Shipping to Canada: the CAD 20 De-Minimis, GST/HST and What You'll Actually Pay

A $30 sweater ordered from a US site can arrive with nothing to pay, or with a bill for tax plus a handling fee that costs more than the tax did. The difference is not the seller, the price or the product. It is how the parcel travelled and which country it was shipped from, and almost nobody checks either before ordering.

Canada runs three different duty-free thresholds at the same time, and the gap between the lowest and the highest is more than sevenfold. This guide covers all three, the provincial tax that applies once you cross them, and the handling fees that appear on top.

Canada's three de-minimis thresholds

The Canada Border Services Agency applies a different threshold depending on whether your parcel arrives as mail or by courier, and on the country it was shipped from rather than the country it was made in. Check the 'ships from' location on the product page before you order.

The higher courier thresholds come from CUSMA, the trade agreement that replaced NAFTA in July 2020. Between CAD 40 and CAD 150 a courier shipment from the US or Mexico pays tax but no duty. Above CAD 150 both apply.

Why the same order costs different amounts

Take a CAD 100 order from a US retailer. Nothing about the item changes, only the shipping method:

• By courier from a US warehouse: above the CAD 40 tax threshold, so sales tax applies, but below CAD 150, so no duty. Plus the courier's brokerage fee.
• By post from the same warehouse: above CAD 20, so both duty and tax apply. Plus the CAD 9.95 Canada Post handling fee.
• By courier, drop-shipped from China: the CUSMA thresholds do not apply, so it falls back to CAD 20 and both duty and tax apply.

That is the same purchase, from the same website, arriving three ways with three different bills. When a retailer offers a choice at checkout, the courier option from a US location is usually cheaper overall on orders between CAD 40 and CAD 150, even when the shipping line costs more, because it removes the duty entirely.

GST, HST and PST: what you pay by province

Once a parcel crosses the tax threshold, CBSA collects tax at the rate of your province of residence, not the rate where the parcel entered the country. The federal GST is 5% everywhere. What sits on top of it varies enormously.

The spread matters more than it looks. On CAD 200 of goods, before any duty, an Albertan pays CAD 10 in tax and a resident of Prince Edward Island pays CAD 30. Same order, same seller, triple the tax, decided entirely by postal code. Nova Scotia reduced its HST from 15% to 14% on 1 April 2025, so guides written before then overstate it.

The fees that are not duty or tax

Duty and tax go to the government. The fee on top goes to whoever cleared the parcel, and it is charged separately:

• Canada Post: CAD 9.95 flat, per dutiable or taxable item. Nothing is charged if the item is duty-free and tax-exempt.
• UPS, FedEx and DHL: a brokerage fee set by each courier. Check the courier's published brokerage fees for Canada, or the seller's checkout terms, to see whether it is already in the shipping price.

On a small parcel the fee frequently exceeds the tax it accompanies. A CAD 30 postal item into Alberta attracts CAD 4.95 of duty at the 16.5% example rate, CAD 1.75 of GST and a CAD 9.95 handling fee, so the fee is more than five times the tax. That is the arithmetic behind most of the surprise at the door.

You can also avoid courier brokerage by self-clearing at a CBSA office: you take the tracking or waybill number and the invoice, pay the government directly, and show the receipt to the carrier. It costs a trip and works best on higher-value parcels where the brokerage fee is largest.

What you would actually pay

All examples assume a clothing item at a representative 16.5% duty rate, tax calculated on the duty-paid value, which is how CBSA computes it: customs value, plus duty, then tax on the total.

The first pair is the one worth remembering. On a CAD 30 order the postal route costs CAD 16.65 and the courier route from a US warehouse costs nothing, because CAD 30 sits below the CAD 40 CUSMA tax threshold but above the CAD 20 postal one.

How long clearance adds, and why tracking goes quiet

Parcels crossing into Canada pass through a CBSA screening centre before continuing to the recipient. Mail items are inspected and assessed there, and the assessment is affixed to the item on CBSA Form E14 before Canada Post delivers it and collects what is owed.

That handoff produces a pause in tracking before the Canadian side picks up the scan history. The parcel is not lost during the gap. It has left one system and has not yet been scanned into the next.

Typical transit for parcels posted in the US, as USPS states it in October 2026, before any customs hold:

• USPS Priority Mail International: 6-10 business days
• USPS Priority Mail Express International: 3-5 business days
• Add 2-5 days during peak holiday periods, or if the parcel is held for assessment

If tracking has not moved in 10 business days on an international parcel, confirm with the sender that it was actually dispatched, check the carrier's service alerts, and for parcels handed between postal services try the same tracking number on both carriers' sites, because one often has scans the other has not published yet.

The short version

• Mail, any country: duty and tax free up to CAD 20
• Courier from US or Mexico: tax-free to CAD 40, duty-free to CAD 150
• Courier from anywhere else: back to CAD 20
• The threshold follows the shipping country, not the country of manufacture
• Tax is your province's rate: 5% in Alberta, 13% in Ontario, 15% in PEI, New Brunswick and Newfoundland
• Fees are extra: CAD 9.95 flat on postal items, variable brokerage on courier
• Between CAD 40 and CAD 150 from a US warehouse, courier usually beats post even when the shipping line costs more

Thresholds and remission rules are set out in the CBSA Courier Imports Remission Order and Postal Imports Remission Order, with the CUSMA thresholds in Customs Notice 20-18 and the postal handling fee in CBSA Memorandum D5-1-1. Provincial rates match the Canada Revenue Agency's GST/HST and PST table as of October 2026; provinces can change them, so confirm before you commit. Duty rates vary by product classification, and the 16.5% used above is a representative clothing rate rather than a universal one. Track anything already on its way on ParcelsZen.