Toronto Photography Meetup Group

This may have come up before somewhere. If I drop by B&H and purchase a camera flash, would I be dinged with custom duty and/or tax when I come back from New York? If so, how long would I have to stay in US to avoid the custom duty and tax? Thanks for all info.

According to Canadian Customs, excemptions are:

After 24 hours in the United States, Canadian residents can import $50.00 CDN worth of goods duty free.

After 48 hours in the United States, Canadian residents can import $400.00 CDN worth of goods duty free.

You can claim the $750.00 CDN exemption anytime you have been out of Canada for at least 7 days.

While that holds for duty, that does not hold for tax I thought. And camera equipment is duty free already I thought.

You have to pay GST and PST if it's coming into Ontario though.

GST/PST and duty is different. Camera equipment is already duty free, so you're not claiming anything there. Not sure if you can claim taxes (my gut feeling is no).

That's for shipping anyways...

Thanks for the info. I guess I have to throw away the original box and just keep the equipment.

I recently went across and picked up 2 lenses from B&H. I threw out the packaging, but I snail mailed the paper work to myself (warranty card and reciept). Got it in the mail back home in about 2 weeks!

You always run the risk of customs not believing that it was yours originally and requiring documentation that it was indeed yours before you crossed the border.

Here is a link to a good article.
http://www.photoprice.ca/article/tax-duty-brokerage-demystified

But it just confirms what everybody else already said here.

I was thinking of doing the same thing by throwing out the packaging and mailing the warranty card and receipt back home. Not sure if it would worth the hassle for saving about $50 CAD, and not sure how to provide the required documentation coming back at the border.

Thanks for the info though.

Be aware that you will get pinged for 8% New York sales tax if you buy in the B&H store in NYC, that only gives you a 5% saving over having them ship it to you directly (not including shipping costs). This is the same as buying out of province and shipping is generally a lot cheaper. Basically the price saving for B&H has to be substantial.

The photoprice.ca article covers pretty much everything you need to know.

Thanks for the heads up on the 8% New York Sales Tax. Almost forgot about that. Does anyone have a scratch-free 430EX II for sale at $250 CAD for pickup locally? Please PM me.

Not exactly, as I got hit by a duty rate of 2% on my 100mm macro L

That is very strange because all documentation (even the canada border services documentation) point towards lenses as being free of duties! For the curious, the docs are here: http://www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/trade-commerce/tariff-tarif/2008/01-99/tblmod-1-eng.html. I forget which one in particular it was, but it's in there. Just have to dig.

Unless it was a grey market item, of which I have no idea what rule applies. Or could it be that the customs official had no clue and wrongfully charged you duties??

Hmmm.[/url]

I got my 100mm macro L from B&H shipped expedited UPS, and although I had to pay canadian taxes, there was no brokerage or duty assessed on the item.

Are you sure they didn't charge you a 'brokerage' fee, which is the fee that various carriers are alowed to charge to cover their expense of looking up what the duties should/or should not be, and filing the paperwork?

Yes, it says duty in the paperwork, UPS worldwide saver

Did the paperwork say what tariff item was applicable? According to the tariff schedule at the following link, objective lenses for photographic cameras should be duty free under tariff item 9002.11.10
http://www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/trade-commerce/tariff-tarif/2008/01-99/ch90-eng.pdf

-Objective lenses:
9002.11 - -For cameras, projectors or photographic enlargers or reducers
9002.11.10 - - -For colour television cameras or colour video cameras;
For enlargers making negatives or positives of a width exceeding 10 cm and a length exceeding 12.5 cm;
For photographic cameras;

Perhaps they categorized it as 9002.11.90 Other, to which 2% duty does apply.

9002.11.90

They've used the wrong customs code. It should be 9002.11.10 for lenses. This is a common mistake. Do the next Canadian to buy this lens a favour; call B&H and tell them to fix this.

You can get your money back, but it may not be worth it. It costs $5 to file a low-value shipping amendment (as your lens value was below $1,600). You'd get about $20 back.

Read my write-up for details: http://www.photoprice.ca/article/refund ... da-customs (apologies for the shameless self-plug)