Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler Customs & Brokerage fees

Just wondering...

Do those in the US buying from Axiom, a Canadian company, need to pay extra costs such as customs/duty fees, brokerage fees and other extra taxes/charges?

I live in Canada and if I were to order from HSU I would need to pay these significant extra costs.

US buyers don't have to pay any additional fees. I thought NAFTA did away with all that. Does it not work both ways?

I paid frikin duty on a 12 yr old Bryston amp that originated from Canada but went to the US.
You see why I don't vote.

Has anyone on this forum that lives in Canada bought a HSU sub? Did you have to pay customs and brokerage fees? If so how much were they?

There are no duties on loudspeakers shipped to Canada from the US.
You will pay taxes and shipping and potentially insurance on shipping if this is an option. Depending on the carrier, there could be a brokerage fee (typically $40-70 Cdn).

I think this is only true if the equipment you are importing is built in the US or Mexico. As far as I know it falls under the NAFTA agreement. If you were to purchase speakers from the US that were built elsewhere you would have to pay duty. Of course I have been known to err.

Aren't HSU subs built in China? That would explain the duty.
Btw does that mean that SVS are duty free to bring into canada?

Can someone check their SVS to find out where it was manufactured?

This quote is from the SVS site news section regarding the PB-1,

"Something made in the USA with exacting care by the company as crazy about quality sound as you are?? "

Frank

SVS are designed and built in Ohio. The drivers they use are built to spec by TC sounds, a San Diego based company.

It is a bit of an odd thing when duties apply and do not since our relatively new Tannoys (British built) came from the States (California) and we paid no duties.
Taxes yes, duties no.
I'm thinking there might be a difference b/c they were used and not new.

In any event, the original quesiton regarding Hsu or SVS subs should be "no", there should not be any duty charges.

I paid duty on a 15 year old piece of Carver equipment last year. I applied to have it rebated and lost.

For the Canadians on this site curious about duties and taxes, there is a great calculator (and information) located here at A&A brokers. They once brought some material across the border for me.
Incidentally they also have links to some border cams so you can check out the ridiculous lineups before you travel.

For any Canadians who are wondering I received an email from Hsu Research.

In reply to:

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Some of our products, like the VTF-2, is made in the US and the customs may differ from our new items. The STF line is made in China."

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I'm pretty sure that the STF would have duties placed on it as only products made in the US and Mexico are covered under NAFTA.

I live in Ontario, and I ordered an HSU VTF-2 last summer. The package arrived by FedEx first week of August, no taxes, no duties, nothing.. I was pleasently surprised.

Then, about in mid October, I got a bill from FedEx for about a hundred and some odd extra dollars, charging me for the taxes they paid to get it over the border. This was also a surprise, just not a pleasent one. I can't remember what exactly the bill was comprised of, but I'll try and dig it up to give you the details.

okay, I just found the fee statement. Unfortunately, it doesn't have an actual breakdown of costs (I believe this came as a second statement, which I threw out). Anyway, for a b-stock HSU VTF-2 ($399US + $50US shipping) fed-ex charged me $130.73CDN, which is a lump sum for PST/GST, handling fees and duties. Doing a quick rough estimate, taxes on the sub should have been about $80 CDN, so there was a good $50 worth of extra charges. Hope that helps.

thanks for the info Craig.