bringing parts over the border...

[Jason71k10]

this is mostly for all the canadian members. I thinking about going south to pick up a bed. What's the protocol for bringing parts back to Canada.....obviously I can't hide a bed in my trunk.

Is there duty and taxes on the part, or no no duty because they're used? Just want to figure out exactly what it would cost to go pick one up myself. Thanks guys

Jason

[Gee_Emm]

Unless you are gone for more then a few days it will cost you 7% and 8% tax. Make sure you get a reciept from the dude you buy it from and see if he can "adjust" the amount the bill is for, just make it seem reasonable, not $10 for a mint bed :p

[crazy4chevs]

if your bed is shot swap them before you go back then scrap the old one

[Jason71k10]

Gee_Emm, that's what I had in mind

crazy4chevs, that would make sense, however driving my gas guzzler 500 miles doesn't! alll my savings would be lost out the tail pipe
If I make the trip, i'll be taking a 1-ton D*dge flatbed

Thanks guys. any other hidden charges??

Jason

[passthebuck]

Jason71k10 - when i bought my bucket seat form toomuchstuff in minnesota around christmas they asked me at the border about where I heard about the bed - ? the net? they were super curious & interogated me a bit. I explained that this board isnt ebay & essentially an online club where members can post for help or stuff. get a good recipt from whomever you buy the bed from. After i paid both duties (despite the seat being used, i was told that since no pst had beed paid in the past the you gotta pay the pst). after paying my taxes, i was directed to the inspection garage to "verify my purchase". I puilled into the garage & three guys helped me remove the seat from the jeep. They then carried to bed over to this trailer that is about 1/3 the length of a normail semitrailer. they put the seat in a hole in the side of the trailer & x-rayed it. the x-ray used some serious software that was able to disect the seat layer-by-layer (steel/ foam/vinyl). It was pretty cool but I'm glad I was on the up & up because I'm thinking I couldnt have put anything over those guys if I wanted to! ggod luck.

[Jason71k10]

wow, thanks for the heads up.

[67chevemall]

Call the border!

716-885-3367
994-6330

[super72bb]

Jason

I have brought numerous parts across the line including trucks... this is the deal. If you are going down yourself it is really easy. I have crossed at "Coutes" south of Lethbridge only. I can say that they see this sort of thing very often. Because these trucks are considered antique and are made in the USA they will not charge you duty good old "NAFTA".

What you need to do is get a bill of sale for the parts and produce it to them, they will convert the total to Canadian dollars and then charge you GST, and Prov. Sales tax if it applys in your province. So in other words you end up self clearing these items.

This is the beauty of it all... It is your right as a Canadian to be able to self clear any item that you are bringing across. The fact that these parts are made in the USA makes this quite simple. I think there is a little more to it if you are bringing things across which are not made in the USA. An example of that would be car parts for a Mazda or something similar.

On that note here is an example. If I ordered a tailgate from down south I could have it shipped to Calgary by any courier you choose with the instructions of " Consignee will self clear". What happens then is it ends up in Calgary here and is held in bond at a specific location I am sure it would be the same where you are if you have a customs depot in your city of residence. They will call you at your contact # and tell you to come and get the package. Then you take your invoice or bill of sale down to customs and you pay your Tax on the item and go and pick up your parts. It has saved me hundreds of dollars in brokerage fees doing it this way.

They usually will give you 20 questions to find out where you heard of the deal and why you can't find these in Canada but I have found if you are straight with them they are usually very good. Another thing you can do is just tell the Canadian crossing gaurds what your intentions are as you are going down to get item and they will tell you exactly what to get for documentation.

Good luck

Curt

[super72bb]

Hey passthebuck, I just read your post. I am very surprised to hear that about you paying duty on your seats. I have brought many parts for these trucks across the border and never paid duty. As I mentioned they are considered antique and if the parts you bought were made in the USA then you you should not have to pay duty.

Maybe you can get that back

Curt

[dregs454]

I phoned the border about this, and I understood that you didn't have to pay any sort of duty on any automotive parts, you do still have to pay a sales tax tho. I had my dual exhaust shipped from summit to bonners ferry - right on the BC/Idaho border. I drove down to pick it up because courier van's have a fee to cross the border, and i live close to the border anyways. I ended up only paying tax, and make sure u have that reciept, mine was taped between 2 muffler boxes and i couldn't find it, and they didn't believe me on the price, so they searched the car pretty good, but had to let me go in the end

[Gee_Emm]

There isnt a whole lot of stuff these days that has duty on it. Over the past few years buying a wide range of items on ebay the only thing that I have paid duty on was for some silverware, and that was a luxury tax. At the border they can be a little more inqusitive as to where stuff is made. The past 2 times I went down for a load of parts we were hauling a 20 ft enclosed trailer. One time it had 2 Blazer bodys in it, the other time there was a complete LWB box in the trailer, I just paid my taxes and went on my way, they didnt even care what was inside. Showing up at the border is kinda like a lottery sometimes.

[Rod]

I find using words such as "used", or "vintage", dosen't raise as many eyebrows as "antique". Antiques have a value as far as customs is concerned. Used or vintage is not such a value laden term.
Customs has soaked me a couple times on items because they were not labelled correctly in my opinion... had a steering column shipped to me and they valued it at $5 dollars more just so they could charge me a handling fees and PST + GST taxes on there assessed value. Not worth the time to do paper work to do re-adjustments in many occassions.

[passthebuck]

sorry super72bb, I mistakenly called the pst/gst "duty" in my post. I too have had few problems, I was just a little surprised at the HUGE (!!!) x-ray they had. I'll continue to go south as necessary to get the parts I need. good luck to all in your trips south.