Importing trophies into Canada

[wolfwatcher]

We are just in the process of having our trophys sent home. We live in canada, hired a broker and just received shipping cost from exporter in joburg. The fees we are paying ( provided there are no issues and everything goes smooth) are $1300 to broker plus a few hundred for custom fees. Then we have to pay 14% tax on value of trophys.
We have just been told we could ship to Denver colorado for less on the flight. Then once there there broker fees are cheaper. The US is about a third of the cost to tan everything and we would only pay tax on value of tanning done not the cost of trophys.
Anyone from canada have knowledge or insight on this and if going through the states is a better option??

 

[BRICKBURN]

Interesting assumption that you will only pay on the value of tanning if your trophies enter Canada from the states.
I would suggest that you do not assume Canada Customs is stupid.
One simple question will change all that.
"What was the origin of the hunting trophies? " (Not a lot of Kudu fee ranging in Colorado)


Where is the final shipment destination?
Port of entry matters. Some ports of entry will have you paying tax on the "trophy fees", not just the taxidermy or tanning.


I am wondering about the final math:
Shipping them twice?
Current exchange rates probably add about 9% to the bottom line.

Good luck with your decisions.

 

[Hank2211]

I live in Canada and recently tried to send a (tanned) zebra hide to a friend in Colorado. US Customs said no way, no how. It didn't matter if I could prove (though how I could do that is difficult to say) that the zebra was legally taken, and that an American could have shipped it directly home without any problems. I have given up.

I say this only to suggest that moving animals across borders can be a problem, if they have stopped in a third country on the way. I would get CBSA's written view that the animals could come home after taxidermy in the US.

I am also with Brickburn on the math.

 

[enysse]

LOL, Brickburn is probably right. I'm sure the Canadian authorities have all the angles figured out.

 

[wolfwatcher]

Probably right on the tax end of things at the border...which we would be paying either way I guess.
Tanning in the states is a third of what I pay my taxidermist and their broker fees and the flights are way cheaper. So overall it will be cheaper for us to go this route. Just gotta make sure they let us bring all this stuff back in to canada

 

[BRICKBURN]

If you have all the export permits/documents from the country of origin and the US documents are in order there are not going to be any issues getting it into Canada.
Just get your cheque book out when they arrive.


Only issue I can think of would be CITES animals. Canada holds to the treaty and the US has its own view of what is importable. (more restrictive)

 

[wolfwatcher]

Ahh yes check book will be open!!!
No CITES animals on this trip.

 

[Diamondhitch]

I looked into the same thing. It is so much hassle to import a safari into the us as a Canadian that no one would touch it. then you pay us import taxes and then Canadian import taxes on top plus it is hard to find anyone who wants to export them from the us to Canada.

Save yourself the greif and just get them sent straight to Canada. If you want to save on tanning and import taxes get Universal Trophy services to tan them in Africa and have them sent back as a finished product and pay way less $$$ all around and end up with a hide equivalent to what you would get at a north American tannery.