duties to Canada?

[mercy]

I returned a Canadian built guitar by USPS to a guy in Canada and he just told be that there is $410 duties due to pick it up. I thought NAFTA had no duties. Help

[brianlcox]

There should be no duty, but taxes would be due. This amount would be about right on a 3000-4000 dollar guitar, depending on the province.

[Acousticado]

I recently looked into this. The Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA) website seems to indicate that under the USMCA (formerly NAFTA), if the guitar is considered built in the US, then just the Canadian federal and provincial taxes apply which in the case of Ontario totals 13% based on conversion to Canadian $. Duty on top of taxes can apply if the guitar is built elsewhere and can vary depending on the country. New vs. used seems irrelevant.

[mercy]

$2000 Nova Scotia so based on your statement the tax should be more like $200 and there is no sale involved so there should be no tax in my mind as Im not selling him anything nor is he buying. Taxes are on items that are bought. Still he used the word duty.

[fitness1]

Originally Posted by mercy

$2000 Nova Scotia so based on your statement the tax should be more like $200 and there is no sale involved so there should be no tax in my mind as Im not selling him anything nor is he buying. Taxes are on items that are bought. Still he used the word duty.

Is it possible that it needed to be labeled on the customs form as "return" and it wasn't?

Something doesn't seem right.

[Acousticado]

Nova Scotia’s “harmonized” federal/provincial sales tax is 15%. If US$2,000, that converts to Cdn$2,542 x 15% = Cdn$381. Of course, the conversion rate (today is $0.79) and is always changing a bit at a time. Also, some shipping carriers charge an additional brokerage fee.

It doesn’t matter if no actual sale is involved (e.g. a trade). Tax will be based on the declared value, which authorities may verify. That said, if, as fitness1 mentioned, perhaps this all changes if it’s a return...in fact, I think that may be true.

[ship of fools]

Fitness is right there should be no duties on a return. Probably was not marked as a return. He just needs to go down and show them that it is a return and that should take care of it.

[mercy]

Thank you all for your help. As it turned out the recirver paid the duty fee and was given a form to return and get his money back. The whole thing is crazy, there arent supposed to be any duties and it cant be tax cause it isnt the right amount. I returned a guitar to Canada once before because the neck set wasnt right and there werent any charges. Both times I sent it USPS which is Canadian mail there. Anyway happy ending...so far.

[kkrell]

It does need to be clearly marked on the Customs Forms that it is a RETURN. There should be no tax or duty applied in the first place. Of course, mistakes can happen, and are a pain to rectify.