anyone tried shipping items out of US without declaring value or undervalued?

Not sure how they calculate the duty and tax in Australia, but here in Canada when I make expensive purchases from the U.S. I inform the sellers to mark it as a gift and reduce the value.  Most sellers would agree to do that, but if the item get lost then they aren't responsible.  Also, I noticed with different shipping methods the duties and taxes are different.  For example, using USPS to ship, the duty fees are lower than UPS.    

007 touched on it:  If you ask a person to devalue a $2700  item on a customs form to $100. Well, that $100 is all the shipper can logically insure it for. You would have to be an idiot to take out insurance for more than you claimed its value. So if the item goes missing or is damaged, there's no insurance. That means you eat all of the $2700.

It's also illegal. It's probably highly unlikely you'll get caught, but it's still illegal.

Would you still have to pay customs and duties to Canada even if the product is made in the U.S? I mean through the NAFTA shouldn't it be free? 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Blu. 

Would you still have to pay customs and duties to Canada even if the product is made in the U.S? I mean through the NAFTA shouldn't it be free? 

haha that's not how it works  broken system i think so :)

when i purchased my woo6 from Jack i asked him to mark the package as $100(wa6 costs $850 shipped). he did so and i only payed $10 as customs and duties. This was very risky because if anything got damaged or broken,the package is not insured so you are on your own.

i had faith in usps and my local post office because they never failed me or broken any of my packages from usps.

But unfortunatly some online retailers dont agree to mark the value lower than the original value because as they say it is illegal.

Luckily my parents are in the US, so I can ship items to them, then have them open the items which immediately makes the value fairly subjective allowing me to legally drop the stated value to what I want to.  I have never done this with anything nearly as expensive as $2700.  That is a big purchase, and Australia is far away.  I don't know if I would trust such an amount with the postal service without having insurance.

Quote:

Originally Posted by superjohny 

hi guys,

i am buying some gears which worth total of 2700USD in the state and ship to australia.

 

but according to aussie custom i will have to pay 270USD as duty and tax which is considerably alot.

 

so just wondering anyone tried sending without declaring value or under declare?

What are you planning to buy from the states?

If you import items worth more than 1000aud you apparently need to fill out an import declaration form, and pay the relevant customs duties... but that's only if they check the package.

I like to do that when buying from the States aswell (My last $300 purchase was marked at $40 to avoid customs all together), but I wouldn't do it for anything over $1000.  That's just getting to where, if anything DOES go wrong, I don't want to be on the losing end of $1000.  (Mind you, you could just claim DOA vs your seller, and they'd most likely replace it themselves, if it was a business.)

What I'd do if I was going to pay that much, would be to have it shipped to Seattle, and just drive down and get it from Vancouver.  Then just hide it under my seat or in my luggage.  Not that that's really an option for you.  <_<

Quote:

Originally Posted by Blu. 

Would you still have to pay customs and duties to Canada even if the product is made in the U.S? I mean through the NAFTA shouldn't it be free? 

If a product is manufactured in Canada/USA/Mexico it is duty free under NAFTA.

"Customs Fees" are comprised of duty, sales taxes & brokerage (handling fee). So under NAFTA you would pay:

$0 - Duty

5% GST

8% PST (Ontario)

Brokerage - Canada Post charges $5 or $6, UPS charges based on the declared value of the item converted into CDN $, the high the value the higher the brokerage!

FYI, you can download the duties listing and in most cases duty on headphones is 0% from the majority of countries! Although you will have to pay GST, PST & brokerage as mentioned above.

Also....writing "gift" on the customs forms IMO is a red flag for customs, just have the seller write "used headphones" $40.

Theoretically, yes.  The 'customs' you'd be charged between US and Canada is GST/PST, but I'd still rather drive to Seattle and have fun with my 14-16% then pay it up.  (PS: lol BC is getting the HST.  FML)