Nice...I am very curious, was there a customs process, formal or informal, involved in re-importing a high-value Canadian-made instrument back to our native land?
Nice...I am very curious, was there a customs process, formal or informal, involved in re-importing a high-value Canadian-made instrument back to our native land?
Bill,,, regarding bringing a mandolin into Canada,,,
The issues are tax related only if the mandolin was built in North America.
It is a free trade agreement thing.
There are no duties but you have to pay the Federal GST and Provincial PST.
In BC I pay a total of 12% when bringing a mandolin in if it was built in North America.
The thing to remember is that any mandolin built outside of North America is subject to both duty and the combined GST and PST.
For example,,, don't forget that mandolins such as any of the Czechoslovakian builders can be subject to whatever the duties are on the day that you enter Canada.
I do this lots and usually have no trouble as long as you declare the mandolin and pay the taxes.
Most of the time the Canadian officers don't even want to see the mandolin which is good if it cold out and you want to avoid opening it it a warm customs office to avoid flash checking.
They just want the taxes.
Of course we now have Trump threatening to throw a wrench into free trade so it might change in a hurry. We shall see.
My biggest worry at the border these days is that some eager beaver will decide to delve into the CITES and/or Lacey Act .
That is a whole new thing to me that fortunately I have not encountered yet.
That could turn out to be a complete horror story. That is a totally different subject though.
I try to avoid even thinking about it.
While there is no tax, some folks have been charged a desk-to-desk fee.
"your posts ... very VERY opinionated ...basing your opinion/recommendations ... pot calling ...kettle... black...sarcasm...comment ...unwarranted...unnecessary...."
I forgot to mention this,,,
The most usual problem coming into Canada is the lack of sales paperwork.
You have to be able to prove where you bought the mandolin from and that it is indeed built in North America if asked.
They are very concerned about you being able to prove the price that you paid and they are very good at using the internet to gauge the current pricing.
Too often the seller neglects to include an invoice or bill of sale.
Always take a copy of the ad that first attracted you to the mandolin including the price.
If you negotiated a lower price than is on the ad it is usually ok as long as it is within reason. They dont mind that.
If you have emails proving the sale take them with you also.
They are very concerned about people declaring a lower sales price than they actually paid and they are pretty astute at spotting a potential fraud.
For example if a person declared that they paid $200 for a Gibson F5G , the customs guys will be all over that.
They are not mandolin experts of course but they are not stupid either so just don't mess with them.
They are very well trained to spot these types of things.
This happened to me once when I bought a badly damaged Lyon and Healy style C that I paid $400 US for.
My daughter picked it up for me and brought it into Canada with a bill of sale for $400.
The border guys went onto the internet and saw that the going price for them IN GOOD CONDITION was about $1500 at the time.
They kept her confined for 4 hours grilling her constantly until finally they let her phone me and I gave them the phone # of the lady who sold it to me whom confirmed that the true price was $400 due to damage, and they finally let her go through with the mandolin.
For 2 years after that her name was tagged so every time she went through the Canadian border she was ordered inside and questioned thoroughly about anything and everything.
Moral of the story? do not mess around at the border. They are very serious places. Dont even think about it!
OOPS,,, I apologize for hijacking a thread. Sorry!
So what about that Apitius guy? Good mandolins?
For Canadians not wanting to pay import duty, buy Canadian instruments, quality Canadian builders : Michael Heiden , Jamie Wiens , Peter Sawchyn , to name a few
Add Lawrence Nyberg
Tony Huber
1930 Martin Style C #14783
2011 Mowry GOM
2013 Hester F4 #31
2014 Ellis F5 #322
2017 Nyberg Mandola #172
In regards to customs, they didn't ask about it and I didn't mention it
I've had no problem importing instruments into Canada and the taxes are part of the price involved when having an instrument shipped to you. What I really don't like are the "brokerage fees" that FedEx and UPS charge you. Canada Post/USPS are my prefered method of shipping.
Back to the Apitius, here is a video from Wintergrass of my son playing with Mike Marshall.
... not all those who wander are lost ...
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