wife is American, he lives there but since he has a bad heart , he keeps his home and health care here.). He now cannot drive his car across the border and when he wants to move stock he just couriers it to the appropriate home. |
The key words there are "Got Caught", implying that they were not declaring the items at the border. Both US and Canadian Customs frown on that fairly harshly, but as dipmicro said, it's doubtful such an issue would cause a long term ban on crossing the border, unless the instance was of a more serious nature.
Bringing goods across the border is a very simple procedure, and I've been doing it for over a decade. It basically comes down to having your documentation in order, and being honest with the customs officers. In Canada, big businesses like to make it sound difficult to import goods claiming high costs, duties, fees, etc. In reality, it is just their way of trying to explain why items in Canada are not priced competitively with the US.
Case in Point. 2 weeks ago I was shopping for a new Plasma TV. In Canada, it was $1999, in the US $1399. I went to a number of dealers (Future Shop, BestBuy, AVU, Visions), and none could come close to the price, with a few even claiming there was a $250 Duty on Big Screens when they are imported into Canada. They also claimed I'd have no warranty, which is also not true. None of them seemed to be aware that as Samsung manufactures their Plasmas in Mexico, they are covered under NAFTA, and there is no duty.
So, I traveled down to the US and bought my Plasma at Costco. I had to pay Washington State Tax of 8.25%, bringing my total to $1514. At the border, I declared the TV, provided the receipt, went to the customs cashier, paid 12% HST of $182.00 , walked back to the car and drove home. In all, the border crossing and import process took less than 10 minutes. Total savings: $570.00. On top of that, Costco extends the warrant to 2 years, and if there is ever an issue, I can deal with it through my closest Costco warehouse here in Canada, including returning the item for a full refund within 90 days.
In discussing this with a fellow eBayer today, I went over the cost saving I get from utilizing my proximity to the US to mitigate costs. Overall, the savings amount to about $1500 per month. Postage alone was a savings of over $800.00 compared to using Canada Post Lettermail. That's serious money to a small business like me.
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