No Stupid Questions

I used to work with a guy from Syria who had US/Canadian citizenship. He said every time he crossed the border he budgeted in 3 extra hours while he was detained.

"What are you in for?"

"Smuggling dark soy sauce."

OP discovers smuggling.

Unless you can fly the Kessel run in twelve parsecs, you should probably leave the smuggling to career criminals.

This work between certain states. For instance, you can drive into Oregon and shop with no sales tax then return to California or Washington with your goods.

Liquor is also much cheaper in some states than others—you can really stock up if you are already driving through a state.

I did that once, when the Nexus phones weren't available in Switzerland but they were in Germany. I ordered it to a location close to the border that specifically offers a postal address as a service and went to pick it up.

The correct thing to do would have been to go to the border agents, get a confirmation that I'm bringing the merchandise out of the country and pay the Swiss VAT. With the confirmation I could theoretically get the VAT back from the seller I paid it to. Except that was Google and they weren't intending to sell it for export, so I doubt they would have helped with that.

What I did was unpack the phone, throw away the packaging, put my old phone in one jeans pocket and my new one in the other, and drive back over the boarder. Having two phones isn't that weird, so I thought I could get away with claiming them as personal items if I was asked. But I wasn't even stopped (they only do sampling at the crossing) so it was easy. But it was technically smuggling. Anything over 300 CHF needs to be declared and VAT paid, the phone was around 400 €.

My mom once went clothes shopping to Austria and didn't declare them. The border guard asked what she bought. She claimed clothes, but not over the limit. He was like no way, I know that brand, they must be worth more, checked the stuff, and discovered it was worth too much. She had to pay VAT plus a pretty decent fine.

I only crossed the US Canadian border once in each direction, but to me it seemed like they were way more strict and thorough than here in Europe within Schengen. So I'd be scared I think. But overall I still think your plan could work if you're careful with it. Maybe gaming laptop would be suspicious if you went for a one day trip, would be better if it was longer. But a phone not really.

The border patrol doesn't really care as long as the amounts are small. A lot of times, border patrol will even provide the limits.

If you are going to go over and you get inspected, you're going to need a good reason for what you've got. For instance, going for a day trip but coming back with a week's worth of clothes are going to be a red flag. Border patrol is also going to look at condition of the items if they are at the point they are inspecting the items.

Borders are patrolled by CBP (customs and border protection). Part of CBPs job is to charge you tarrifs on the stuff you're bringing into the country.

Sometimes I've had to pay import tarrifs many times when crossing back and forth (for the same thing over-and-over). Its best not to cross the border with expensive stuff.

No because once outside of the US people realise the country is shit and they don't want to come back anymore, so this will not work sadly enough.

Yes. But only one or two things at a time. It's illegal but like you said if you just say you had it when you entered Canada you'll probably get away with it.

If you come over with 100 laptops in your trunk you will almost certainly be forced to pay import duties on them.

Basically if you're trying to save some money personally yes it's possible. Under a certain dollar amount you can usually even do it legally as long as you don't intend to sell it. But if you're planning on making a business out of doing this and selling it in the US cheap then you're gonna get caught

Come visit the EU. People drive to other countries to get cheap gas and cigarettes all the time. Hell, when I lived near the border, 95% of my groceries were German.

Believe it or not, straight to jail.

If they also consume it over the border, sure.

If they bring it back, they are importing it and that’s when you have to pay the tariff. If you’re thinking “just keep it in your trunk how will anyone know?” just consider how long smuggling has been a thing and ask yourself if you think border guards have thought of this. They have.

Don’t mind me officer, I am just carrying my personal TV and washing machine with me

So, I live right on the Canadian border. Right there.

If I went over to Canada, somebody gave me a bunch of product for free, then I took that product and gave it to someone else for free, would that be legal? No money was exchanged.

Let's say the product was plushies. A large amount of them. What's the legality of that?

They will definitely ask if you purchased anything. You can lie but if you get caught expect little to no leniency.

Can you get away with it? Probably, for some stuff. Is it worth it? You’re rolling some dice, you decide.

Couldn't someone living near a border just go over and buy stuff and skip the tariffs?

Yes, they could. Yes, they can. Yes, they do.

Yes, the ones who do it as a business get caught, eventually ;-)

According to the customs and border protection website, there is a max limit of $200 that is free from duty and tax if you've spent at least 48 hours there, and it has to be for personal/household use. There are amount limits on alcohol and tobacco.

But if it's something like a single phone, you pay in cash and open it there and dispose of the packing material. You could get away with violating those restrictions, but at your own risk.

Side-note: The limit is $800 if you go to the Caribbean, and up to $1600 for places like US Virgin Islands

You will need a fast ship to evade the border patrols. May I suggest the Falcon here. She did the Kessel run in just twelve parsecs.

As I and others have mentioned elsewhere, you're taking a risk doing this, as if you get caught it will cost you more.

One other thing to keep in mind is warranties if anything goes wrong with the item. If you are trying to make it look like you brought the item with you, you'll be getting rid of all the documentation and packaging that proves you purchased it. That includes receipts. Warranties often require proof of purchase, so you may be throwing away your warranty by doing this.

Also, keep in mind that models and model numbers are often different in Canada. I've had phones that were identical to the US model but had a different model number. I've also had phones where they sold the European version in Canada (again with its own model number) and so it was basically a different phone from what you'd get in the States for the same model name (different CPU, different supported communication protocols.)

Often our model numbers will get a "CA" added to the end making it obvious. Sometimes it won't be obvious, but won't match model numbers you can easily find info for online. My current laptop model number is undiscoverable online because it is so rare. There are similar ones for which the info mostly matches my computer, but I'm not always able to find good info.

It's kind of funny watching Americans talk about this now as it was something we Canadians used to talk about all the time... Strategies for buying goods in the US to save money.

Welcome to Europe's cheat code. Within an hour I can reach 4 countries with 4 different tax laws.