samguan

I know my LHS here in Toronto orders from Horizon Hobby which is a distributor. I believe that they pay taxes(which must go to the government) when they order from Horizon to cross the border. Then they charge us taxes again on those products when we buy it from them. Does that mean the government gets 26% tax from a product going from a distributor to a customer since every middle man involved, a 13% tax must be paid.

OvalRacer99

I am not sure how things work for you guys up north, but here in the US, when a retailer buys from the wholesaler, the retailer doesn't pay tax, but he has to charge and pay taxes on it when he sells it to his customer. The exception to this is when a store sells via mail order or internet, then he must charge tax on things being shipped within the state he is in. If it goes to a diffrent state, there is no taxes on it.

Druss

GST, not sure about your pst but it should be the same, is only collected once. If your retailer is buying from a US distributor then he must pay import tax and duties but not GST. The GST is collected from you.

If you want really wacky, in Quebec they charge the PST on top of the GST. This means that a $10 item has GST added to $10.50 then the PST is calculated on the $10.50 not on the $10. Basically, in Quebec you're paying tax on a tax.

sheograth

If the government collects an tariff upon import and then a tax at retail, yes they get money twice. Happens in some cases but not all. Depends a lot of international trade laws and trade laws involving individual importers.

Druss

Sheograth, he's talking about Ontario specific sales tax. They have a 8% provincial sales tax and a 5% federal sales tax. He's wondering whether the importer pays the sales taxes then he pays them again.

The customs/import tax/tariff is not the same as a sales tax so no, you're not paying sales tax twice but you will be paying sales tax on top of a tariff.

zrgrindmedia

I don't familia with the status of Canada.