I was going to spend about 3K on my motor this year. And was wondering if there is anything I can do to beat the duty.
I already have to exchange my money into American dollars and pay the shipping now I have to pay duty does anybody now how to beat this.

thanks

 

Could you drive to a tuner have them put in on and they could dyno tune it while your there. Then drive bak with nothing notiably done to it? I have no clue what DUTY is but im throwing ideas at ya. On a side note ive always wondered if the canadian L's spedo was reversed to where it read Kilo where ours read miles and vice versa.?

 

on the larger font.

I buy tires like that. Drive over the border, get the tires mounted, drive back.

Just went for some Kripy Creme's, officer.
They can understand that...

 

It's to far of a drive to drive to a tuners.
And yes our speedos are reversed.

 

One thing you can do is to have the vendor that you purchased the parts off of, to put a low or 0 dollar value for the parts being shipped if the vendor is willing. This will at least limit the amount of duty being paid.
Also you could have the parts shipped to an American address and then cross the border and pick them up. Of course thats only if you live close to the border, which might not be an option for you.
One more idea is to have them send your parts through regular mail, but you may run the risk of them being lost in transit with no way of tracking the items lost. This happened to me once, through no fault of the vendor, and I never did receive the item ordered.
Lastly, one other way to get around this is to take a few vacation days, drive your truck directly to the source and have them install your mods there and then drive home. This is the route I took when I had the truck modded. Freehold, N.J. is a very nice place to visit.
I definitely can sympathize with you though, as it makes it quite expensive for parts once you pay exchange, taxes and duties.
One positive thing is, you quickly forget about your empty pockets once you've installed your mods. ZOOM, ZOOM.

Photo Gallery...............Modifications

Have a great day eh !.............Dave

 

If I am not mistaken duty is only charged on things made ouside of North America. I.E. North Amercan Free trade agreement. I am pretty sure thats right but I could be wrong.

One thing you do have to worry about for sure is brokerage fees. UPS is renound for being very high when it comes to brokerage fees.

 

You are correct, however customs still puts a limit on how much you can bring back. Best thing if possible, is to go down to the customs you are going to use and talk to an officer. Get a name or something along with information. That way when you come back you'll have a name to go with your info, which goes along way to cutting through the BS.

Remember that most customs officers on both sides of the border are hard working but not very skilled people. You will get some that have a complex and will try to hassle you. Just speak when spoken to, don't say more than they ask and always look them in the eye. No I am not a customs officer nor am I related to one, I just cross over the border a lot.

 

I used to have parts shipped to a dealer I knew in Windsor, ON, then he would install them and no one knew. Told them at the border that I'd been to the 'Canadian Ballet', they understood that!

One time I got a set of headlights that cost >$400 each (15 years ago), but I was taking them to my body shop to have them installed after a wreck. At the bridge they asked what the boxes in the back seat were. I told them what they were and showed him the receipt. He said anyone who paid that much for headlights shouldn't have to pay duty and let men go.

 

I have bought a few street bikes from Canada before. Once right after christmas I couldn't get ahold of the proper paper work from american kawasaki stating that it met us epa standards. So i got canadian kawasaki to fax a statement to me and it is stamped in to the exhaust canister that it meets us epa standards. So I figured this would be enough.
Wrong. Drove 1 and 1/2 hour into canada from boise Idaho and had to leave one of the bikes in canada. Meaning I had to drive back 1 and 1/2 hours to drop the bike back off and drive back. Then drive back up again to get the other bike because of a customs officer with a big head.

A friend that lives close to the border has stuff shipped to one of his buddies right across the border and goes to pick it up.

What if it is a motor being sent to you to work on. You are not buying it so you shouldn't have to pay taxes on it.

My favorite one is that is is just spare parts.

 

Carefull !
Undervalueing is illegal and if you run into an officer with some savvy, you will lose the parts and might get a fine.

The best idea is the holiday. 2nd would be full prep with paperwork and a phonecall ahead.

 

US made car parts are not charged duty. you only pay GST and your provincial taxes.

If you get caught with undeclared parts on your vehicle, they can confiscate the truck

 

It has been ten years since I left the homeland, but I remember that only certain items were charged duty. Especially (back then) with the Free Trade Agreement. You can call your local duty office an inquire about the charge (if any) on the specific part. They will have a listing of the item and where it is produced etc.

Good Luck

D-Day

 

If its just a chip, the tuner can claim it as a chip, and under the technology clause of NAFTA, it goes through without duty.

You can also have the tuner mark the value of the good below 100 CAD, and you will be exempt from large tax. (Thank you Jeremy@JDM )

Beleive it or not, Roush shipped me an entire suspension, and I paid $0.00 in duties, simply because they marked down the value