@LurganIeUk wrote:
I never buy from USA when:
Import fees are included
When a courier is used.
I do buy from USA when:
The carrier is USPS (all the better if registered too)
Reason:
“If” Canada customs does process a fee it will likely be $5 fee and GST.
Also note:
A number of American companies don’t know the difference between UPS and USPS
For importing something such as cell phone, the retailer submitting the Canadian sales taxes for you means that there really should mean almost no difference in price compared to buying from Canada. When the store submits this ahead of time for you, the associated fees are out of the shipping company's (or clearance broker's) hands. If we're talking about B&H, the fees that they're charging are minimal, and you're probably losing more through currency exchange (but that's going to your bank).
I will say that paying sales tax ahead of time is usually preferable than having the package shipped from the U.S. from a non-USPS carrier and not paying ahead of time.
As for wanting USPS to be used for your package, there technically is not supposed to be any savings compared to if the taxes are paid ahead of time, at least not tax-wise (notwistanding brokerage and handling fees). Let's not true to get into the custom's decleration game, but I will say that if CBSA forgets to assess your package correctly even when it's declared properly, the shipper/exporter and receiver/important then haven't done anything wrong.
