DISCHARGE wrote:kirbenvost wrote:Blurrz wrote:DISCHARGE wrote:
Why don't you just mail the box set home? that would give you more room in your suitcase.
Canuckian customs would kick him in the jewels.
Yeah, $300 box set = MINIMUM $30 customs fees, at least twice as much if you use a courier.
That sucks. I don't really know anything about customs fees. How would they know to charge $30 dollars. It is more of a gift, since the item is just being mailed across the border, by it's owner.
Or is $30 a basic fee for the box size? I mean if I had family in Canada and I shipped them something, they would be responsible for a customs fee? taxes have already been paid, I don't see why the Canadian govt has any right to impose taxes on something that was not sold in their country.
They base it on the value of the goods and the type of commodity, it's a set percentage calculated by value. The percentage is different for different types of items. Technically you would be importing the items into the country and that is why they're taxing it, which would be the case with most countries, I assume. However, if you leave the country (which you would be doing for Botcon), you are allowed to bring back a certain amount (value) of items based on how long you were gone. The problem is, they don't make that distinction if you ship it to yourself, only if you bring it along with you. There may be ways to do it without getting hit but I'm sure there are complicated forms and a lot of ways to mess it up. I work in shipping, and I've seen countless times where someone shipped something to themselves (even their own property they forgot) and still got hit with fees. But couriers are worse with that than regular postal services.
DISCHARGE wrote:Blurrz wrote:DISCHARGE wrote: I don't see why the Canadian govt has any right to impose taxes on something that was not sold in their country.
Just one of the many invisible fees that the government has in order to recooperate costs for some of Canada's 'free' services (Health Care)
Does this mean that customs will open your package?
I was reading up on mailing to Canada. It states that if an item is valued as a gift of $60 or less it is exempt from duties and fess.
Why would you not just mark it as such to avoid the fees?
They
might open your package, if they deem it suspicious or you just happen to get a random check. In all my experience having stuff shipped from the states I've only had a customs inspection once and it delayed the package by a couple weeks but that was it.
As Blurrz said you can't mark it as a gift to yourself, and that exemption only applies to lower value shipments (under $100 I believe). You could try to mark it lower value, but if you don't get away with it, best case they find out the actual value and you still have to pay, in the middle if it gets lost or damaged you lose your items (only the declared/insured value is replaced), and absolute worst case you get in trouble with the law (fraud) for incorrectly declaring items on a customs form.
One more drawback to shipping to yourself is if for any reason the package has to be returned, you're not there anymore to receive it. I've seen lots of packages get abandoned because the receiver couldn't pay the customs fees or they moved or something, and they are no longer at the shipping location to send it back to. If you end up doing it, it's better to have a friend whose return address you can use instead of some random Post Office or shipping center.
Long story short: If you are from Canada going to Botcon, you're much better off bringing your purchases on the plane if you can, but if you can't and you have to ship or mail things, ship the lower value stuff and bring your box set with you.