Well, I’m nothing if not a woman of diverse talents….
Colby Cosh is lamenting the arrival of a book he is to review, and the accompanying GST and postal handling fee.
Good news: the postman finally arrived with the latest book I’m supposed to review for The American Spectator! The bad news: he held out his hand for $7.51 when he handed it over. Huh? Surely they don’t send packages postage-due anymore… No, the $7.51 was a smidgen of GST, plus, naturally, a $5 “handling fee”, because it requires rather a lot of work for Customs to do the math of figuring out 7% of the price of a book.
But I haven’t bought this book, I told the postman: it’s been sent to me free so I can review it. How can you charge me GST on an article when no sale has taken place?
From the firm of McMillan, McMillan and McMillan, I can offer readers this bit of advice: I think Mr. Cosh is screwed in this instance, unless he plans to alter the book and return it – a few strokes of yellow highlighter, perhaps ?
Under the EOPS Program (Exporter of Processing Services) goods imprted for repair or alteration:
Customs memorandum D8-I-I Temporary importation of goods into Canada.
Special tariff item 9993.00.00 – duty free
GST – special authority # 16-08921663
No postal handling fee is applicable.
Well, sometimes that works. Often, despite chapter and verse loudly displayed on the box, the bike helmets I recieve for custom painting still have an invoice attached. This is no small irritation – to get a helmet insured for several hundred bucks released by the post office, I have to pay their 7% ransom. That’s a pretty good chunk of my profit, you know? But if I send it back, I have a cranky customer and no profit at all.
But at least I can claim a 100% refund of the fees upon shipping it back to the owner. (The application form for the refund is on the Customs invoice itself). I always include a snarky letter though, informing them of the meaning of the word “exempt” and suggesting they check into an employee literacy program.
That also applies to the GST invoices you recieve from customs brokers (UPS is a master at this) after the fact. Don’t pay those fees if your package has been properly marked – tell them to shove it. Send them the memorandum info and inpugn their professional credentials. They have no right to collect, don’t have to remit, and it’s not up to you to solve their self inflicted accounting problems.
Before my husband moved to Canada, he mailed me a computer part that I needed for my computer. It was an old spare he had, worthless to him but something that I needed in order to get my computer working again. To ensure that I got it safely, he sent it UPS. When it arrived, I owed them almost seventy dollars. The duty and gst on the ‘value’ of the part. I was livid and of course he felt absolutely awful, he had no idea. Never again!
Yup – never, never use a courier. Always ship by parcel post, to a post office if you can. And only insure stuff if its really valuable as they use insurance value for tax purposes.
When I ship back to the US, there are never any problems. I just write _ “helmet, returned to owner” and insure it for full value. Nobody has ever complained about being dinged duty for it.
I always use Canada post now and like you have never had a problem and have been lucky enough never to pay the duty and GST!
Think simple. Learn different. Macinstruct.net