When you're dealing business with Canadian customers, many times this means that you're going to be shipping to Toronto. Although there are other major centers such as Calgary, Vancouver, and Montreal that you may do business with as well, Toronto is by far the largest city in the country, and the one you are most likely to deal with. As such, when you're ready to start shipping to Toronto, you should first sit down with your courier WI company and find out how much it's going to cost you to ship to Canada's largest city.
Whenever you're shipping a product into Canada, you're going to have to pay the Canadian GST on almost everything that you send. That stands for the Goods and Services tax, and it applies to almost all types of goods. The GST is 5%. However, different provinces have different tax laws. Some have the HST instead of a GST, which means harmonized sales tax. This is 13%, and applies in Ontario, the home province of Toronto.
That is usually the main fee that you're going to have to pay for the goods going into Canada, but you're also going to have to pay in order to get them there. The customs broker must be paid for every single shipment that you send to Canada. A customs brokerage charges a flat rate though. Anytime there is an opportunity to combine any of your smaller shipments into a single large shipment is an opportunity to save money on your brokerage fees.
These are the fees that you'll usually have to pay to get your shipments to Toronto. Remember though, that your courier may also have additional international rates. Many couriers charge in this manner in order to compensate for their own costs of doing business across the border.
Also, there are certain things which you may ship which could have additional taxes, fees, or duties imposed. These are usually based on the nature or on the value of the goods in question, and are quite beyond the scope of this article. If you have specific goods, and you want to know exactly how much you're going to have to pay to ship to Toronto, you should ask your courier. Not only can they give you their exact rate, including all the required taxes and fees, but they should also be able to give you a breakdown so you can see how much of the bill is taxation.