Calculating Duties and Taxes to Canada

Canada is a prime market for export for U.S. brands. It’s close in proximity and there isn’t a language barrier as English is spoken throughout Canada. (Although, we’d be remiss to point out that you’ll definitely get some bonus points with the Canadian market if you can support French translation.)

While sending items to Canada may seem like a synch, there are duties and taxes in the region to consider if you want to create a seamless shopping experience for your Canadian clients.

There are two main items to consider in the duty and tax calculation for Canadian shipments.

The first is to review where you are sending the items. In Canada the country is set up in a group of ten provinces and three territories. Each province and territory has its own set of duty and tax rates based on the below concepts:

Provincial Sales Tax (PST): a tax only applicable to the particular province.

Goods and Service Tax (GST): a federal tax of 5% that is applied to most goods imported into Canada.

Harmonized Sales Tax (HST): a sales tax that combines the amount of PST & GST for a particular region.

The second is to review where the item is manufactured. If the item was made in the USA it may qualify for duty and tax exemption under NAFTA. However, if the item was manufactured overseas it would not be exempt from these fees. 

The Canadian customs authority has a great link on their website to give you a sample estimated calculation of what the duties and taxes for your purchase are.

Are you interested in finding a solution inclusive of duty and tax calculation to Canada? Or have questions about how duties and taxes for ecommerce shipments work? SkyBOX Checkout can help. Our international checkout solution facilitates cross border shopping between the U.S. and Canada allowing you to charge customers in CAD and provide them a guaranteed duty and tax calculation inclusive of all export fees. 

To learn more contact us here.