do you pay tax on items?

Do I pay the amount i bid, or does tax later get added to the bid price. for example i buy something for 1000$, does that mean 15%(tax in my province) gets added, so actually paid 1150$? or do i just pay my bid price of 1000$?

 

 

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do you pay tax on items?

The answer to that depends on a number of variables including but not limited to:

 

(a) Is the item located in Canada and listed in Canadian dollars? If not, you may be paying conversation to CAD from USD and then sales tax and/or duty on import.

(b) Does the seller's listing indicate they are registered to collect sales tax? It will say somewhere usually as part of the Item Description.

 

You can make contact with your seller also and ask.

 

Without knowing what listing you are referring to, I cannot hazard a guess.

 

 

 

 

 

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do you pay tax on items?

A very large percentage of eBay sellers are not registered to remit taxes to the Canadian government.

A Canadian seller who is registered will include the appropriate tax on your invoice.

If you are buying from a Canadian seller, most will have a note in their Description and Terms of Sale. Read it.

 

Where it gets tricky is with foreign sellers.

Any import valued over $20CDN (~$16USD) is supposed to be assessed for duty and sales taxes. These will be paid to the Canadian government.

The shipper is also allowed to charge a 'service fee' (which has various names) for wrangling the item through Customs. The ones we see most often are the $9.95 charge by Canada Post, and the ~$5 charge included in GSP import fees.

 

If the seller uses a courier like UPS or FedEx, you WILL be charged the duty, Sales Taxes , and their service fee. They are legally bound to do this. And their fees start at $20+.

If the seller ships by the postal system, a low value item will probably not be assessed, because the CBSA public servants realize that it would cost the taxpayer more to collect than would be collected. When Canada Post delivers your low value* item, there will be no duty or tax. This is good sense if not quite legal.

If the US or UK seller ships by the Global Shipping program, you will be charged import fees when you pay.

 

So look at how the seller is shipping.

If he uses the GSP, you WILL be charged duty, tax and a service fee, before the seller ships.

If the seller uses the postal system, you may be charged duty, tax, and a service fee on your doorstep.

If the seller uses a courier, you will be charged duty, tax, and a service fee on your doorstep.

 

And yes, all those fees are legal.

And yes, the shipping company is turning the money over to the Canadian government.

And yes, we all hate it.

And yes, $20 is a ridiculously low duty free allowance.

 

 

*More or less under $100Cdn (~$80USD).

 

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