FAQ About Cross Border Shopping / CBSA

[queenofhearts]

Hi Ebola,
I was hoping you could shed light on an experience a friend just told me about. I find the whole story really unblievable and told her I think it is BS but I thought I would ask you to see if any of these 'facts' are even possible.
The story sounds too much like one of those friend of a friend legends that just gets all the more outlandish as it's repeated.
My friend claims that another friend of hers (told through yet another friend) recently claimed her purchases while crossing a land border. She was pulled over and she was asked for reciepts which she provided. Apparently she was then asked for her credit card. The story as I am told is that the border officials then came back about 45 min later with copies of her visa statments of purchases made in the states, and PICTURES of her buying things in the states.
The whole thing sound so made up from beginning to end. I highly doubt anyone can get pictures of someone buying something in a store in 45 minutes but lets forget that. Can border officials ask for someone's credit card and then run a check on it and get the credit card officials to just have over a transaction history? My thinking is that even if they could do this, they would only ask for the credit card AFTER all of her stuff had for some reason has already been seized.
anyway, I'm rambling now because i just find the whole thing so hard to believe. So long story short: can border officials take your credit card and run a transcation check?

[cwb27]

Hi Ebola,
I was hoping you could shed light on an experience a friend just told me about. I find the whole story really unblievable and told her I think it is BS but I thought I would ask you to see if any of these 'facts' are even possible.
The story sounds too much like one of those friend of a friend legends that just gets all the more outlandish as it's repeated.
My friend claims that another friend of hers (told through yet another friend) recently claimed her purchases while crossing a land border. She was pulled over and she was asked for reciepts which she provided. Apparently she was then asked for her credit card. The story as I am told is that the border officials then came back about 45 min later with copies of her visa statments of purchases made in the states, and PICTURES of her buying things in the states.
The whole thing sound so made up from beginning to end. I highly doubt anyone can get pictures of someone buying something in a store in 45 minutes but lets forget that. Can border officials ask for someone's credit card and then run a check on it and get the credit card officials to just have over a transaction history? My thinking is that even if they could do this, they would only ask for the credit card AFTER all of her stuff had for some reason has already been seized.
anyway, I'm rambling now because i just find the whole thing so hard to believe. So long story short: can border officials take your credit card and run a transcation check?

Your friend watches far too much TV and tries far too hard.

[queenofhearts]

Your friend watches far too much TV and tries far too hard.

LOL! Actually it didn't happen to my own personal freind. She called me today in a panic because she was told this story by a guy she works with, who said it happend to HIS freind (who she also knows). LIke I said, the story sounds so ridiculous to me I told her I didn't believe and she said she was going to find out more. She is in a panic becaue she goes to the States often, and does declare but admittedly not the full amount. Despite the fact that the story sounds so ridiculous, I am still left wondering. Can border officials ask for your credit card so they can look at your transaction history for the day?

[tkyoshi]

I'm a student so that is financially not a good idea.

The questions are not a problem, I'm just wondering if I'm missing any specific paperwork that I should be carrying with me. It seems to be the issue I get questioned about the most.

I'm not sure but does insurance in your area of residence have a Principal driver designation?

Here in BC, ICBC has a spot for "principal Driver" which is basically the person who will be driving the car most of the time. I just use this, if ever ask, it shows my owner as my dad and my name is also shown under the Principal Driver. So therefore I can use that as proof that I'm allowed to drive "his" car since it says right on the insurance that I'm the one who will be driving the car most of the time.

However it's hit and miss, they used to ask me but I haven't been asked the 'who's car is this?' question for awhile.

[canabiz]

There was a letter to the editors in the National Post a couple of days ago from a gentleman who used to work as student Customs Officers. Basically, he's quite critical of the current Border Officers who don't get out of the booth and ask travelers to pop their trunks open. He (and his team) were told to do it every time before but that practice has fallen by the wayside.

This is in response to an article in the National Post last week about a Turkish-American who smuggled 220 firearms across the Windsor border crossing into Canada and most of them ended up in the wrong hands for murders and robbery attempts across the GTA within the last 2 years.

Just some food for thoughts.

[cdsoundtr]

I have a warranty claim from the manufactuer.

The Item is in Canada, but they'll only pay for return shipping if the replacement is sent to a US address. If I bring down my defective unit down to the US to make the swap and bring up the working unit, do I have to pay tax on the new unit when i'm bringing it back into Canada?

[kmp]

What about when you declare at the border example $60.00, but then when your receipts are totalled it is infact $75.00. You pay taxes on full $75amount at the border. Will you be flagged 'forever' based on this scenario which happened to me recently. I had merely forgotten about one purchase??

[Badger]

Reposted from my original thread, this would be an appropriate place:

I was down in the states for a few days. Bought some bulky item over there and they would not allow international shipping, so I had the item shipped to a border town. Now that I am back home, if I go over the borders to pick up the item in the states and come back home within the same day, would I be subjected to duties?

I purchased the item during the time I was absent from Canada, for 4 days.

Would showing a receipt for the item and my plane ticket for the place i travelled allow me to come back to Canada with the item without duties?

[brunes]

Reposted from my original thread, this would be an appropriate place:

I was down in the states for a few days. Bought some bulky item over there and they would not allow international shipping, so I had the item shipped to a border town. Now that I am back home, if I go over the borders to pick up the item in the states and come back home within the same day, would I be subjected to duties?

I purchased the item during the time I was absent from Canada, for 4 days.

Would showing a receipt for the item and my plane ticket for the place i travelled allow me to come back to Canada with the item without duties?

Unfortunately I think the duty + tax exemption is based at the time of import, not the time of purchase. But maybe I am wrong. What is the item? You probably don't have duty on it.

[Badger]

Unfortunately I think the duty + tax exemption is based at the time of import, not the time of purchase. But maybe I am wrong. What is the item? You probably don't have duty on it.

What about GST/PST then, it is some fragrance oil that is exclusive in US only, and the company forbids selling and shipping to Canadians on the website.

Thanks !

[CheapScotsman]

Badger ...

There used to be a "goods to follow" available on the declaration forms when coming back into Canada ... perhaps you could have used when you came back from your 4 day trip BUT ...

a) the declaration might not be available anymore ...
b) you may have had to claim this when crossing on your way back from your 4 day trip ... (which you didn't)
c) the goods may have had to have been mailed; not brought across personally in the future.

The only good solution is to give CBSA a call (unless our two resident experts chime in).

I bring a ton of different types of things across and have never been charged DUTY but you never know. Again, you can phone CBSA and ask. The only items I would expect to be charged duty on are tobacco, alcohol and perfumes; non of which we buy.

I am almost always bringing back greater than $700 via the Truck Crossing and they are always sending me in for GST/PST .... but I've come back with < $200 a few times in the last 4 years and they have just waived me through. Won't know until you get there but you should always expect to pay them.

[brunes]

What about when you declare at the border example $60.00, but then when your receipts are totalled it is infact $75.00. You pay taxes on full $75amount at the border. Will you be flagged 'forever' based on this scenario which happened to me recently. I had merely forgotten about one purchase??

No one would flag you for this because the amout you give at the window is hardly ever exact.

LIke, usually I say "Oh, about $400" , "about $350", etc. When I go inside it is always above or below by about $10 - $25. No one cares.

Basically at the window they just want to know if you are over the limit. It doesn't matter by how much really cause when you get inside you have to pay whatever the receipts add up to exactly.

[yiujun]

how is gst and pst calculated? what exchange rates does the cbsa use to convert the USD balance to a CAD balance so that they can charge taxes?

[macnut]

how is gst and pst calculated? what exchange rates does the cbsa use to convert the USD balance to a CAD balance so that they can charge taxes?

In the same way they would if they were a store. They use a daily conversion rate, which you can easily compare to the one published in the newspapers.

Because applying GST and PST is not their core business, it is worth your while to remind them of any instances where one or the other doesn't apply if needs be.

Most federal government departments are committed to fairness in carrying out their mandate, but based on anecdotal evidence in this forum, there seems to be more regional variation than desirable. Some Ontarians insist they cross the border regularly on same-day shopping trips and always get waved through. Fewer B.C. people seem to be that lucky.

The fact is that there is no exemption for trips of less than 24 hours. As CheapScotsman says, you should always figure that you are going to have to pay taxes and duty (if applicable), and consider it a bonus if you get waved through.

For online purchases coming by mail or courier, there is a documented $20 threshold before being subject to tax and duty. In practice, it is an undetermined amount higher than that - they are not going to pick on packages with a declared value of $21 just to follow the letter of the law.

For coming across the border with your purchases, years ago you would seldom get waved through. Nowadays, the sheer volume of travellers mean that it is not practical to exercise the zero exemption rule. This kind of degrades the documented 24-hour ($50) and 48-hour ($400) exemptions if day-shoppers routinely expect to get waved through with their hundreds of dollars worth of purchases.

[litebrite]

Not sure if this has been answered before but here's the situation:

I purchased something online and shipped it to Blaine, WA. I picked it up and brought it back into Canada, declaring everything fully at the border. I was waved through without paying taxes.

However the item I bought was defective and I had to ship it back and they sent me a replacement which I'm picking up at a later date.

How do I declare the replacement item? Do I declare it as $0 since it was a replacement and I didn't pay for it? How would I be able to prove that to the border guard?