eBay

bpl521_sell · ‎08-04-2018

Reading a news feed and one of about a dozen sticking points in the NAFTA negotiations is

"the de minimis threshold, which is the maximum value of an item that Canadians can order from a foreign country without paying duties or taxes."

I wonder how far Canada will go to protect this at the current $20.00 level or will there be some movement on this. USA is $800.00, keeping it at such a ridiculous level seems so pointless other than increased revenue for UPS /Fedex and the like. Canada Post up until recent didn't enforce very consistently. Interesting to see where this will go.... if anywhere

reallynicestamps · ‎08-04-2018

As a seller I probably shouldn't agree, but....yeah.

Since someone driving from Vancouver to Seattle for the long weekend, can bring back over $200Cdn worth of goods, applying the same standard to shipped goods would go a long way to:

easing the problems with CBSA technically breaking the law by ignoring 93% of low value imports
take away some of the fury of eBay buyers who inadvertantly bought from a GSP seller
Would have little impact, in my opinion, on retail sales (see CBSA above).
When is the next federal election? This could be the Cons next 'buck a beer' promise.

marnotom! · ‎08-04-2018

The US's $800 de minimis applies only to duty. In 40-plus states, items purchased from out of state are technically subject to "use tax" which is basically the equivalent of state sales tax. As far as I know, there are no use tax-free thresholds.

The rub is that US states have pretty weak means at their disposal to collect use tax. For example, some states try collecting it as part of the income tax filing process.

It's been estimated that at least 80% of Americans don't pay the use tax owing on their out if state purchases, largely because they don't know about it.

The hackles raised periodically about "internet tax" are actually largely about attempts to enforce use tax payment and collection.

bpl521_sell · ‎08-05-2018

@marnotom! wrote:
The US's $800 de minimis applies only to duty. In 40-plus states, items purchased from out of state are technically subject to "use tax" which is basically the equivalent of state sales tax. As far as I know, there are no use tax-free thresholds.

Interesting, never knew about the State Tax. I never had/have a issue paying taxes and even some reasonable duty. The rub for me has always been the so called handling/brokerage fees that get charged. Once had a parcel shipped by UPS and the Canadian value was something like $22.00 dollars. UPS charged me almost as much as it was worth in Brokerage/Disbursement fees. Got so ticked off I phoned them and asked for all copies of the documentation they provided to the gov for the purposes of brokerage for my shipment. They couldn't or wouldn't which led me to believe that it was nothing but a cash grab on their part. All done electronically by scanning and software so how do they justify such fees.

bpl521_sell · ‎08-05-2018

@reallynicestamps wrote:

When is the next federal election? This could be the Cons next 'buck a beer' promise.

That is going to be interesting, like to see how Ford can fulfill that promise. Maybe beer flavoured water <lol>

reallynicestamps · ‎08-05-2018

DH's favourite is an import called DAB which after careful consideration and testing meets his criteria of high alcohol content* and not being actually poisonous. To be fair, he drinks maybe half a dozen can a year.

There used to be a beverage here in BC which was popular with the BILs and their boys named 'Beer'. There might also have been one called "Ale". It came in stubbies so that was a while back.

*on a % alcohol to the dollar.

momcqueen · ‎08-05-2018

You know, I buy so very little from outside Canada within the past two years that the de minimus means nothing to me now as a buyer. I also used to travel several times a year by car to the USA to shop for the day (at which point there is no de minimus at all) and paid sales tax on everything I brought back each night.

With the political climate being what is is today, I haven't set even a toe into the United States for more than a year for pleasure (Glacier National Park for a few hours on a day trip from Waterton where we stayed in June of 2017 before it was burned by forest fires) and it's been even longer for business. I don't even hold a valid passport anymore since I'm not using it and won't until things change down south.

And these words are being spoken by a person who is unabashedly apolitical and apathetic about politics. But I also won't willingly travel into a place that I feel unvalued and unwelcome. So I don't.

The de minimus can stay $20 forever for all that it matters to me now. Go Canada!

mcrlmn · ‎08-05-2018

Canada's de minimis threshold was originally set in the early 1980s.

Today, it is the lowest in the industrialized world and among the lowest globally.

I agree that $20 is very low, but I also understand why the U.S. wants to raise that limit, and how the U.S. will benefit, and not Canada.

marnotom! · ‎08-05-2018

@mcrlmn wrote:

Canada's de minimis threshold was originally set in the early 1980s.
Today, it is the lowest in the industrialized world and among the lowest globally.
I agree that $20 is very low, but I also understand why the U.S. wants to raise that limit, and how the U.S. will benefit, and not Canada.

Keep in mind that while there are countries with higher de minimis than Canada, those countries will sometimes charge tax on the shipping costs as well as the item's value for items shipped by mail or courier.

bpl521_sell · ‎08-05-2018

@mcrlmn wrote:

I agree that $20 is very low, but I also understand why the U.S. wants to raise that limit, and how the U.S. will benefit, and not Canada.

I would be that if it was raised to something reasonable like $100 the impact would not be that great to the economy. With the price of postage, currency exchange there is not a lot of deals to be had in the U.S. For me if I am ordering from the US it's because I can't find it in Canada.

femmefan1946 · ‎08-06-2018

I'd suggest matching it to the weekend crossborder shopping amount which I think is $200.

When the $20 value was set (circa 1985) it took $1.38 to buy a US dollar, the ON minimum wage was $4.35 hr., and both cars and gas were more expensive *.

A weekend in Northern New York was a popular family outing.

Entire shopping malls were built for the Canadian trade, even accepting Canadian dollars below the exchange.

*before better Japanese design put lower fuel use and longer lasting cars on the market.