Sewlmatesister

There is no such thing as duty on fabric...but you may pay tax (sometimes). NEVER have anything sent through UPS or FEDEX or they will charge HUGE brokerage fees!!!!!
Have done it for years. Very seldom pay tax!

ecmoore

Okay. I just dug through my tarriff schedule, and my isn't THAT fun reading. And my earlier statement, and in fact, my earlier understanding of the tariff was, well, wrong. Apparently as long as the country is in the most favoured nation category, you're pretty well good. You just have to pay tax on the purchase, provided it's labelled properly and all (there are a TON of different categorizations, though, so I'd be very leery of just labelling a package with "fabric.") You do, however, have to pay your provincial tax. Yay HST.

That being said: If you import a completed quilt, even from a most favoured nation or a country with which we have a trade agreement, and it's not under your personal exemption amount, you're stuck with 12-14% import tariff. Awesome.

Favorite Fabrics

We really can't. We're required by law to mark the packages as merchandise when that's truly what is in them.

And since all the international packages look pretty much alike, it would look kind of odd if one was marked "gift" while the others were not.

It would look odder still if they were ALL marked "gift"!

:shock:

That would be a SURE way to invite trouble!

deanna.r

I order fabrics from US companies all the time. I usually wait for sales (for example Hancock's of Paducah always has fabrics in a sale section, and has a current free shipping offer: note, they price by the 1/2 yard)

Back To School Free Shipping

Type BK2SCL in the promotional code box during checkout.
Offer expires August 30, 2011.


United States minimum: $30.00
International minimum: $100.00
Limit 2 battings per order; all oversized items excluded from this offer
Orders places before the receipt of this email are not valid for this offer.
Please call 1-800-845-8723 or Email Us if you need assistance.

If you are paying for shipping, you have to figure out if the added shipping charges and any potential duties are still less than you would pay for the same fabric in Canada.

Many companies ship free to US addresses. If you have friends who spend part of the year at a second home in the US, they may be kind enough to have things shipped to them and bring them to you. Many of these "snow birds" do not buy enough for your fabric to make a difference in their declarations.

Find out where the fabric is made by phoning the company. That way you can know if it will be duty free.

As others have said, you are more often "dinged" on boxes than you are on USPS flat rate envelopes.

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quilterella

There were 24 Fatquarters per bundle. So basically 30yds of fabric for the sale price plus the $68.00 taxes when it was delivered. That was the only place I could get the colour graduation I needed for the bargello I was making(next project). I don't order often from online stores, as I try to support my LQS, but, the closest one is 45minutes away and the prices are very high. I have ordered other things and there was no TAX surprise on delivery, so, I am not sure of the reasoning on how they figure this out. There has been alot of interesting information on this topic, and I will continue to watch this thead.

dunster

Just wondering, is there a way to protest the tax if you don't agree with how it was assessed?

ecmoore

Dunster, you can contest the duty at a CBA office, iirc, but I'm not sure of the exact process. They have a 1-800 number, and the people are very, very helpful. If I was a US merchant who was willing to ship to Canada (and a LOT of them aren't, I'm just saying) I'd probably call and find out exactly how to label the packages for my customers.

People in Canada tend to be surprised at the amount of duty we pay in general, and Americans are doubly so. I mean, we live in a country where gas is about $5.50 US/Gal, and milk in my area is about $5/gal. It's a real shock for my husband, that's for sure. (Granted, it's bizarre - it's cheaper for us in Toronto to eat strawberries imported from Mexico than it is for people in Texas.)

Add to the fact that when we purchase in Canada, the duties are hidden to a certain degree - wrapped up in the sticker price, because we have so little manufacturing and so much has historically been imported. And finally, we've traditionally had a very high exchange rate in the US, and Canadians are used to paying a LOT of money for certain products. (Some non-quilting examples: Shoes at payless, the exact same shoes, are usually 20-30% higher priced between Canada and the US. Books are starting to even up in price, but many are still 20% higher at least. A bernina foot I need is $60 in Canada, and $25 in the US.) This also serves to keep the prices artificially high, even though the dollar has been floating within 5% of par for the last five years, and has been over par for most of the last 6 months.

Just Me...

I can ship up to 4 pounds in a flat-rate envelope priority mail ($13.95) to a customer....usually around 4-5 yards, depending on the fabric (USPS). Once you move away from the envelopes, they are scrutinized more for duty. I have several ladies who buy on a regular basis who put in their Order Comments "Use a multiple of envelopes rather than a box". Every once in a while, they get hit with a small duty, but usually they appear to be more of a document package and aren't pulled to check....

QuiltE

Oh no ... I was NOT suggesting that it be brought across as anything but legitimate.

Rather that some vendors are bring their shipments to the border, declare them, clear customs ... then ship it in Canada. Many are doing it as a regular side of their business, just so they know that it gets processed correctly, quickly and in the right classes/categories to keep the customs fees at a minimum and with no surprises for their customers. That way, they know once it's in the mail/courier, it'll soon be in their customers' hands.

Favorite Fabrics

We stuff 8 yards of fabric into those envelopes... at which point they don't look "documenty" at all! :lol: