For e-commerce shipments to Canada, sales tax and import duty are significantly less likely to be collected when shipments are sent via postal operators than if sent via an express carrier. This implies that, upon import, these shipments are treated differently at customs clearance. The resulting missed collection of sales tax, import duty, and handling fees is estimated as a loss of public income to Canada of up to C$ 1.3bn.
These results are based on an experimental study, in which Copenhagen Economics purchased online 200 items and monitored the extent to which these shipments to Canada were correctly processed upon import (sales tax and import duty collection).
For further information, please contact Bruno Basalisco