Tariff-ic Savings

(Thane Burnett — Winnipeg Sun)

We’re getting more bang for our buck – but good luck figuring out our confounding customs duties

Golly — everyone in the family wants something different.

You’re looking for an Andy Warhol painting for the den.

Your spouse can’t decide whether to get a great deal on a microwave oven or just spring for an entire $1.5-billion nuclear reactor.

And those darn kids. Neat freak Billy hopes to pick up a few hundred brooms while dreamer Sally thinks she’s finally saved enough for her own dirigible — because who doesn’t want their own lighter-than-air balloon?

It’s Thanksgiving weekend, and the Canadian tradition is to ditch Grandma again at someone else’s house for dry turkey and head off to old Uncle Sam’s for the real feast. And with our majestic loonie staring the bald eagle square in its single good eye — our dollar soaring to 31-year highs — it’s perhaps the proudest time to leave your money in another country.

But gosh — those most recent “Departmental Consolidation of the Customs Tariff 2007” reports are harder to follow than British darts on the sports network.

Most Canadians don’t realize there are scores of items that are entirely duty-free coming back into Canada — including almost anything made in the U.S. or Mexico. It means all you pay if you pick up, say, a helicopter — as long as it’s not over 2,000 kg — is just the Canadian sales tax coming back home.

But while Sally gets her dirigible free of any cross-border tariff, uptight Billy will pay 6.5% on his brooms. If he wants toothbrushes to wash that bad taste away, it’s another half a percent, son.

The rules of what’s allowed free between the U.S. and Canada (most downhill skis) and what’s not (most cross-country skis) have always taken the mind of a lawyer to figure out.

DEEP POCKETS
And sometimes, even that wasn’t enough. Heading into the U.S. by steamship in August 1897, wealthy Canadian lawyer and cabinet minister’s son Stewart Tupper was caught getting off the boat with his deep pockets filled with four silver candlesticks and silver salt shakers.

As a New York Times piece of the era explained: “Mr. Tupper was plainly embarrassed, and when he made a trip down into still another pocket, the crowd around stood on tip-toe expecting to see a diamond necklace come forth. It was, however, a handsome silver spoon in a morocco case.”

A diamond ring, a silver watch and several jubilee medals later, and poor Mr. Tupper was hit with a $30.32 duty.

“This staggered him, but he paid it and refilled his pockets,” the Times reported in the day.

Customs tariffs and duties — into the U.S. and into Canada — still confound. A Canada Border Services Agency spokesman recalled to Sun Media that the nuclear reactor your spouse wants to buy in America is entirely tariff-free. But, in fact, changes to the provisions clearly point out nuclear reactors carry an 8% tariff. It’s the machinery for isotopic separation and non-irradiated fuel elements which you can bring back for free. As long as they’re from the U.S. or another preferred trading country.

Better to just settle for a satellite, which carries a lesser 6.5% tariff. Or a hang glider, which, along with cellphones and video games and lots of stuff made out of plastic, you can bring in by the truckload with no tariff.

Carol Osmond, senior policy adviser for I.E. Canada, the Canadian Association of Importers and Exporters, said she understands why consumers would be confused about what — beyond the usual personal exemptions of $50 for a 24-hour trip or $400 for a 48-hour stay — we’re allowed to freely bring (after Canadian taxes) back home.

“There are hundreds of thousands of pages,” she said of the tariff provisions.

USED CARS POPULAR
But she said there are fewer than there once were. She added, however: “Will some go away completely? Maybe not.”

If you’re searching for a quick guide to what are the most popular items to bring back across the border for free, you’d have better luck walking on glass — which, by the way, can be brought back without a border charge. Canadian officials say while they’re seeing more used cars being brought north, it seems impossible for them to break down what we’re carrying back home. They simply suggest Canadians first check items by calling their help-line at 1-800-461-9999. Because there’s little chance of you making sense of it on your own.

If your family brings artist paintbrushes back into Canada — and you’ve used up your personal exemptions — prepare to pay a 7% tariff. But if you make it all the way into New York’s Lower East Side, to the trendy and chic Woodward Gallery — home to modern masters like Pablo Picasso — they’ve set aside a 1964 Andy Warhol painting of Jackie O. It’s yours for just under $3 million.

“It would be a very good weekend to come,” owner Kristine Woodward said.

And while those paintbrushes will get you stopped for an extra fee at the border, the almost-$3-million Warhol will not. It’s tariff-free. But sadly, there doesn’t appear to be a large discount for travelling so far.