Duty or tax on used flute to Canada from US?

greenspiderweb · Post by **greenspiderweb** » Sun May 29, 2005 8:50 pm

I'm selling a used M&E on the board for a friend, and a Canadian customer expressed an interest in buying it.

I did a search on Chiff for duty and shipping to Canada, but I couldn't find much, so does anyone have any experience with this?

I did read, however that there can sometimes be some bad delays through customs, which isn't promising.

I'm inclined to not take the risk of shipping out of the US, and maybe extra cost too for the buyer wouldn't be welcome either.

What can you tell me about this? Thanks for the help!

Tom O'Farrell · Post by **Tom O'Farrell** » Mon May 30, 2005 6:20 am

I live in Ontario, no duty on flute imports from U.S but I pay GST tax of 7%. There is a rumour that this is not payable on under $1600 dollars but I have paid on everything to date. Customs can cause a delay of a week or so in my experience. Be sure to put the customers phone no on the label, USPS is OK but I use fedex now and most definately not UPS ever again.

dcopley · Post by **dcopley** » Mon May 30, 2005 7:50 am

The US Trade Information Center has some useful on-line information:

http://www.trade.gov/td/tic/tariff/coun ... f_info.htm provides information about tariffs on goods sent from the US to other countries. There is also a "getting started" page with good background info:

http://www.ita.doc.gov/td/tic/tariff/ge ... tarted.htm

Dave Copley
Loveland, Ohio

David Levine · Post by **David Levine** » Mon May 30, 2005 7:51 am

I borrowed about ten CDs from Brad Hurley a few year ago. When I returned them to him he had to pay a duty of $40. It came as a shock to us both (I did reimburse him).
I agree that UPS stinks. I've been very happy lately with USPS.
Time on Google might answer the question of import duties in Canada, but maybe something here will help:
https://sso-cal.canadapost-postescanada ... p=CPENCOMM

djm · Post by **djm** » Mon May 30, 2005 9:10 am

Packages to Canada that fit within CanPost's definitions of a letter will usually not be subjected to inspection or duties (that doesn't mean they're not owed, just that no-one is likely to check). Packages over the size of a letter will be checked. This can add anywhere from a day to two weeks to the shipping time. I can't remember all the charges I have been hit with on importing instruments, books and CDs, but it usually comes up to 10-15% in total.

djm

greenspiderweb · Post by **greenspiderweb** » Mon May 30, 2005 9:38 am

Thank you, everybody, this is very helpful information!

Ultimately it will be up to the owner and the buyer to say yes or no, but your information will guide them well to their decisions.

This post will help some other people considering the same, on either side of the border in the future. Thanks again!

Update It seems both the buyer and seller are willing to go ahead with it after taking all into consideration. I will post after the process is complete as to how it went just for reference to others considering this.

Thanks again for your good help!

s1m0n · Post by **s1m0n** » Tue May 31, 2005 11:52 pm

I don't believe there's any Canadian duty on a used musical instrument.

Any cross border sale, however, *might* be assessed the 7% federal sales tax or (less likely) the relevant provincial sales tax for the province you're shipping to. The latter can vary between 0 and 9%, I think. There is also a special "Mulroney tax"--officially a "handling fee" on new books, which amounts to $5 per shipment.

If you're insuring the package, it's hard to avoid this, but if you don't buy insurance the trick is to mark a value of $100 or less Canadian, and then tick off the "gift" box on the customs declaration.

I'm not sure *why* you'd want to insure an antique flute, anyway--whenever I tried, I was told that the insurance will only pay out for items whose price can be easily verified, like a mass produced computer or something. I was told that a 19th century flute was unique and hence uninsurable. These are, of course, Canada Post's policies, so your shipper might have a different take.

*** Important ***

DON'T ship fedex -- they have a nasty habit of levying a surprise $50 "brokerage fee" on shipments that the reciever has to pay before they'll hand over the goods, and which they won't disclose to either of you beforehand. You can get around this by having your own customs broker do the paperwork, but if you don't have one, you're stuck.

Go with US Post--the fee includes brokerage, and there will be no nasty surprises.

djm · Post by **djm** » Wed Jun 01, 2005 7:32 am

s1m0n, I don't know where sturob is these days, but while he was living in TO he got nailed taxes and duties even on repair parts for a flute (and was not too pleased). CanCustoms really seem to go hard on flutes and whistles.

djm

sturob · Post by **sturob** » Thu Jun 02, 2005 7:48 am

Here I am! Right here!

Yeah, CanCustoms either sucks or hates me, or both. Probably both.

Be careful when making a distinction between paying GST and paying a duty. Functionally, there's no difference. Any item that goes into Canada is liable to get a GST slapped on it; whether or not there's an import duty is another question. Even old flutes, since they've been bought and sold, are subject to GST (try going into an antique shop and say: "Hey, this is old; I'm not paying GST!").

On the US side, from my personal experience yesterday, anything older than about 100 years isn't going to get dutied, and the US doesn't charge sales tax (GST-equivalent) on imports.

If you're in Canada and there's absolutely any way NOT to have things shipped across the border, then do it. Bring it over yourself. Saying Customs Canada adds a week to a shipment is, well, positive thinking. A month is not out of the question.

USPS seems fine, but also beware that CanadaPost likes to squash boxes. I think FedEx is probably better than UPS, but you always run the (aforementioned) risk of a brokerage fee.

Stuart

Jim McGuire · Post by **Jim McGuire** » Thu Jun 02, 2005 10:46 am

DHL is great for international shipments. FedEx and UPS often use agents in foreign countries while DHL owns its own offices.

Customs brokers paperwork is only an invoice but a properly executed one is what you need.

While everyone complains about how packages are handled, most of that is under your control - you should double box it with strong boxes and 'flex' support for the inside box. Then, the only insurance you'll worry about is package tracking.

sturob · Post by **sturob** » Fri Jun 03, 2005 10:21 am

That's only kind of true (packaging) with regard to CanadaPost. I had several things well-boxed that came CRUSHED. As though they'd been run over, or deliberately destroyed. I wouldn't send anything valuable via CanadaPost unless you want to pay extra to mail the weight of a steel box.

Stuart

AaronMalcomb · Post by **AaronMalcomb** » Fri Jun 03, 2005 1:44 pm

sturob wrote:I had several things well-boxed that came CRUSHED. As though they'd been run over, or deliberately destroyed.

They must have been playing hockey with it.

sturob · Post by **sturob** » Fri Jun 03, 2005 4:19 pm

I thought maybe they were curling with it, or perhaps they used it as some kind of moose bait.

Stuart

greenspiderweb · Post by **greenspiderweb** » Wed Jun 15, 2005 5:52 pm

Well, the flute I sent to Ontario arrived at the customer's address in 1 week, in fine shape, and it was sent fully insured and declared, by USPS air parcel post, double boxed, and well packaged.

Only PST and GST were charged, no extra duty, and for a $350 flute, it was $70 (not sure USD or CAD), I was informed today.

Good to hear a positive outcome, and that things do occasionally go according to plan!

djm · Post by **djm** » Thu Jun 16, 2005 6:53 am

Simple math to figure this one out. 350 into 70 gives you 20%. Canadian GST=7%. Ontario PST=8%. So your customer ended up paying 5% duty.

djm

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Duty or tax on used flute to Canada from US?

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