Re: [Paddlewise] Run for the border

At 08:37 AM 5/27/00, Wes Boyd wrote:
>I'm considering buying a new sea kayak in Ontario, and bringing it back to
>the US. I have no idea of what's involved with customs, duty, taxes,
>paperwork, or any of that. Can anyone give me an overview, point me to a
>website, or otherwise let me know what I'd be getting myself in for?

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For the sake of general information to Paddlewisers, I thought I would
provisionally answer my own question, thanks to some e-mails, a little
netsurfing, and phone conversations with the US Customs service.

Buying a Canadian built boat in Canada seems to have some cost benefits for
those of us close enough to the border to make it worthwhile. After you
take the currency conversion rates into consideration, list prices that
I've been able to find on Canadian-built boats seem to be 10 to 20 percent
less than the list prices listed in the Canoe and Kayak 2000 buyers guide.
For example, one particular boat I'm interested in apparently lists for
$3295 CDN in Canada, or roughly $2190 US. Canoe and Kayak lists that
particular boat at $2495 US in the US. (When I looked over the weekend, the
conversion rate was 66.4 cents on the dollar, IIRC.) Obviously, this is
going to vary with the boat, the dealer, and so forth. It's especially
interesting in that the nearest US dealer for that boat is more than twice
as far away than the nearest Canadian one.

According to a conversation that I had with a Customs inspector in Detroit,
if a boat built in Canada is brought across the border by a private
individual, there is no duty, thanks to NAFTA. You do, however, have to be
able to point to somewhere on the boat, or paperwork, that indicates that
the boat is actually built in Canada. If the actual point of construction
of the boat is some other country, you may have to pay up to 10% duty on
the first $1000 of the value of the boat in US dollars, and 2.7% after
that. The actual duty depends on the country of origin.

The inspector that I talked to suggests that if you think that there's ever
the possibility that you're going to take the boat back into Canada, say,
on a trip, it's worthwhile to get a duplicate bill of sale at the port of
entry, and have it stamped that the boat has passed customs.

The other complication is sales tax. A combination of provincial and
federal sales taxes comes to 15% of the value of the purchase. However,
when you cross the border, you can pick up a form that's submitted to the
Canadian government to refund the sales tax.

The above is my understanding of the situation from research, not from
actual experience. However, the first time I get a chance, I'm heading
north of the border to try out some boats.

-- Wes

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