Use a shipping company that gives you the option of clearing the items yourself then be really nice to the customs guy, thats what I did. I had some wheels purchased in the US and the guy shipped them using what was once BAX Global but is now DB Schenker. Either way, it was about $150US to ship 4 18" wheels weighing in at about 100lbs total and they arrived in 2 days at their warehouse in Pearson airport, they called me up and gave me the option of clearing the items myself or have them clear it for an extra fee. I chose to clear it myself, went to their warehouse, picked up the papers, went down the street to customs, was cool with the customs guy and shot the shit a little bit about wheels, and when all was said and done he said “listen man, I want to waive all fees but it’s illegal you will legally have to pay the tax on the purchase price but i waived all duty fees so it’s only taxes.” I thanked him and walked out paying only an extra $130CAD on a $1000CAD purchase. I figured this was really good considering UPS once charged me $70 duty and taxes on a $200 item and it was 50lbs lighter…
I was talking to a guy today about this… he used to work for UPS. He told me I need a ‘broker’ because a broker would charge you about a fourth of what regular customs charge.
being marked as gift on customs forums only works up to a value of 60 dollars. You would pay duties for the value over that.
it is outlined here in section 3.2.3
http://www.canadapost.ca/tools/pg/manual/PGcustoms-e.asp
Legit companys usually won’t lie on customs forms since it is a felony. Usually only private sellers would do this.