How do I charge Canadian duties and taxes at checkout?
Collect the duty and tax with the order and ship duty paid, so your customer pays nothing at the door. Here is how it works, what it costs you, and how to price it per cart.
By the Othermile team
Short answer: you add the expected duty and tax to the order at checkout, either as part of shipping or as its own line, and then ship the parcel duty paid so the carrier bills you instead of your customer. The hard part is charging the right amount for each cart.
How shipping duty paid works
When you ship duty paid (often called DDP), the carrier pays the border charges and bills your account. Your customer gets the parcel with nothing to pay. You need a carrier service or account that allows it, and you pay the carrier's clearance fee as well as the duty and tax.
Three ways to charge for it
- A flat amount on Canadian orders. Simple, but you overcharge some customers and lose money on others.
- Built into your prices for Canada. Clean for the customer, but harder to keep right when rules change.
- Worked out per cart. The duty and tax for that cart's products and value, added to shipping at checkout. The most accurate, and what customers trust most.
What decides the amount
The products' tariff codes and where they were made, the order value, the province (for the tax rate) and whether the parcel goes by mail or courier. Under C$150 by courier from the US, there is usually no duty, only tax above C$40.
How Othermile helps
Othermile works out each cart's duty and tax from your own product list, and can offer a duties included shipping rate at checkout. Orders paid that way are checked as duty paid, so your profit report shows the real cost.
Check your own numbers
- One parcel: the free border fee checker.
- Your store's last 90 days: the free border cost audit, which reads your orders export in your browser.
- Every order, before it ships: Othermile checks each one against your limits and holds the costly ones for your OK.
These are estimates from the official rules, not customs advice.
This guide explains public rules in plain language for general information. It is not customs, tax or legal advice; the exact tariff code, your paperwork and the carrier decide the final amount.
See what your own orders cost at the border.
Start freeOr try the free checker, or get an email when the rules change
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