Need help, Canadian customs and taxes. 1 1

[dikran]

I've been looking around for answers and can't seem to find a straight one. Maybe more experienced Canadian buyers can chime in. I know there is GST on comics but is there also PST? When I buy from say Heritage and get Fedexed my comics, I only pay the 5% (I'm in Quebec) GST, but when it's Canada Post delivering they charge me both taxes... I want to file a claim for a refund but I wasn't sure if I was in the right or not.

Thanks for any input or help!

[thehumantorch]

4 minutes ago, dikran1 said:

I've been looking around for answers and can't seem to find a straight one. Maybe more experienced Canadian buyers can chime in. I know there is GST on comics but is there also PST? When I buy from say Heritage and get Fedexed my comics, I only pay the 5% (I'm in Quebec) GST, but when it's Canada Post delivering they charge me both taxes... I want to file a claim for a refund but I wasn't sure if I was in the right or not.

Thanks for any input or help!

I’m in Alberta and only pay gst

[eddly]

We don’t have pst in Alberta (yet).

[dikran]

16 hours ago, eddly said:

We don’t have pst in Alberta (yet).

Well that doesn't help

[eddly]

Well give it time. At some point Alberta will have PST. At that time I promise to provide a thorough answer to your question.

[Artboy99]

22 hours ago, dikran1 said:

I've been looking around for answers and can't seem to find a straight one. Maybe more experienced Canadian buyers can chime in. I know there is GST on comics but is there also PST? When I buy from say Heritage and get Fedexed my comics, I only pay the 5% (I'm in Quebec) GST, but when it's Canada Post delivering they charge me both taxes... I want to file a claim for a refund but I wasn't sure if I was in the right or not.

Thanks for any input or help!

as you are in Quebec you will pay import tax, as well as provincial tax on your retail purchases, but it can depend on the declared value.

Lower valued items may not be charged.

Check what the value of the item was declared at.

 

[dikran]

13 minutes ago, Artboy99 said:

as you are in Quebec you will pay import tax, as well as provincial tax on your retail purchases, but it can depend on the declared value.

Lower valued items may not be charged.

Check what the value of the item was declared at.

 

I'm basically being charged GST and PST on the declared value (plus a brokerage fee of 10$) so on a 1000$ I paid an extra 160$...

The item is described as book for children so that's why I was curious why I was being charged the PST as books are exempt from that sales tax.

 

[bababooey]

I know provincial or HST applies in Ontario, I believe QST applies.  Does your LCS charge you GST & QST?  That should answer your question.

Children's books isn't accurate; and they're (comics) ineligible for book rebate.

Edited December 1, 2019 by bababooey
Clarification

[dikran]

On 11/30/2019 at 1:32 PM, bababooey said:

I know provincial or HST applies in Ontario, I believe QST applies.  Does your LCS charge you GST & QST?  That should answer your question.

Children's books isn't accurate; and they're (comics) ineligible for book rebate.

That's good, guess I was lucky on the Heritage stuff then, should buy more

[Artboy99]

3 hours ago, dikran1 said:

That's good, guess I was lucky on the Heritage stuff then, should buy more

it would depend on the declared value, and generally has little to do with luck. Anything valued at $100.00 and over will be charged tax.

[Pangolin]

I am from Quebec City.

From my experience,

When the point of entry in Canada is Toronto, I paid only GST. 

When the point of entry in Canada is Montreal, I paid GST + QST. 

On some purchases, I didn’t pay any tax even if the order was over $ 100.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited December 3, 2019 by Pangolin
typo

[Artboy99]

10 hours ago, Pangolin said:

I am from Quebec City.

From my experience,

When the point of entry in Canada is Toronto, I paid only GST. 

When the point of entry in Canada is Montreal, I paid GST + QST. 

On some purchase, I didn’t pay any tax even if the order was over $ 100.

 

 

 

 

 

interesting

[Krismusic]

I can't really understand the duties and taxes as sometimes depending on the description and dollar value I get hit with a full 13% tax or sometimes 5% and sometimes nothing with values all over the place its so hard to know what your going to pay sometimes so I always plan on getting hit with the full 13% and I live in Ontario and if I dont get the duties its bonus, which sucks cause sometimes I can't be as competitive on some auctions like I would. oh well tis the world we live in I guess. 

[dikran]

Ok this is what my LCS guy said

 

Essentially the declared value has nothing to do with it, well unless it's under 100$ then you probably won't get hit with anything. It all depends on the description of the item. Heritage put ''old books'' as item description and thus I only got hit with GST 5%. When there's ''comic book'' as the description (as it was on my Canada Post declaration form) you will get hit by both taxes since periodicals are not PST exempt.

Hope this helps, my fellow Canucks.

We so need better in country places to buy high end books...

[Brock]

Allow me to complicate matters...

I believe that under the new NAFTA/USMCA terms, anything $40 or less crosses the border from the US with no duties. Above $40, it should be subject to a $10 handling fee, plus a GST/HST charge on the item value AND the handling fee. The addition of PST/QST surprises me, but, hey... Quebec (et je dis ca avec amour dans mon coeur).

The distinction between books and periodicals is fuzzy, but the rule of thumb is whether or not it has staples. Thus, a graphic novel or squarebound book should not be subject to PST, but a floppy or magazine is.

For those who are still awake, rest assured... it will all change again next week. 

Edited December 6, 2019 by Brock

[smithdatura]

@dikran1 depending where you are in Quebec, and depending on how frequently you buy from Heritage and/or other online outlets (like say Amazon.com or Clink or mycomicshop), you may want to consider doing a trip across the border and opening up a P.O. Box in Champlain, NY.  It's roughly 30 minutes from the Mercier bridge off the island of Montreal and a three-month rental starts at $16 (in smaller boxes they just insert a notification that a larger package has arrived and they hold it for you behind the counter) - obviously this entails the preliminary trip to the post office there and then subsequent trips down to pick up whatever you order, but it could save you a ton of $$$ in the long run depending on how (or if) you declare what you bring back with you into the country.

It also gives you an option to buy stuff from sellers here who wouldn't normally ship to Canada... at any rate, I highly recommend this option if you're not hours away from the border. 

[dikran]

36 minutes ago, smithdatura said:

@dikran1 depending where you are in Quebec, and depending on how frequently you buy from Heritage and/or other online outlets (like say Amazon.com or Clink or mycomicshop), you may want to consider doing a trip across the border and opening up a P.O. Box in Champlain, NY.  It's roughly 30 minutes from the Mercier bridge off the island of Montreal and a three-month rental starts at $16 (in smaller boxes they just insert a notification that a larger package has arrived and they hold it for you behind the counter) - obviously this entails the preliminary trip to the post office there and then subsequent trips down to pick up whatever you order, but it could save you a ton of $$$ in the long run depending on how (or if) you declare what you bring back with you into the country.

It also gives you an option to buy stuff from sellers here who wouldn't normally ship to Canada... at any rate, I highly recommend this option if you're not hours away from the border. 

What about a service like Kinek? Anyone have any experience with that?

[the blob]

On 11/30/2019 at 1:32 PM, bababooey said:

I know provincial or HST applies in Ontario, I believe QST applies.  Does your LCS charge you GST & QST?  That should answer your question.

Children's books isn't accurate; and they're (comics) ineligible for book rebate.

Next time slide the comic inside a children's book. Easy peasy.

[Krismusic]

52 minutes ago, smithdatura said:

@dikran1 depending where you are in Quebec, and depending on how frequently you buy from Heritage and/or other online outlets (like say Amazon.com or Clink or mycomicshop), you may want to consider doing a trip across the border and opening up a P.O. Box in Champlain, NY.  It's roughly 30 minutes from the Mercier bridge off the island of Montreal and a three-month rental starts at $16 (in smaller boxes they just insert a notification that a larger package has arrived and they hold it for you behind the counter) - obviously this entails the preliminary trip to the post office there and then subsequent trips down to pick up whatever you order, but it could save you a ton of $$$ in the long run depending on how (or if) you declare what you bring back with you into the country.

It also gives you an option to buy stuff from sellers here who wouldn't normally ship to Canada... at any rate, I highly recommend this option if you're not hours away from the border. 

I thought about doing this but it reality it wouldn't help much as you still have to pay the duties when crossing the boarder on the value you pay better have those heritage payment print outs or you could get hit with a FMV and if your crossing a lot you will probably get checked specially for the length of stay and how often and why your visiting.. border agents are wise to these things. 

[smithdatura]

4 minutes ago, Krismusic said:

I thought about doing this but it reality it wouldn't help much as you still have to pay the duties when crossing the boarder on the value you pay better have those heritage payment print outs or you could get hit with a FMV and if your crossing a lot you will probably get checked specially for the length of stay and how often and why your visiting.. border agents are wise to these things. 

Just stack your AF 15 slabs at the bottom of a bag of groceries and no one will be the wiser.