large Canada import tax, recently increased?

zecahuezecahue Montreal, CA.
edited July 2018 in General Discussion
Did someone from Canada recently buy an OpenBCI board?
I have just purchased a Ganglion and got CAD$ 111 import taxes of a US$ 199 product.
Maybe this is related to the new commercial war between CA and US, but even with the new 25% or 10% surtax tariffs I'm getting a super expensive import tax.

Is there a way to avoid being overtaxed if I am using this board for my academic research?

Sorry if misplaced, I did not find where to post this issue.

Comments

  • wjcroftwjcroft Mount Shasta, CA
    Zecahue, hi.

    That sounds awful. Can you email contact at openbci.com and ask for their comments? Post back here what you find out.

    Mentioning @Conor, @biomurph, @openbci.

    William

    ----

    Found these links,



    Above link is a tax estimator. 

    $200 US =~ $263 CAD. Estimator came up with ~ $40 CAD import tax on $263 CAD item, so 40/263 = ~ 15%

    This other tool comes up with $34 CAD tax,


    Is there any way you can complain to Canada Customs about this seeming overcharge, and ask for explanation?

  • zecahuezecahue Montreal, CA.
    Hi William,

    following the calculators I'm getting more than double of taxes.
    I did ask openbci sales and the import broker of our McGill's dept. to see if they know more about it.

    Thanks.
  • zecahuezecahue Montreal, CA.
    edited July 2018

    I've found out what they charge: 66.35 brokerage fee!

    That's way too much, OpenBCI should alert the buyers regarding this.

    ___________________________

    Government Charges:
    39.35
    Duty:
    0.00
    HST or GST + PST:
    13.14
    Excise:
    0.00
    Other Government Charges:
    26.21
    UPS Customs Brokerage Charges:
    66.35
    Brokerage Fee:
    57.70
    Brokerage GST/HST:
    2.89
    Brokerage QST:
    5.76
    Permit:
    0.00
    Freight Charges:
    0.00


    Total Due CAD:
    105.70 (5 dollars discount for online payment).

  • wjcroftwjcroft Mount Shasta, CA
    Would the import fees be any different if the package was sent using the plain United States Post Office (such as Priority Mail), instead of UPS? It looks like UPS is the culprit.

    Can you please coordinate with contact at openbci.com so the fulfillment department can prevent this in the future (somehow)?

    Sorry you got bit by this.

    Mentioning @openbci, @biomurph
  • zecahuezecahue Montreal, CA.
    I have contacted sales at openbci and informed them about this. They have just answered me that they filled up the form with the right price and cannot deal with UPS stuff. Besides that, they keeping saying that "its normal to pay import tax" and "will try to inform the tax during the purchase check out".

    Again, the problem is not the tax, but the high brokerage fee that should be informed.

    Well, just bit disappointed with the way they handle the shipment.
  • wjcroftwjcroft Mount Shasta, CA
    "...they...cannot deal with UPS stuff." What if the issue is that UPS is responsible for this high brokerage fee. But if they had instead used the normal USPS postal service, no additional fee would be attached?

    Here are a number of others complaining about this. Can you do some research and figure out the solution?


    Mentioning @openbci, @biomurph.
  • wjcroftwjcroft Mount Shasta, CA
    This post (from that search link above), says USPS is always the best choice for shipping to Canada. Can you inform @openbci of this, so they change their future shipment carrier?


  • zecahuezecahue Montreal, CA.
    I could choose between USPS too, but I chose UPS because it was "cheaper".
    Yes, its a good idea to avoid or at least to mention it at the check out.
    Thanks for the email.
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