Canadian Customs Fees

jesters89 · Post by **jesters89** » Tue Oct 31, 2006 8:14 pm

How are Canadian customs fees determined? I was stupid enough to act as a middle man for someone sending something to Canada. Apparently the individual in Canada was charged 125.00$ CAN. The package was valued at $150.00 according to the person I was helping. Does this sound reasonable?

jesters89 · Post by **jesters89** » Wed Nov 01, 2006 1:50 am

Wow. I'm going to kill the guy I was bartering for. I found out what went wrong. Fortuantly Temril (the guy I'm trading with) is an outstanding new trader who has helped make this dilema much more bearable. He faxed me the customs forms.

1) Despite repeated warning and pleadings, the guy that shipped did NOT mark the item as a gift.

2) Worse, his handwriting is not legible at all. His 1 looks more like an n. The Think hard about the number a tall lowercase n most resembles. Thats right-- customs read his $150.00 as $750.00. That adds up to about 840.00$ CAN. Thats where the huge fee came from.

Well I feel a lot better-- this is resolvable. Thanks for your help guys-- time to go sort things out with customs.
Best,
Jeremy

kturock · Post by **kturock** » Wed Nov 01, 2006 2:01 am

1) Despite repeated warning and pleadings, the guy that shipped did NOT mark the item as a gift.

which is tax fraud. customs collects fees, taxes on items.
get caught and you'll pay alot more than the fees.

jesters89 · Post by **jesters89** » Wed Nov 01, 2006 2:14 am

Funny you mention that. I just PMd the guy before reading this and told him when he disputes the fee with customs, not to try ot argue it was a gift-- I realized the implications.

Instead, I said just tell them the truth-- the guy that filled out the customs form has horrid handwriting. Its 150, not 750.

Thanks for the heads up though-- I came across that in my readings of canadian custom lays.