Canadian Duty Taxes of Mail Orders

[sw0snuff3r]

Hey @kurobk. It's a good practice to order your tobacco and pipes/accessories seperately. You may have been charged tobacco tax on the weight of the entire contents of your package rather than just for the tobacco alone. Pipes and accessories are subject only to GST if the value is over $20, so it's much less than the tax on tobacco.
You guys are making me nervous, I'm waiting on four separate tobacco orders and they are taking a long time getting to me. I wonder if they are cracking down at Customs.

 

[briarhillgeoff]

@kurobk - looks like the taxes assessed are correct. Peck has the formula's but for Ontario - it's about $15 in fed and prov tax on a 50gram tin. Even it is only 1.5 oz - they will still round up to 50grams.
My suggestion is always use the regular USPS shipping - never ever express - they will get checked all the time by customs if you send it express. Also, in my experience - keep your orders small - smaller boxes, smaller customs documents on the box - smaller print, this is just my experience, but all of my orders have slipped through. I'm in Ontario as well. I don't know if this has an effect either, but I usually place an order on a Tues/Wed - then it ships out and is usually in customs in Canada on the weekend, and, this is just my experience, they all have passed through customs on the weekend without inspection. But I'm always prepared to pay, just in case. It sure is hit an miss with customs. Last year my wife ordered me a huge amount for xmas - pipe, 300grams of tobacco - two big ashtrays, a lighter - whole bunch on stuff - huge box that weighed 8lbs - and passed through customs - no inspection.

 

[drezz01]

From my experience, most of them positive punctuated with the odd disaster, here are a couple of guidelines.
1. Always budget for the full duties and taxes owing. Nine times out of Ten you will be excited to find out that you haven't been charged, but the tenth time won't send you to the local loanshark's.
2. Keep you order under 200g of tobacco. Is this the legal minimum? Nope - that would be 0. But anecdotal evidence holds that this helps reduce the chance of a package getting noticed by customs.
3. In addition to the above, don't be tempted to throw in a pipe or accessories for combined shipping. You want to keep your total value listed on the customs slip as low as possible. And, as briarhillgeoff mentioned, smaller boxes are logically more likely to be overlooked.
4. Make your first handful of orders from different online shops. I've found that some have better luck getting through unmolested than others. I'm not sure if there is a 'blacklist' or if it just depends on the location of the warehouse and what ports the package moves through in delivery.
5. If a retailer marks the package contents in a deceitful manner it is best not to continue ordering from there. Although it has a higher chance of getting through unchecked, you can also face hefty fines.
6. If you do get charged customs pay up. If you followed guideline #1 this won't be problematic. If a package is denied delivery and returned to sender it is the vendor that is left holding the bill for the shipping and handling fees. Canadian customers represent a small portion of their sales and if they get snubbed by us too often they may (like pipes and cigars) cease shipping to Canada - and then we'd be screwed.
In your case the duty/taxes at first glance doesn't seem terribly far off. If you were to have it reassessed you would need to pay $9.95 handling fee, wait several weeks, and after all of that it may come back with the same charge. I would pay it and accept that you are likely spending just as much money as if you had purchased it in Canada.

 

[frozenchurchwarden]

Andy:

I do find interesting what looks like the >100 grams on the contents part, it looks almost as if you keep it to under 100 grams they won't bother assessing it. Of course it's just hopeful thinking but maybe worth a shot.

Andy, I thought the same thing once, but the ">" symbol is just part of their labeling system, it effectively means nothing.

If you ship one gram of tobacco and they see it, they will charge taxes accordingly.

 

[frozenchurchwarden]

When estimating tax to get a feel for how much tobacco I can afford to ship, I like to just use the formula "grams divided by two equals cost in dollars".

So 100 grams should have about $50 tax, and then you always have the handling charges etc, but it usually comes out pretty close.

On a 500 gram order I think I got charged $300, which isn't too far off.
It may sound kind of sad to some but the taxes actually aren't a big a deal right now, until I figure out how to smoke more than two bowls a week I'm not going to go through more than a few tins a year anyway.

 

[kurobk]

Wow this forum is amazing! The community is so supportive! Thank you everyone for the kind concern and suggestions! I will take time to read them all.
@stickframer the pipe smoking has been an interesting experience because I come from being a non-smoker. I bought 3 different blends; a carter hall, a orlik gold, and a dunhill elizabethan blend. I honestly didn't enjoy carter hall as much but the other two are much better. Just tried the elizabethan blend and I think I am going through crazy buzz. This blend packs some nicotine punch!
Thank you again everyone!

 

[rsavage]

@drezz next time you have this problem and you have to walk someone through in doing their job. Send them a bill for 500.00 in consultation fees. Lol

 

[canuckken]

I have not read all the post here but from my experience I have never been charged duties on small orders under 20 dollars. For example I just ordered 3 samplers from 4noggins that was under 8 dollars and payed nothing extra. I could have ordered 8 1oz bags without paying duties. I am not a heavy smoker so for me small orders work.

 

[canuckken]

OK I spoke to soon. I just received my fist customs charge. I ordered 4 samplers which totaled 7 ounces (just under 200 grams) and cost 18 dollars. On that 18 dollar order they charged me $105.97. I am going to place another small order and if I get dinged again I will need to get a second job.