View Full Version : Tax Refund???

01-30-2003, 02:40 AM
i am planning to buy a computer in the US, it will be like $2000 US, can i claim for the tax refund, since i'm not US citizen.
and when coming back to canada (i will drive), do i need to declare as i'm canadian citizen?

or do i need to pay both tax???

please help

01-30-2003, 01:54 PM
Generally speaking, citizenship isn't the issue - residency is. The US doesn't have a federal tax like the GST, so it would be up to the state in question as to whether or not they would refund the tax you pay on the computer. However, since a US$2000 computer will be well over your exemption limit, you will most likely have to pay GST and PST on the computer when you cross back into Canada.

You might want to check the government web site for the state where you are plannig on buying the computer (NY, VT, wherever) as well as the gc.ca web site.

- Mike

01-30-2003, 02:26 PM
thanks for your reply
i have contacted Canada custom, they said they will charge me 15% GST

but how about the tax that i paid when buying the computer in USA?
can i refund the tax of the USA???
otherwise, i would have to pay both USA and Canada tax
thanks a lot

01-30-2003, 03:07 PM
As far as I know - which isn't far - since taxes are by state in the US, you may not be able to get a refund. As Mike said, check the government website of the state where you are planning to buy the computer and see what their policy is on refunding tax. When US visitors come to Canada, they can get refunds on GST only b/c it is a federal tax, but they cannot get refunds on the provincial taxes - so I have a feeling it is similar with state taxes there.

As an aside - $2000 US is a HUGE amount of money for a computer. Have you considered buying through Dell Canada or anything like that? The computers still come from the US, but you don't have to pay US taxes on top of Canadian taxes.

Hope that helps.

01-30-2003, 04:08 PM
I haven't heard of any states giving tax refunds ... I know Ontario will do it for international visitors (I think it also applies to out-of-province visitors too) but I think you have to spend at least $300.

Sometimes when you ship an item out of the state, then you may not end up paying taxes ... I remember reading something about that on another thread about that ... But they were talking about shipping souveniers home from WDW.

Another thing to think about is that the warranty may not apply once the computer leaves the US ... or you'll have to drive it back to the US for warranty work.