eBay

rommel999999 · ‎04-07-2025

Hi, I hope someone can help me. I am a buyer of over 20 years here, located in Montreal. Last week, I bought a $40 US clothing item of a seller located in Washington State, USA and there were no duties when I went to pay at checkout...which is fine as the item was not so expensive, but strangely, for the first time ever, I had two charges for taxes, QST and HST. Never happened before when buying items from USA. Also, just to be sure, I checked previously bought items from USA, and I was never charged these taxes. Not one time. I was charged shipping, of course and sometimes duties, clearly marked when you go to pay .....Why am I paying Canadian taxes on an item coming from USA when I never was before? Thank you for helping.

flipistics · ‎04-07-2025

@rommel999999 wrote:
Hi, I hope someone can help me. I am a buyer of over 20 years here, located in Montreal. Last week, I bought a $40 US clothing item of a seller located in Washington State, USA and there were no duties when I went to pay at checkout...which is fine as the item was not so expensive, but strangely, for the first time ever, I had two charges for taxes, QST and HST. Never happened before when buying items from USA. Also, just to be sure, I checked previously bought items from USA, and I was never charged these taxes. Not one time. I was charged shipping, of course and sometimes duties, clearly marked when you go to pay .....Why am I paying Canadian taxes on an item coming from USA when I never was before? Thank you for helping.

My guess would be that it's actually a Canadian using a cross border shipper, they probably have a GST/HST number, and they probably have their tax tables (correctly) set up to charge tax. I suspect they'll actually ship it from Canada.

rommel999999 · ‎04-07-2025

That makes sense, and it crossed my mind. Perhaps I will ask the seller if they are based in Canada because that would explain this. I am not even upset about the extra cost, it was around $11 US dollars, but because I was never charged such taxes before, when I bought an item coming from USA, I thought it was weird. Thank you so much, really.

marnotom! · ‎04-07-2025

Were you charged QST and HST or QST and GST? The former is a problem, the latter is pretty normal.

Online purchases for items located outside of Canada are just as subject to sales taxes as online purchases for items located within Canada. The issue is that currently, unlike many western nations, Canada doesn't have a formal mechanism to charge and collect the taxes at point of sale, so that responsibility usually falls to Customs/Douaines or a party authorized to do this collection on Customs' behalf.

What you've probably found with your past purchases if they've been sent through the mail is that the item is of such low value that Customs hasn't bothered to assess it for tax charges.

There are some ways to work around this so that the taxes can be charged at Checkout. @flipistics mentions one way that this can be done. Another possibility is that if the item is being forwarded through the "eBay International Shipping" (eIS) system or a carrier other than the postal system, the taxes will be advanced to Customs by the carrier (or someone contracted by the carrier) and you'll actually be paying the carrier back for paying the taxes for you.

Back to my original question, if you were charged HST instead of GST, you may have seen a double-charge of some of the taxes owing on the item unless the term "HST" was used in error on your invoice.

rommel999999 · ‎04-07-2025

Thank you so much. This is what I was charged:

1 itemUS $40.00

ShippingUS $24.23

GST/HSTUS $3.21

PST/QSTUS $6.41

DutiesUS $0.00

i live in Montreal, and the item is in Washington, USA

rommel999999 · ‎04-07-2025

Also, I have bought more expensive designer stuff before from the USA, priced at over $175 US dollars, and was never, ever charged Canadian taxes at checkout. Duty fees, sure, but not these taxes. That's why I found it odd. This item was priced low enough that I was happy I would not owe duty fees on it. Then I got a surprise when I saw that Canadian taxes were charged for an item coming from USA. This is a first for me. Thank you again for helping, but it still does not answer why this happened. I think the seller is perhaps shipping out of Canada since Bellingham, WA is so close to the border, it would make sense. Thank you 😊

rommel999999 · ‎04-07-2025

Hi again, the seller just told me they are based in the USA and they find this weird too.

flipistics · ‎04-07-2025

@rommel999999 wrote:
Hi again, the seller just told me they are based in the USA and they find this weird too.

Interesting. Let us know if you are charged any taxes by the carrier when it arrives. Maybe the international shipping program is breaking taxes out now or something?

marnotom! · ‎04-07-2025

@rommel999999 wrote:

Thank you so much. This is what I was charged:
1 itemUS $40.00
ShippingUS $24.23
GST/HSTUS $3.21
PST/QSTUS $6.41
DutiesUS $0.00

i live in Montreal, and the item is in Washington, USA

It looks to me as though the item is being forwarded through the eBay International Shipping (eIS) service, which means that both the item price and the shipping price are subject to QST and GST. The charges appear to be correct.

@flipistics, sometimes a sale for an eIS item will have taxes paid at checkout, sometimes they'll be payable upon delivery (or DHL will give the buyer the option of paying for them just before delivery), and sometimes the buyer is offered a choice between the two options. There doesn't seem to be much rhyme or reason to suggest what triggers what option.