Well I don't know what to believe now,
I have purchased three Leupold rifle scopes online, all three scopes came from the US into Canada by mail or courier.
I contacted Canadian customs about this before I made my purchases, they told me that "as long as the optics are made in the US, then it would be just PST & GST (depending on which province the item is being shipped to) for the duty on the purchase price of the item" any other country of origan there would be more duty depending on which country the manufacturing took place in.
This rang true on only one of the three, only one of the three I paid some duty on, the other two, nothing (which was fine by me).
I also asked customs about the US side of things, Canada Customs told me it's a two way street, basically saying it's the same for the US. That's all they told me on that issue.
As for where you purchase the item was a different story again, I was told that if I purchase a rifle scope from a dealer or retailer or wholesaler, that I might need an import permit (maybe), but purchasing it from an individual was not subject to needing a permit for a private sale.
So far I have not had any complications of any kind and hope that never happens ever.
Considering that I purchased three Leupold rifle scopes online (private individual sales) for the price of one new from a local retailer would be my reason for doing it this way.
So I really don't understand all this Export / Import BS, since I have never used it or needed it before.
1). Is there a cost for these papers?
2). Is this just another one of the governments get rich quick scams? (if there is a cost to these forms).
3). What's the real reason for these papers? (why are they needed). Not just because they allow things into the country, but the underpining of it's so called nature.
4). When did this become into effect? and what happened before one needed an import/export permit? why did things change?
5). Are these permits really necessary for individual sales?
Thanks for your time,
Brian
P.S. The one scope that I did pay duty on was interesting in it's self, The customs office tallied the duty by including the shipping and handling with the actual sales cost of the item, plus added in their own handling fee, so instead of the duty simply being 13%(B.C.), it was more like 16.5% in the end.
