Much has been written in the last six months about a large percentage of parcels containing taxable products ($20+) and going through Canada Customs without any tax being assessed. Different posters have different experiences but it would be nice to get the facts - if the information is available.
Today I wrote to my member of Parliament. You may want to do the same in different parts of the country and see if we get consistent answers.
"Good afternoon.
As we all know e-commerce is booming. Canadians buy more by mail through the Internet as ever before. Looking at companies like eBay doing over one billion dollar a year (purchases by Canadians mostly from the USA), it means substantial amounts of tax revenues (GST/HST) are no longer collected in Canada by Canadian merchants (and remitted to CRA) but assessed instead by Canada Customs and collected by Canada Post at time of delivery. We are looking at HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF TAX DOLLARS, MAYBE BILLIONS. That is big business and every dollar will help reduce the deficit and eventually lower the national debt.
My question to you today is: do you have information as to how many parcels arrive in Canada through the postal system every year from the USA and overseas and what is the total dollar value of these importations. Also, what is the total amount of taxes (GST/HST/PST) collected on taxable imported products coming by mail. Finally, as we all know, a large portion of postal parcels coming through Canada Customs are not assessed any tax despite the fact they are valued at more than $20 according to their Customs Declaration and tax(es) should be assessed and collected according to the law:
http://www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/import/postal-postale/duty-droits-eng.html
This leads to my final question: why are so many parcels ignored by Canada Customs? GST/HST registered merchants must account for every penny of tax collectables on their revenues. Otherwise they pay fines and interest. Why would Canada Customs be the worst offender when it comes to tax collection?
Hopefully you do have answers to my questions or know how to get them.
Thank you for your time."
If you really care about the issue and wish to contact your MP on the subject to possibly get factual information, feel free to copy any or all parts of my message.
"Pierre, have you received a reply from the government yet?"
As noted in post 19 above (from last week), no reply yet.
"won't answer the question."
???
Question about timing of tax remittance to CRA has been answered in details above.
Is there another specific question?
"I was asking you if pay taxes on the earnings of your most recent items""
???
One more time, very very slowly, payment for taxes are due April 30th of each year. That means that payment of taxes due on recent (2013) transactions is not due until April 30th, 2014. This timetable was clearly covered in the earlier post.
"So surely you do your part and file all of your eBay sales on both GST/HST and income tax returns."
Of course I do. Like most Canadians I respect the tax laws and file my reports when due.
A few years ago, following requests by CRA for names of Canadian eBay PowerSellers, II was audited by CRA for two years on both GST and income tax.
Following an audit that took nearly six months, the auditor was satisfied that all transactions had been properly recorded and appropriate taxes (GST and income tax) correctly paid. In the confirming letter, the auditor confirmed I owe exactly $0.00. We even had a thread on that subject several years ago.
Anyone who has been subjected to a detailed tax audit (both GST and income tax) will understand how far auditors go to get the information they need to properly assess the financial information. They verify every entry in your cheque register, every credit card statement, every bank statements, every PayPal transaction, copies of invoices sent to buyers, require invoices from suppliers and matching payments, etc...
Post 39 (last Saturday) explains why most Canadian stamp dealers include GST in their prices as many have done since the tax was introduced in 1991.
My listings show that no additional tax is charged to Canadian buyers in the "payment" section under the "shipping and payment" tab.
The same information was included in my website when it was running.
Frankly, I see no purpose answering your posts. They are not helping anyone understand anything.
