Koolance duty/tax question -

[sm00nie]

Hi all,

I'm not sure if this is the right place, but I figure if anyone would be ordering directly from koolances website, they would frequent this section.

Anyways, I ordered some QDC's last week (9 in total) and the value was $115.06 + $28.76 shipping.
The order just arrived today and I was surprised that I wasn't charged any tax (nor the duty/tax filing fee - $10).

The only information I can see on the shipping label (USPS priority international) is -

Importers Custom Reference - (Fiscal or VAT-number of the addresses, if known): 
89614

and the

AES/ITN/Exemption: 
NOEEI 30.36.

I'm actually very excited about saving a few bucks. Would anyone have any thoughts as why?

[KaptCrunch]

be glad that they send it air, for you paid up front for duties thats why $30


now if sent it by cheaper ground then you pay at your door duties, brokage and fuel charges

[sm00nie]

Originally Posted by KaptCrunch

be glad that they send it air, for you paid up front for duties thats why $30

now if sent it by cheaper ground then you pay at your door duties, brokage and fuel charges

Ahh, I didn't know that Priority Mail International to Canada was by Air; I thought it was just like first-class, except with insurance and tracking. USPS doesn't charge brokerage fees for ground. It's only Fedex, USP, DHL or other courier services that have their own in-house brokerage services (you can opt out to use your own however).

The thing I don't quite get is that no shipping method can bypass taxes (HST, GST/PST) unless the company themselves collect and send it to the government (CRA), the dollar value is $20 or less, or if it's a gift valued at $60 or less. Neither of these applies in my case, so there might be some other legislation regarding taxation on these types of goods that I'm just not able to find.

I have another shipment coming in from Jab-Tech that's quite a bit more and it's just sitting in a customs queue waiting to be reviewed. I hope it's the same result, but probably not :P

I'm thinking it's one of those hit and miss things, where it's up to the custom agents discretion.

Anyways, I was just curious to see if anyone had a reason as to why tax wouldn't be charged. Some items are a lot cheaper coming from the US and not getting taxed on top of that is a good chunk of change saved

[igot6strings]

Duties/Taxes on imported goods via USPS is random. UPS and Fedex and the like pre-charge those fees. USPS leaves it up to Canadian Customs to do the job. They select packages at random and charge the fees. Theres no way to know if your package will be picked or not its just bad luck. Alot of the time when they do pick a package to charge they do not even bother to open it and inspect either. They just charge the duties and slap on an additional fee for having charged you the duty. I work for Canada Post and have worked at the retail counter in the past. The majority of packages with USPS never see any duties charged. Personally I always have my stuff sent by USPS if ordering from the US as its the best way to avoid paying any extra fees.

[sm00nie]

Originally Posted by igot6strings

Duties/Taxes on imported goods via USPS is random. UPS and Fedex and the like pre-charge those fees. USPS leaves it up to Canadian Customs to do the job. They select packages at random and charge the fees. Theres no way to know if your package will be picked or not its just bad luck. Alot of the time when they do pick a package to charge they do not even bother to open it and inspect either. They just charge the duties and slap on an additional fee for having charged you the duty. I work for Canada Post and have worked at the retail counter in the past. The majority of packages with USPS never see any duties charged. Personally I always have my stuff sent by USPS if ordering from the US as its the best way to avoid paying any extra fees.

That's very interesting, I had no idea they did random spot checks. I figured they'd check everything, but I guess if they did that they'd have to hire more employees.

I got my order from Jab-Tech today and got charged tax (HST) this time, but it wasn't soo bad -- Jab lowered the value a bit (I didn't even request this!) and that saved me about half the tax. I highly recommend them, if you don't mind waiting a week for shipping (usps).