At 08:52 PM 11/26/2000 -0500, Susan wrote:
>Did I hear correct that if you put "gift" on a package to Canada they don't
>get charged for customs? I have a nephew in Montreal that i'd love to send a
>Xmas gift, but sure don't want him to have to pay customs (poor student).
>Any of you know? Thought I'd send him a printer I no longer use..probably
>worth $150..but dont' want him to get socked with a charge.
Susan:
Uh, it *usually* works.
Seems to depend on (a) whether your particular package gets "pulled" by a
Canada Customs & Revenue Agency (CCRA) agent and (b) whether someone pissed in
said agent's cornflakes that morning.
Officially, it probably doesn't matter -- a "gift" is still a piece of fleece
waiting to be plucked by our government, just like anything else they can get
their grubby, unworthy little mitts on. (How can you tell there's a national
election in Canada tomorrow, and I'm one of millions of Canucks who are
*thoroughly* disgusted by the whole tawdry affair this time 'round, not to
mention the total lack of quality choices?...)
In short, give it a try, but don't be too surprised if your nephew gets dinged
anyways. I'd note on the Customs form as well that the commercial value of the
item was under $50.00 CDN or so (probably true, actually -- used printers don't
seem to be worth anything up here), which might also help. At minimum, he'll
possibly have to pay the $5.00 "handling fee" which the Liberals imposed on all
incoming packages, in a vain attempt to stop Canadians from actually shopping
transnationally, thereby increasing their choices.
I have occasionally had packages come across which weren't touched by CCRA (as
far as I could tell), but I'm batting about .500 on that one.
Good luck, and here's hoping!
Garth
"A bad day doing photography is better
than a good day doing just about
anything else."
The Unofficial Olympus Web Photo Gallery at:
http://www.taiga.ca/~gallery/, or
http://www.enable.org/~gallery/
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