If you're an American company that has grown to a certain size, almost certainly you're going to start looking towards Canada as a future possible expansion site for you business. They are the largest trading partner our country as, and for residents of many states are actually much closer geographically closer than many of the other states in the US. However, as any San Francisco courier might tell you that may be making regular deliveries up to Vancouver, there are certain fees and charges that are associated with shipping to Canada that you don't have to contend with when shipping domestically.
This isn't to say that there isn't profit to be made by doing business with Canada. Many American companies deal with customers north of the border with great success. It just pays to be informed before you begin expanding your operation so that you know that you're getting into when you start shipping those first orders out to your Canadian customers.
When you ship goods to Canada you're going to have to pay the Canadian Goods and Services Tax or GST on almost anything that you ship into the country. This is a 5% sales tax that applies to most all goods being brought in. There are additional taxes in many of the provinces as well. Some provinces, like Ontario, also feature an 8% or less sales tax which assessed on many, but not all goods. Others, like Alberta, only have the GST, and no PST whatsoever.
If you're shipping to Canada it might also be useful to know that their tax laws are changing, and soon some provinces are going to implement an HST or harmonized sales tax. This will unify the two taxes in many of the provinces in which they exist into one larger tax that will apply to most of the goods that GST applied to, removing some previous PST exemptions.
There are also some other fees which you may have to pay depending on what you are shipping into the country, and how much. There are duties and fees which can be assessed on certain goods. There are also some goods which fall under certain trade agreements and as such will require special permits, which can also cost money. The final cost that you'll have to deal with whenever you're shipping anything internationally is that of the brokerage fee. You can save on brokerage costs by combining several small orders into one larger one.
Author Resource:-
Paul McDuffy is an international consultant for courier service companies. With exceptional knowledge of local business management, Paul is also becoming an expert with Local Internet Marketing. http://www.am-tran.com/ and http://www.scott-gallagher.net
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