Entrepreneurship & Small Business

Bringing Goods Back Over the US Border

  • Last Updated:
  • Mar 10th, 2018 9:32 pm
Newbie
Dec 1, 2003
94 posts
40 upvotes

Bringing Goods Back Over the US Border

My wife owns a small store selling home decor items. She has found a wholesaler in the US who sells things that she can't seem to get from any wholesaler based in Canada. This wholesaler uses UPS to ship. She wants to order $200-$300 worth of home decor items. Rather than having them ship the goods straight to us, we thought it might be better using Kinek to have them ship her stuff to a pick up place in the US, drive across the border, pick up her packages, and bring them into Canada ourselves (Thousand Island Bridge crossing).

What would be involved in this? Do we have to register as an importer? Fill out forms? Pay hst? I'm assuming that we can't stay overnight and use our $200 exemptions to bring them in tax free, is that right? Thanks.
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Deal Expert
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Aug 2, 2010
15196 posts
5016 upvotes
Here 'n There
I bring back inventory every month. The way it works is you go through the commercial, ie Truck lane (yes with the big trucks even if you're only in a 'lil car), give the guy in the booth your invoice and passport. He then hands it back with a piece of paper and directs you go into an office and there you file a B3 on the computer. You can do the B3 in advance online, print it out and show it to him, but you still have to go into the office, hand them your B3 and pay the taxes. You need to google the Canadian HST code for the items in order to put the proper code in the form. You typically need to have an importer # which is the RM001 # you are issued along with your GST and CRA #. However if this is just a one-off then you can do it once without the number. If you are going to do it multiple times you better get the number. I only pay GST because of the classification of the goods. The B3 form calculates that automatically for you. The commercial lane is always a 5-20 min wait, depending on how many trucks are there I find and then it's about another 20 min in the office. I cross at Lewiston or Peace Bridge. YMMV.

As for tax free you can only do that if they are personal goods. There is no exemption for commercial goods so if you answer honestly you will be dinged. Lie and you get searched you'll have issues in the future.

Is it really worth it for you to spend all that time, plus gas, just to bring back a few hundred bucks of inventory? I'm bringing back thousands of dollars worth and also go to check on my logistics warehouse so it works well for me.

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