Customs/Duties from US to Canada?

I have never purchased a Lens from a US retailer before and I am looking at picking up a 500 f4. The price differential is large and with the Canadian dollar so strong today ($0.92) I have been considering shipping from US to Cda. Any Canucks with experience on this? Customs,Duties,Brokera​ge fees? Is it worth it? Thanks for any help.

This comes up fairly often

You will be charged PST and GST

You may be charged a brokerage fee (depends on the shipping type - more on this below)

There is no duty on Camera Lenses

USPS/Canada post will charge you a flat $5 fee, regardless of the item's declared value. Shipments coming USPS/Canada post can be a bit slow getting through customs though, and there is generally no way of tracking them

UPS and FedEx Ground/Standard will charge you astronomical brokerage fees - avoid these at all costs

UPS Expedited/Express costs slightly more to ship, however all brokerage fees are included in the shipment cost. This would be my preferred shipping method

Were are you located? I have stuff shipped to Michigan and drive it accross.
I declare it and have to pay the taxes, sometimes they let you go by

I have yet to be charged PST on any order coming across the border from B&H etc. Other then that I can second everything baxtefer said.

Kurt

Apparently, deliveries in Ontario from B&H have the 8% sales tax in addition to 6% GST. Trust me, I know...I just got a delivery of a 300 2.8 IS and the 500F4 and paid Ontario sales tax on both...ouch. However I still saved thousands over what I would have paid from a photo specialty store in Canada. Shipped UPS expedited which includes the brokerage fee...quite reasonable and quick (4 day) delivery.

Congratulations on the new glass Cooper....I will continue to have lens envy

Cooper911 wrote in post #3376980
Apparently, deliveries in Ontario from B&H have the 8% sales tax in addition to 6% GST. Trust me, I know...I just got a delivery of a 300 2.8 IS and the 500F4 and paid Ontario sales tax on both...ouch. However I still saved thousands over what I would have paid from a photo specialty store in Canada. Shipped UPS expedited which includes the brokerage fee...quite reasonable and quick (4 day) delivery.

I recently made 5 orders from B&H (long story, ended up upgrading my gear sooner than later ). I used USPS for all (didn't mind the extra wait). On the first two orders, I wasn't charged a dime at customs. I still think it was because the broker didn't know where to look for the declared value (B&H include the value in their sticker instead of filling out the declaration form properly - and their sticker isn't exactly explicit in describing that number was). The three other times, I guess the custom agent smartened up and I was charged PST + GST for all my orders.

Still saved a few hundred bucks from the first two though

sugarzebra wrote in post #3377023
Congratulations on the new glass Cooper....I will continue to have lens envy

Thanks sugarzebra, I am used to the 300, but its a bit of a curve on the 500f4...no handholding there!!!