26 Sep
2007
26 Sep
'07
11:14 a.m.
Rumor has it that Jules Richardson may have mentioned these words:
jim s wrote:
AFAIK, it depends on if you will continue to be the owner of said
merchandise. Quite often with customs, they ask the question: "Are you
bringing anything you're not taking back when you go?"
If you own the merchandise, and at the end of your time in the US you'll be
taking those same machines back with you, then there shouldn't be any
issues at all. If you're bringing them over for others and you won't own
them anymore, then the questions of valuation & whatnot... and if they're
gifts & no valuation, there should be no problem. If you're selling them,
then the gubbermint will always want their cut. ;-|
Granted, most (all?) of these rules stem from tariffs generated primarily
on booze, cigarettes, etc.
Canadian Customs Occifer: "Do you have anything with you you'll be leaving
in Canada?"
You: "Oh, I'm just bringing these 30 cartons of cigarettes into Canada as
presents for my cousins there..."
Canadian Customs Occifer asks you to pull over and go inside, where you're
fingerprinted, stripsearched, etc...
.... Canadian Cigarette & Booze taxes are much higher than in the US, and
smuggling is rampant. If there were issues with rampant computer smuggling,
they'd make more of an issue with that, too.
There was (well, kinda...) at one time - When the Tandy CoCo3 debuted in
the US for $219USD, the Canadian version (exact same thing, but manuals are
in French as well as English) debuted for $199CDN... about $145USD at the
time. They were made in Korea, so there was a duty imposed on the
computers. Software was also cheaper in Canada (before exchange), and
almost all of it was manufactured in the US at the time, so there was no
duty on it. A lot of people were flocking to Canada to buy computers at the
time... now they do it for Viagra. ;-)
Laterz,
Roger "Merch" Merchberger
--
Roger "Merch" Merchberger | Anarchy doesn't scale well. -- Me
zmerch at 30below.com. |
SysAdmin, Iceberg Computers
If you are bringing in something made in the USA
then locate the "Made in
USA" badges and show them to any interested customs agents. There are no
duties on US made goods. If the unit was not primarily assembled in the
US then show them a reciept showing how much you paid for it, and the
age, and I doubt there would be any duty on it.
Hmm, I can see I'm going to have fun if I try to bring 10-15 UK machines
in (which are all 80s or older, but receipts? - haha!)
Unless of course it's different because it's stuff I've owned for years
(just not kept in the US) rather than items I've just acquired. Maybe
"personal belongings" is a different case...