Canadian Import Advice Help - Tax was 200%!
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Doesn't sound like an error was made.
There's about a million taxes on both tobacco and alcohol.
You have Federal Tobacco Tax, Provincial Tobacco Tax, GST, and on a large enough order, Duty.
So don't import 3 pounds at a time.
www.canada.ca
There's about a million taxes on both tobacco and alcohol.
You have Federal Tobacco Tax, Provincial Tobacco Tax, GST, and on a large enough order, Duty.
So don't import 3 pounds at a time.
Excise Duty Rates - Canada.ca
I don't have the troubles of paying high duties with my tobacco. But I still have to be very careful which tobaccos I order, as I'm not allowed to ship tobacco FROM my state, only....TO my state. So I'm stuck with whatever I order. So I only buy tobaccos I know I like from now on.
Just out of curiosity, if my buddy in the states sends me a tin of tobacco, would the package be checked or opened? Or does it have to be declared? Would that be smuggling lol?
I don’t know if the policies of changed but I sent tobacco a few years ago to someone in Canada. It was marked as pipe tobacco and claimed as a gift. It was checked by customs, it went through fine.
Whether that was the correct application or a lenient one, I don’t know but that was my one experience. I followed all of the applicable rules I could find for the time and there were no issues.
I feel for our Canadian brethren. If I didn't already smoke I certainly wouldn't start. I figure it is only a matter of time till we experience much of the same here in the US. This is exactly the reason I have been stockpiling tobacco for years.
It's a roll of the dice. If it's a single 50 gram tin with a declared value of maybe under $20.00 it might be let through, but .... you just never know if the customs official likes doing paper work and collecting pounds of flesh .....
Pm me and I can give you more details. I have the detailed calculation that I can explain to you, (and then post later). At the most, you should never pay more than what you would pay in your home province.
The first mistake was to order way too much. That tags you as a target—someone unwilling to refuse the parcel and send it back, or to ask for a reassessment.
Don't think you mentioned what shipping method you used, but it also matters. Courier companies will hammer you hard on duties and, unlike regular post where sometimes you just might get lucky and have the duties waived (expecially if it's only a couple of tins), there will ALWAYS be duties since courier companies make money on brokerage.
When I order tobacco from the US I order no more than 3 tins and use the most basic mail service: the cheapest, slowest and that doesn't even provide a tracking number—I don't need to compulsively be tracking the parcel: it'll get here when it does. Normally I only pay about $30 or less in duties; sometimes it's been waived.
The faster you want the items shipped, the more you look like the eager, desperate fellow who will pay anything to have it. This too makes you a target.
Another piece of advice: NEVER put pipes and tobacco in the same order, but keep them separate.
Only once have I been dinged with ludicrous charges from the Canadian B$ Agency: they dinged me ~$120 for three tins—only a few weeks after they had only charged me ~$30 for a previous shipment of also 3 tins. I sent the parcel back (sorry SPC, but legal theft is still theft) on the spot (I actually meant to send it back to the CB$A for re-ASS-essment but the mailman understood my body language as refusal and it was sent back to SPC). Never again have I been dinged for more than $30 give or take a few bucks. I guess they reckoned I'm neither eager nor desperate.
Don't think you mentioned what shipping method you used, but it also matters. Courier companies will hammer you hard on duties and, unlike regular post where sometimes you just might get lucky and have the duties waived (expecially if it's only a couple of tins), there will ALWAYS be duties since courier companies make money on brokerage.
When I order tobacco from the US I order no more than 3 tins and use the most basic mail service: the cheapest, slowest and that doesn't even provide a tracking number—I don't need to compulsively be tracking the parcel: it'll get here when it does. Normally I only pay about $30 or less in duties; sometimes it's been waived.
The faster you want the items shipped, the more you look like the eager, desperate fellow who will pay anything to have it. This too makes you a target.
Another piece of advice: NEVER put pipes and tobacco in the same order, but keep them separate.
Only once have I been dinged with ludicrous charges from the Canadian B$ Agency: they dinged me ~$120 for three tins—only a few weeks after they had only charged me ~$30 for a previous shipment of also 3 tins. I sent the parcel back (sorry SPC, but legal theft is still theft) on the spot (I actually meant to send it back to the CB$A for re-ASS-essment but the mailman understood my body language as refusal and it was sent back to SPC). Never again have I been dinged for more than $30 give or take a few bucks. I guess they reckoned I'm neither eager nor desperate.
I have been charged $30 on a $4 pouch, and $35 on a 13 oz jug. I've also had over a pound sail through despite being "presented for review."
There is no rhyme or reason, which is part of what makes it so infuriating when you get hit.
There is no rhyme or reason, which is part of what makes it so infuriating when you get hit.
So customs have recently started to get aggressive here, however, there’s a pretty easy solution, unlike some of the useless gum flapping or typing above,
1-yes there’s a set price they can charge. If it comes in too high;
2-tell your postal clerk you decline with a REASSESSMENT, you fill in your name and number on the yellow custom form, and customs will come back, usually with a fair price. I had 200$ for 3 tins brought down to 60$, no worries.
3-order pipes and tobacco’s separate. 2 to 4 tins at a time, 2 is best.
good luck
1-yes there’s a set price they can charge. If it comes in too high;
2-tell your postal clerk you decline with a REASSESSMENT, you fill in your name and number on the yellow custom form, and customs will come back, usually with a fair price. I had 200$ for 3 tins brought down to 60$, no worries.
3-order pipes and tobacco’s separate. 2 to 4 tins at a time, 2 is best.
good luck
| I found this info. I wonder if this applies also to US Citizens. I would not mind bringing a tin along the next time I visit the Maritimes. I will be careful however, as my brother and I spent around 2.5 hours at customs and border patrol driving into NB once after making a joke about having an avocado in the vehicle, which was then set aside and completely unpacked, cleared and searched while we both sat in separate rooms...Nice fellows, but not to be messed with. It seems like staying under 200 grams will go a long way. Do First Nations get any sort of break on traditional use grounds? |
Stamped Tobacco Products – Personal exemption amounts
If you wish to import cigarettes, manufactured tobacco and tobacco sticks duty free as part of your personal exemption, the packages must be stamped "duty paid Canada droit acquitté". You will find tobacco products sold at duty-free stores marked this way.If you have been away from Canada for 48 hours or more, you may import all of the following amounts of cigars and stamped tobacco into Canada free of duty and taxes.
| Product | Amount |
|---|---|
| Cigarettes | 200 cigarettes |
| Cigars | 50 cigars |
| Tobacco | 200 grams (7 ounces) of manufactured tobacco |
| Tobacco sticks | 200 tobacco sticks |
Taxation is theft.
Controlling a population via regulation and expense is tyranny.
Controlling a population via regulation and expense is tyranny.
I have canoed into and out of Canada several times, with no customs checks.
Get a big canoe!
Get a big canoe!
Finally some practical advice! Canoeing is the obvious solution to this Canadian dilemma.
For beginning canoers though, I strongly recommend taking a course in advanced canoeing techniques, such as these highly skilled individuals demonstrate:
Socialized med care has never worked in any country. Long wait for appointments, can’t pick quality Dr. Every hypochondriac and his grandmother gets in line. Only folks with big bucks can get around the system !
Its not a problem. Perhaps in the big cities. Myself and my wife as well as her family receive quality prompt medical care. There are problems with every system but frankly, that position is pushed by them medical establishment in the US becuse doctors want to continue to be filthy rich. They are not in other countries.
If you are healthy, government-controlled healthcare is great.
As with anything else, there is no free lunch. Somebody pays. In a private system, the insurance companies take a big cut of it. In a government system, the politics, inefficiencies, graft and corruption take a big cut.
But ask yourself this: If government healthcare is so great, wouldn’t we be better off if they also controlled housing, energy, the food supply, weddings, funerals, bar mitzvahs and cat clinics?