Taking delivery in Canada and... The Customs Leprechauns

Uilleann Pipes
1

Hi y’all,

Just a few precisions about this topic that has been discussed on this forum before but may have left some confusion. See this thread for example:

After careful research, phone calls and a PM with Stuart, I can confidently say that if you take delivery of a bagpipe (whatever the type) in Canada, and the pipes are coming from outside Canada (even from a NAFTA country), you will have to pay duty.

It is true that in the US, no duty apply to bagpipes, but hey, this is Canada, let’s do something different :imp: You can find the Customs regulations about musical instruments here:

Bagpipes are classified under “other”, which implies a 6% duty.

If you want to have a good laugh (or weeping and crying) about the greediness of our Customs leprechauns, sorry officers, here is my short story:

I bought a Neil O’Grady (who is in Canada) from Song of the Sea in Maine in order to skip waiting time, a bit more expensive but faster. Well my set was promptly shipped by Song of the Sea and then got stuck in canadian Customs. After a few weeks without any news of my pipes, called at customs. I was told that they didn’t know what is was, they needed proof they were made in Canada and bla bla bla…

Well mates, after now almost a month since the pipes were shipped, they are still stuck in Customs and guess what the customs wank*rs, sorry officers decided ? I will have to pay 6% duty coz the pipes were bought in the States, PLUS about 7% federal tax since it is a canadian product :confused: :imp: :moreevil: :angry:

So, Canadian pipers and would be pipers, heed my advice and beware of the Canadian Customs Leprechauns, they’re after your wee pot of gold… :cry:

BOOOOooooo… I want my pipes…

2

Martin, what were you thinking? You could have flown to Nfld and picked them up for this amount of cost and time. :astonished:

djm

3

Well djm, I am a good natured, easy going, believing in the good in this world type of guy (a wee bit of a sucker too)… I didn’t know such vile (and imbecile) creatures the likes of customs officers were still lurking on this earth… I thought they were all destroyed long agon in Middle Earth alongside Sauron…

Plus a flight Quebec - Newfoundland is quite expensive to say the least…

4

Hey. and I bet they were polite (in both official languages!) when you were told how much you’d have to pay!
:stuck_out_tongue:

5

Just be glad they didn’t add the ‘not paying attention tax’ or the infamous ‘because it’s Wednesday and I don’t like your hairstyle tax’. Canada has more byzantine tax laws most other continents do, I think. It’s like someone thought ‘Well, we might not have much of an identifiable culture, so let’s at the very least really get going on taxing the piss out of everything we can find. Oh, hey, let’s start with books.’

Mark

6

Unless they’re written in Canada, of course. :wink: :frowning:

djm

7

Just goes to prove that under that thin veneer of civility, Canada is a fascist dictatorship! :laughing:

No E

8

The nurse who works with me is Canadian and herself a native of the lovely city of Toronto. Here is a list of Canadian factoids we have discussed in jest:

Often send us “cool Canadian air masses” to freeze our butts in winter.
Their dollar is…well, not.
Couldn’t run a hockey league without recruting teams from the US.
Speak French yet feel compelled to pay homage to the Queen of England.
Speak of being tough hewn Northerners but about 50% of their population lies below a latitude where nearly an equal number of Americans live above same latitude in America.

All fun aside, it is a beautiful lovely country and I for one am grateful for what Canada has given the piping world with the likes of Patrick Hutchinson and Deb Quigley.

9

Hear, hear!

and, uh, keep your stick on the ice…