GST and shipping to Canada (personal use) (1 Viewer)

I'm confused. I shipped a bike for my use to ride in a upcoming tour to Banff, Alberta via FedEx. I live in Massachusetts. Apparently, Canadian customs charged GST on the person the package was delivered too that FedEx forced to pay otherwise they wouldn
t deliver the package.. Is this correct, should the person have been charged the GST on a bike that will eventually make it's way back to the USA? I basically shipped the bike versus taking it with me on an airline...

All the websites I have googled seem to imply buying goods from the USA is subject to GST.. I couldn't find anthing that matched my situation.

The lady at the FedEx counter wrote "for personal use" on the bill...And I called FedEx and they sent me some form that they said would work or something...

Jay

Was the GST on the value of the bike or on the value of the shipping? GST is applicable to the shipping.

I do not believe they should have been paying GST on the bike, since it is not a purchase. If they did get charged GST for the bike then they should get a hold of Canada Customs and Excise and ask why they were charged GST on a non-purchase.

I really don't know exactly what the tax was based on. I did have a declared value but I think part of the fee which was just under $100 was also a "brokerage fee" which is what I learned from google so I can't really reverse engineer the thing until I find out what is GST and what is a fee.

Its even more complicated than that as I am the one that shipped the bike and I payed for the shipping fee. which was even a bigger surprise to the recipient when FedEx asked THEM for money!!!

Jay