Canadian tariffs, duties, etc?

Baddabob is right about the taxes (applies to new and used goods). In addition, depending upon the country of origin of the audio equipment there may be duty that is applicable. For example, gear produced in N America is duty free, but subject to the taxes above. Yet, speakers say from Netherlands (Kharma) get dinged with an additional 6.5% duty, beyond the taxes.

I just imported stuff into Canada via Bax, and the great thing is I that I had to clear the customs stuff myself by going to the customs office. I paid the applicable tax and duty (they will take Visa), but then there were absolutely no brokerage fees. On the other hand, as noted above UPS can charge rather hefty brokerage fees. USPS and FedEx sit somewhere in between. I think in the future I would rather do my own Customs and avoid an additional brokerage "tax" from the shipping company.

Well, it wasn't that much of a hassle for me on the east coast. BAX faxed me the paperwork to my office. I walked into the Customs office downtown. Virtually no line up. They asked a few questions about the goods, checked the exchange rate on the day of shipping and figured out the duty and taxes. You could pay with Visa, Interac, bank draft etc. Took less than 10 minutes. Then, I faxed back the papers to BAX and then they shipped the goods to my house. THe only hassle, I needed to find two strong guys help unload and uncrate the 200 lb speakers, to meet the Bax driver. I am not sure how much FedEx or UPS would have charged for doing that. Besides, in the past I have had camera gear sit days until the brokerage firm processed it.