# Buying from US store, ship to Canada?



## canfanreal (Nov 27, 2005)

I was wondering if anyone knows if this is possible? 

Ordering from the US from the online US store, but have it ship to Canada as a gift?


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## Wako (Oct 11, 2006)

You'd probably en up paying 20+% of duties. I wouldn't suggest. Don't know if it's possible howeever.


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## monokitty (Jan 26, 2002)

Not possible. US shipping address required. (AFAIK.)


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## krs (Mar 18, 2005)

canfanreal said:


> I was wondering if anyone knows if this is possible?
> 
> Ordering from the US from the online US store, but have it ship to Canada as a gift?


Are you talking about the Apple store or just in general?


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## CanadaRAM (Jul 24, 2005)

Long answer: The US Apple store will only ship to US addresses, and there are limitations on credit cards/payment accepted. 

You would have to have it shipped to a person in the USA, then they would have to ship it to you. They will pay the State and Local taxes in the US, which may be 7 - 10%

Then they will have to ship it to you -- $20 - $50 depending on method. 

"Gift" isn't going to fly... there is a value limit on what can be declared as a gift.

There are no duties on computers, there may be duties on some accessory items if they were not manufactured in the US or Mexico. A monitor manufactured in China for example has 6.9% duty

Depending on the shipping method, you will have betwen $5 (Canada Post) and $60 (FedEx, UPS) in brokerage and disbursement charges for preparing the paperwork. 

Then you will pay GST and Provincial tax. on the duty paid value, and GST on the brokerage.

Short answer: Buy it in Canada


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## SoyMac (Apr 16, 2005)

canfanreal said:


> I was wondering if anyone knows if this is possible? -
> Ordering from the US from the online US store, but have it ship to Canada as a gift?


How close do you, or a trustworthy friend/relative live to the U.S. border?

Having your purchase shipped to a border postal holding station can save you a lot of the shipping hassle and cost. A bookstore-owner friend does this, and it's well-worth her 1 hour drive to the border every few months.

I just compared an Apple Canada store price of a MacBook Pro
and it's $*4467.66* CAD including tax

On the USA Apple store 
the same MacBook Pro costs:
$3,474.00 USD 
which is
$*3,474.00* CAD 

A one thousand dollar difference in price might also inflence one's decision on how to purchase the same item.

Assuming one declared the item at the border and pays Canadian taxes, in Ontario, the US Apple store purchase would then amount to $3960.36 CAD

The diffference in price by buying from the USA store then is:
$507.03 CAD
This price difference does not include any shipping or driving costs to-from the USA.


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## MacDoc (Nov 3, 2001)

SoyMac you need to check your figures again.
Something wrong - as well there are US taxes to pay as well.


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## krs (Mar 18, 2005)

The 17-inch MacBook Pro is $US 2799.00 plus around 8% sales tax in NY state.
Total $3022.92 in the US.
The Cdn price of the same unit at today's exchange rate with Ontario tax works out to 3137.79 in US dollars. Total price in Canada.

If you bring the US MacBook across the border and pay Ontario PST and GST on it, it costs you a lot more than buying it here in the first place.


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## Brian Scully (Jan 23, 2001)

*US purchases*

It is my understanding that Apple US prohibits any authorized Apple dealer from shipping Apple branded products into Canada . Small Dog which is one of the largest Apple Authorized Dealers in the USA and a Fortune 500 company states that they cannot ship to a Canadian address. I have bought third party products from them without problem other than poor packaging


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## SoyMac (Apr 16, 2005)

MacDoc said:


> SoyMac you need to check your figures again.
> Something wrong - as well there are US taxes to pay as well.


No and maybe and no. 
If canfanreal is a U.S. citizen, they would pay the sales tax of the state from which the product is sold, if they reside in that state. They would not then pay Canadian taxes on that item -as the purchase would then be a U.S. resident owning property purchased in the U.S. with taxes paid in the U.S., and sending it to Canada, there would be no more justification for paying Canadian taxes on this item at the border than there would be for a U.S. tourist to pay taxes on the clothes they are wearing, or on the motorhome that they purchased in the U.S.A. and are driving across the border for touring across our peaceful country.

Since canfanreal is posting on ehMac, I will assume they are Canadian.
In the U.S.A., non-residents do not pay resident sales tax of product sale origin.
Also and especially, international, on-line purchasers do not pay tax both in the country of origin and in the country of residence. If canfanreal is a Canadian citizen, they would not pay U.S. taxes, but may pay Canadian taxes if they either choose, or get caught.


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## SoyMac (Apr 16, 2005)

krs said:


> The 17-inch MacBook Pro is $US 2799.00 plus around 8% sales tax in NY state.
> Total $3022.92 in the US.
> The Cdn price of the same unit at today's exchange rate with Ontario tax works out to 3137.79 in US dollars. Total price in Canada.
> 
> If you bring the US MacBook across the border and pay Ontario PST and GST on it, it costs you a lot more than buying it here in the first place.


The MBP price depends on the specs of the item. I maxed out my example and that's why there may be a discrepancy between your prices and mine. 

But the price of the item is not the point, it's the discrepancy between the US price and the Canadian price that matters. 
The Canadian dollar is now trading at about 92 cents US. Apparently the Apple Canada store does not nearly reflect this value of the Canadian dollar and is one of the reasons for Canadians paying higher prices for the same Apple products on this side of the border.


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## CanadaRAM (Jul 24, 2005)

SoyMac said:


> Since canfanreal is posting on ehMac, I will assume they are Canadian.
> In the U.S.A., non-residents do not pay resident sales tax of product sale origin.
> Also and especially, international, on-line purchasers do not pay tax both in the country of origin and in the country of residence. If canfanreal is a Canadian citizen, they would not pay U.S. taxes, but may pay Canadian taxes if they either choose, or get caught.


THe no-US-Tax thing is only if the product leaves the country directly. But the Apple store or any online Authorized Apple deler will not ship outside of the US. 

Therefore, the purchase will have to be made to a US address, and state and local tax will be charged appropriate to the delivery address in the US, (0% in Oregon and NH, various otherwheres). It doesn't matter if you are a citizen or not, you pay on the delivery address.

The exception would be an online reseller like Amazon who charge tax in only a few States, but the original question was the US Apple Store.

Then the buyer's contact in the states will have to ship it cross border, where it will be assessed duties if any, GST and provincial tax. 

I don't know of a mechanism, other than if the contact was a reseller with a tax exempt cert., where you could get back the US state tax on export.


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## krs (Mar 18, 2005)

SoyMac - I think you're a mile off base.
I deal with US and also European purchases all the time and this is what I found.
If you're a US citizen and buy on-line, you get charged the state tax of the state where you reside if the company you buy from has a b/m store in your state.
If you're a Canadian and buy in a store in the US, you get charged the state sales tax - no way around that.
You don't get the sales tax back either after you come back to Canada.
If you bring the goods with you, there is an excemption of taxes and duty up to a certain amount depending how long you were out of the country - but it's not much. certainly doesn't cover the cost of a $3000 computer.
If a US citizen buys the computer for you and ships it up here as a "gift", your excemption is a whole $60.- Canadian, so theoretically Canada Customs should subtract that from the total value and you pay duty and local sales taxes on the rest (PST and GST) plus the $5.00 COD fee that Canada Post charges.
The only way you don't pay taxes in the country of origin, and that applies to the US and Europe, is if the merchant ships the goods directly to you, but then you pay Canadian taxes and shipping.
Doesn't matter how you do it, even if you bring a 17-inch MacBok Pro into Canada illegally, ie pay no Cdn taxes, the most you will save vs buying it here is just over $100.


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## SoyMac (Apr 16, 2005)

People, you're making me tired with your ridiculous arguing. (And hopefully that'll help my insomnia. :yawn: )

krs, do you think you're the only one who makes international purchases?  
We deal with the USA, Europe and China. We know costs here.

It's too much trouble for me to make screenshots of the text on various sales websites where it says, for example, "California residents add --% sales tax", etc., and then post them on tinypic just to prove something you already know.

I know we proud Canadians and Apple-lovers like to think that it's not killing our pocketbooks to "buy Canadian", especially from the Apple store, but the numbers are not emotional. Numbers (and our credit card statements) don't lie.

You are doing canfanreal and any other Canadians a disservice to pretend that it's even nearly the same price or less to buy an Apple product in Canada.

canfanreal, I suggest you make your own decision about how to go about making an Apple purchase. Here's how;

Open two windows in your browser. In window one, open the Apple Canada store website.
Price the item you want, to the specs you want. Mulitply the price by .14 (if you're in Ontario) and add that number to the original price to see what your total price, including tax will be.

In window two, open the Apple USA store website. Price the same item with the same specs, in US dollars. 
Now open the currency calculater in Dashboard, and see what the price of that item is in Canadian dollars. Add the appropriate amount of Canadian tax. 
Now compare this number to the significantly higher number that you got on the Canadian Apple site, and feel a bit angry. That's okay. Anger is energy to be used for good when channeled properly.

As I said earlier, consider where you live, the logistics of Canadian vs American orders, shipping, costs of time and fuel, and then decide how you want to proceed with this purchase.

Good luck!


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## MacDoc (Nov 3, 2001)

SoyMac you also need to calculate exchange rates of credit card fees based not what you see online and that adds at least 2.5%.

It's only a small blip just now - for the last 3 months it would have paid a US citizen to buy in Canada as a number of machines were cheaper here as Apple pinned the exchange rate earlier at a low differential then the the dollar dropped into the 84¢ range.

It also differs between machines - Apple strives to hit specific price points in both countries so depending on where that falls one or the other country will have a minor advantage.

Playing arbitrage games on a single purchase rarely if ever makes any sense. You get death by a thousand cuts in double taxes, shipping, credit card fees, brokerage if you are not careful....THEN worry about it getting lost in transit.

In some categories ( many printers for instance ) the prices are much lower in the US but then they play "no warranty in Canada " games. 

So much for free trade eh.


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## HowEver (Jan 11, 2005)

This is the part I don't understand:



SoyMac said:


> On the USA Apple store
> the same MacBook Pro costs:
> *$3,474.00 USD *
> which is
> *$3,474.00 CAD*


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## Theseus (Jun 6, 2006)

Maybe SoyMac's feeling optimistic about the weak US dollar? 93 cents today, getting closer and closer to parity.


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## krs (Mar 18, 2005)

SoyMac said:


> krs, do you think you're the only one who makes international purchases?
> We deal with the USA, Europe and China. We know costs here.


Well - you better read post #10 again.
That's what I was referring to and a lot of your comments there are wrong.

You list all sorts of ways to circumvent sales taxes which just don't work. You either get nailed in the US or you get nailed here; and if you buy it in a store in the US and bring it across, you pay tax twice.
Canada Customs doesn't care if you already paid sales tax in the US and the US merchant will certainly charge you sales tax at the store - resident or no-resident.

You also can't use the 0.92 exchange rate that is published - that's an interbank rate - right now you get around 89 cents US for the Canadian dollar.
I really doubt that the difference of a macBook Pro is over $1000.- as you indicated - even maxed out - can you provide any more detail on that?


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## MacDoc (Nov 3, 2001)

I actually got 92.76 on a $22,000 purchase of US funds today but that's at least .5% better than the average bank rate and 3% better than a CC rate

CANADA

Subtotal	$3,919.00
Estimated Ship:
1-3 business days 

Specifications

2.33GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
3GB 667 DDR2 SDRAM - 1x2GB, 1x1GB
200GB Serial ATA Drive @ 4200 rpm
SuperDrive 8x (DVD+R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
MacBook Pro 17-inch Widescreen Display
Backlit Keyboard/Mac OS - U.S. English
Accessory Kit

US

Subtotal	$3,474.00 = $4157 before Canadian taxes based on Credit card exchange rates and 8% US sales tax

Specifications

2.33GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
3GB 667 DDR2 SDRAM - 1x2GB, 1x1GB
200GB Serial ATA Drive @ 4200 rpm
SuperDrive 8x (DVD+R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
MacBook Pro 17-inch Widescreen Display
Backlit Keyboard/Mac OS - U.S. English
Accessory Kit

Now from us that same unit would be $3399 and if you happened to live out of province 

and the open box glossy screen we happen to have would be $2990 3 gig/160 

TANSTAAFL.....no FREE lunch but we at least have a few







specials from time to time


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## RobTheGob (Feb 10, 2003)

krs said:


> If you're a Canadian and buy in a store in the US, you get charged the state sales tax - no way around that.


If you're from Alberta and are shopping in Washington state - most retailers will allow you to show ID and be state tax exempt.

That's *one* way around it.


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## krs (Mar 18, 2005)

So am I reading this right?

*MacBook Pro 17-inch Widescreen Display*
e/w
2.33GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
3GB 667 DDR2 SDRAM - 1x2GB, 1x1GB
200GB Serial ATA Drive @ 4200 rpm
SuperDrive 8x (DVD+R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
Backlit Keyboard/Mac OS - U.S. English
Accessory Kit

Canada - Apple store: $C3,919.00
US - Apple Store: $US3,474.00 = $C4157 (based on CC exchange rates and 8% US sales tax
Canada - MacDoc: $C3399.00


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## MacDoc (Nov 3, 2001)

Yes pretty straight forward.
RAM of course is the key for us....Apple has to keep that margin up.


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## krs (Mar 18, 2005)

I assume there is no educational pricing with you.


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## HowEver (Jan 11, 2005)

krs said:


> I assume there is no educational pricing with you.


Did you want the price raised to $3,603.00 ?

------

Separate question: how does Apple get away with charging $643 for an additional GB of RAM? Hasn't the bottom fallen out of this RAM?


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