did some searching, and beyond.ca actually has the “papers” that im talking about. i copied the important info for those ppl that dont have a clue wtf im talking about.
coles notes: you self broker your goods and save a ton of money.
THIS IS WHERE IT GETS IMPORTANT
Whether your shipment is a personal thing, or a business thing, you have the option of “Self Clearing”. What this means is that you are going to have to do the filling and filing of the paperwork yourself. In the case of a personal shipment, you MUST notify UPS as soon as you have the tracking number that you intend to self clear. In the case of a business, they will contact you - at which point you indicate you are going to self clear.
SELF CLEARING - THE BASICS
Once you have indicated that you are going to self clear…when your package ‘arrives’ at your shippers warehouse, they will prepare the necessary forms for self-clearing. You must then go to your shippers warehouse, and pick up these forms. You won’t even require a pen! The forms are filled out already with the necessary information from the computer. So, off you go…
Once you have the clearing forms, you must then proceed to Canada Customs. (It’s just off 32nd Avenue, N.E. - you turn left just before Staples, then right, then right in to the parking lot). This is handy, because pretty much all the shipping companies have warehouses just minutes away from this location.
Keep in mind you must be the person who the shipment is to, or you must be an individual with Power of Attourney over the Company if it is a business shipment.
Once you are inside, you will find a computer - and a book. The book contains all the line codes you may require to understand in order for you to fill out the forms correctly. Kind of like doing your taxes! (Same idea). When you have entered all the information, which will usually include ports of exit and port of entry, method of shipment, costs of goods, classification of goods, importer name, shipping costs, etc. The computer will then print out the finalized forms which will indicate how much you must pay in Duty and GST for your imported goods.
They have agents there who will then have a quick once over of your information, and then you will proceed to pay what you owe at the cash desk.
Once you have paid what you owe, your papers will be stamped “cleared”. You return to your shipper with these papers, and they will retrieve your packages. You have just brokered your own packages, and have avoided brokerage fees completely.
SOUNDS LIKE TOO MUCH WORK
Then pay the damn brokerage fee and don’t bitch! :rolleyes:
AS PROMISED, CHEATING THE SYSTEM
All goods imported in to Canada have different DUTY rates applied to them depending on the type of good. Even within the automotive realm, duty rates are not all the same. For example, importing a flywheel, may have a higher duty rate than say, ‘automative transmission components’ - now, you’re just a silly chump filling out the forms, so if you know which areas require less duty, you can ‘work’ the system slightly to allow a lower rate of duty to be applied to your imported goods. You’re only going to save a few percentage points. But it can be done. Uhm, and if for some reason what you are doing gets questioned, you’d be like :dunno: But more often than not, you’re not going to be questioned unless you are completely re-classifying the goods.
Cheating the duty by a couple percentage points isn’t the point of this thread. Completely removing brokerage fees is the point!
Hope some people find this helpful. If brokerage fees annoy you, this the way to avoid them. If you think it’s easy, power to you. If you think, my god, why would I do that? Pay your brokerage fees but at least understand the process so you know what it is you are paying for…