Shipping from US to Canada

[Crystal Creations]

I just joined up about a month ago and I'm seriously considering closing my shop if I can't figure out what customs fees and taxes have to be paid when shipping to Canada!  I desperately want to be able to ship to Canada from the US but I have been online for days reading about it and finding nothing definitive.  My post office couldn't help me either, other than to give me customs cards to fill out.  Here are my questions:  (1)  How do I find out in advance what the duty or customs fee will be when I ship a jewelry item to Canada?  (2)  Do I have to find and hire a customs agent to get my packages through customs?  (3)  I read that customs fees are based on the value of the jewelry plus the customs fees, so how do I know in advance that those fees will be?  (4)  Does iCraft calculate the tax depending on where it is being shipped (like Etsy or Ebay calculates what a buyer owes) or do I have to generate a bill for the buyer?  (5) I also read that if I collect taxes I have to turn them in to the US government who in turns delivers them to Canada.  I have no idea how to register for that or where to send the taxes! 

As you can see I am totally lost and frustrated.  Can anyone help?  I can't believe it's this hard to ship a small package over the border!!  Thank you to anyone who can share the process they followed to ship from the US to Canada.

[iCraft Admin]

Hi Crystal Creations,

Sorry to hear about your struggle with figuring out the cost of shipping to Canada. 
I am not an expert on customs fees, but from the previous discussions, I remember some jewelry makers mentioning that they usually ship USPS first class international and on the customs form check "merchandise" and enter the purchase price for the value. Since your value amounts are small, there probably won't be any customs fees.

I've also heard an advise from someone not to mark the parcel as a "gift", so that the customer is not charged customs fees on their end.  It's not only illegal, but could also cause problems with the Canadian Customs and for your buyer.

As for the taxes, we let PayPal to calculate taxes when the buyer is going through our Checkout process. Please check your setup for taxes in your PayPal account. I don't believe you can charge international customers (incl. Canadians) any taxes, but again, I am not exactly sure on the rules in different countries. All I know is that you do not have to generate a separate bill for the buyer.

Hope our US jewelry makers will chime in and offer your some advise, as they are more knowledgeable on this topic.

[Crystal Creations]

Thank you!  I might just change my settings and allow shipments to Canada and see what happens with my first order!  I stopped at another local post office on Saturday and they couldn't tell me anything but they didn't think I would have to pay customs fees.  I guess I will give it a rip!  Unless someone on here tells me otherwise...