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 Replies: 40 / Views: 4,703 |
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Valued Member
Canada
127 Posts |
I recently made a rather large numismatic purchase on ebay from what I thought was a domestic seller. I solely buy domestically (or so I thought), using the location filter when I search for items. Well, turns out even though the seller listed Item Location as Canada, my package is being shipped USPS. Am I missing something? Is it wrong to expect that item location is where the item is being shipped from? I ask this as I'm expecting a large duties bill now and had I known this was not where the item was located, I would never have purchased. |
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Pillar of the Community
 Canada
9864 Posts |
There is no duty on coins, only taxes.
"Dipping" is not considered cleaning...
-from PCGS website
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Valued Member
 Canada
127 Posts |
Wasn't sure about duty or not DBM, but thanks for clearing that part up anyways. So, about $500 or so in unplaned taxes then.
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
5588 Posts |
Did you get a shipping notice that said that it was actually being shipped USPS? Or is that what the "shipping details" listed in the auction? If he is a Canadian dealer and it hasn't been physically sent yet, call him and have it sent Canada post or Fedex, etc .. however, that may nulify whether the shipment can be insured (Canada Post has weird rules).
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Pillar of the Community
 Canada
5394 Posts |
$500 in unplanned taxes? You owe the GST / PST / HST anyways no matter where it comes from if you are buying from a registered dealer? Unless you are buying off of one of the socalled Canadians I am only selling off My personal collection types........ You know the sellers with a gazillion transactions in a year  who aren't registered for the GST / HST or the provincial sales tax. Any seller selling over 30000 a year is required to be registered for GST. The threshold is 10000 for provincial sales tax in BC. Edited by Pacificoin
02/21/2016 06:56 am
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Pillar of the Community
United States
5825 Posts |
Could be a Canadian who lives close to the US border.
He takes a short trip and plops the package in the US mail.
(There are probably other things he has to do since a return address is required and maybe something else.)
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
2495 Posts |
Quote:
Unless you are buying off of one of the socalled Canadians I am only selling off My personal collection types........ You know the sellers with a gazillion transactions in a year who aren't registered for the GST / HST or the provincial sales tax. Yea, wait until they're audited. Try explaining "it's my personal collection" to the CRA. The CRA's final ruling will be: 1. Sales are income and should have been reported. 2. Since it wasn't reported, we're adding a fine to boot. 3. and God forbid if you've sold over 30K a year, because now you're in for the HST amount. Oy Vay! Aren't you in for a wonderful time!! Edited by doubleeagle59
02/21/2016 09:28 am
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Pillar of the Community
United States
5828 Posts |
isn't it cheaper to ship from the US to canada vs canada to canada? When I bought a vietnam relacement chin strap for my WW2 helmet the seller was from canada and he mentioned that he will always send from a US address since its cheaper, even to send from canada.
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Valued Member
Canada
127 Posts |
Okiecoiner - I actually received a shipping notification already, that is when I realized the mess. I guess I am going to have to just wait and see what happens and assess once it arrives.
Kanga - That is my guess as well.
Pac/Doubleeagle - I know you are both well respected member's of the forums and I understand the topic of taxes has been discussed many times. From what I can tell, this seller is a personal collector just as myself. I almost exclusively purchase from individuals, and avoid dealers. Why? I'm a severely ill veteran who served his country for 10 years, and have 1000s of dollars in medical expenses every month that I pay for out of pocket because I have been screwed over by veterans affairs and our government.
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
2845 Posts |
Quote:
isn't it cheaper to ship from the US to canada vs canada to canada?
If it is, that wouldn't be surprising. I can only account my own experience. After avoiding numerous US sellers due to Global Shipping and the sizeable Import Fees, I recently made a purchase in the amount of a few hundred dollars from a US seller, shipping by USPS. I paid no additional fees whatsoever and the item was clearly marked "numismatics" on the shipping label. The same USPS code was also trackable on the CP website, after it cleared the border. |
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
2495 Posts |
thrustie.....
From personal knowledge and from colleagues, I know this - when you're audited, the CRA treats you as 'guilty, until proven innocent', NOT the other way around (as it should be).
Of paramount importance is your amount of buying and selling activity.
If selling is equal to your buying activity, then unquestionably the CRA with view this as a business and thus you have income to report, regardless of a person's many pleas of 'it's only a hobby'.
Your only 'out' and it's not ironclad, is if your buying far outweighs your selling. Then you (or should I recommend your accountant) could argue the case that it is a hobby, since you are doing mostly buying and you are selling only the odd duplicate or item you know longer want to have. Again, the CRA may still deem this an income.
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
5394 Posts |
Let me help out a bit with the shipping questions posted above. We are a Canadian seller that does ship from the USA twice a week, usually Tuesday's and Friday's to conform with eBays shipping rules for top rated sellers. What we ship is coins and small collectibles from both our ebay accounts and other sales such as our Website and Mail order. The process works well for shipping from WA state to the rest of the US and to SOME foreign countries , Canada NOT being one of them.. The US customs and Border Protection people at Sumas WA have been excellent to work with as long as you have the prepared paper work done and the packages unsealed for inspection.. Also the added convenience of printing on line postage and postal forms ahead of time is a time saver for dealing with the USPS. For us and any other Canadian seller close to a USPS office it is a god send to be able to do this sort of shipping. Total turnaround time walking across the border shipping and returning to Canada is under 50 minutes. There is no charge for WALKING through US customs .If you use a vehicle there is a charge of 13.05 USD for a Customs inspection. The reason that shipping to Canada from the US is not viable is two fold . First it is NOT cheaper, which may come as a surprise , secondly it will raise red flags with the CBSA and the CRA. If you are GST registered as we are there is no reason to do it. Any one who purchases from us and has a CANADIAN address gets a proper GST/HST invoice with the amount of taxes clearly stated as well as our GST number on the paperwork. Many of you on this forum have bought from us in the past and continue to support us, know that this is the proper way to deal with buying coins on ebay or through the mail from a registered dealer. Double eagle is right any other way and those sellers are in for one heck of a surprise IF they are ever audited. Also any purchasers who bought from such sellers are themselves liable for unpaid sales taxes if caught in the net. It is called self imposed taxation.. No one likes to pay taxes or collect them, but that is the cost associated with living in our country. I have a motto ever since I went into business many many years ago. "Do it right , sleep at night". Edited by Pacificoin
02/21/2016 11:31 am
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Valued Member
Canada
127 Posts |
I understand this doubleeagle. I would venture to say people who only sell on ebay would have a better chance with that argument. I.e. they are selling parts of their collection, not buying and never reselling. For myself anyways, I have been a collector for years and do sell parts of my collection to buy new stuff or make changes. (Almost solely at a loss which is a small cost of enjoying the hobby) Almost all my purchases have been from flea markets, kijiji, etc with the bulk of my collection purchased in the 2011-2012 time frame. I do keep records of all my purchase costs and the sale price if I do sell a particular piece, but to file taxes with a net loss of 25% on average for years, would certainly class me as a not for profit hobbyist. |
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
2845 Posts |
@ doubleeagle59. My understanding is that for the average collector who sells off a few duplicates throughout the year, it's only the net capital gain (ie selling price minus original purchase price/costs) that CRA expects to be reportable. If the total gain is less than $1000 in the year, the sale is except. Above $1,000 per year, in the case of Capital Gains, only 50% (may vary per province) is taxable at the marginal tax rate. For example: someone sells $50,000 of their coin collection, less $28,000 original purchase price and $2,000 other costs = $20,000 Capital Gain, of which $10,000 then is taxable. Is that your understanding as well? I appreciate the venue of this forum is not to provide tax advise, but I don't want people to have the impression the tax man is about to scoff off with their their entire sale proceeds either. To add: my recent experience with a US seller, I was not referring to a dealer. I also can understand the conflict that arises between ebay dealers and private sellers in terms of the additional cost of GST/PST/HST or not. Edited by wildflowerAB
02/21/2016 11:38 am
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
1984 Posts |
Its probably a seller in Canada who plans to use Canada Post but listed it on ebay.com where there is no option to tick Canada Post. In such a case, I always tick USPS even though I am going to use Canada Post as it most closely resembles what I am going to use. So you are probably not going to have to worry about any tax bill on delivery. Don't be so hard on people saying "personal collection" and saying no taxes will be charged. I am such a person. I sell under $30K so HST does not apply. Income taxes are another matter but that has no bearing on whether I charge sales taxes. One should be careful about criticizing others when you never really know what the true facts are. |
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Valued Member
Canada
127 Posts |
Thanks for the shipping info Pac, it pretty much confirms my thoughts that it would make no sense to ship back to Canada from the US. With that being said, I havn't really looked into it, but I imagine shipping from a location other than item location specified on ebay would be meet the definition of Fraud and be grounds to refuse package? |
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Replies: 40 / Views: 4,703 |
Posted 02/21/2016 02:18 am
