We cannot sell you a label for any of these three lanes, and there is no version of our checkout that will produce one. SMKlog prices United States domestic parcels, full stop. What this page can do is give you the part that decides whether your buyer gets an unexpected bill at the door, which is the value threshold each country applies before duty and tax start being collected.
Most cross-border disputes are about a customs bill nobody warned the buyer about.
Each destination sets a level below which nothing is collected, and the levels are not remotely alike. Getting this wrong is how a twenty dollar order turns into a refused parcel and a chargeback.
| Destination | Below this, nothing is collected | Above it | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Canada, sent by courier from the US | Up to CAD 40 is duty and tax free | Above CAD 40 to CAD 150 is duty free but taxes still apply, and above CAD 150 both are assessed | CBSA, in force since July 1, 2020 |
| Canada, sent by mail | CAD 20 and under is duty and tax free when imported from any country | Above CAD 20 the ordinary assessment applies | CBSA |
| Mexico, express shipments | USD 50 free of tax | Duty free up to USD 117 for US origin products, subject to conditions | US Department of Commerce country guide |
| United Kingdom | Gifts worth GBP 39 or less fall outside VAT | Customs Duty applies to goods worth more than GBP 135, and to excise goods of any value | gov.uk |
Two details underneath that table change outcomes. The higher Canadian thresholds only apply to goods shipped from the United States or Mexico by courier, and goods that merely pass through without entering the commerce of either country fall back to the CAD 20 level. In Mexico, the option to clear an express shipment under a generic taxpayer number was removed, and the consignee tax number is now required to use the simplified route, so an order without it clears under the standard procedure instead.
Three obvious routes exist, and none of them runs through us. Naming them is more useful than pretending we have a product here.
Whichever you use, a declaration travels with the parcel and the classification code comes off your description of the goods. That process is the same regardless of carrier and it is covered in customs forms and tariff codes.
For scale, here is the furthest our own network reaches on the map: Newark to Seattle, which is a longer run than Newark to Toronto and involves no paperwork at all. It is also the shape of the leg you would buy from us if a buyer abroad were using a forwarding address in the States.
| Carrier | Service | Price | Transit window returned |
|---|---|---|---|
| UPS | Ground Saver | $19.14 | Not supplied |
| UPS | Ground | $19.30 | 7-8 business days |
| USPS | Ground Advantage | $19.64 | 8-9 business days |
| FedEx | Ground Economy | $20.50 | 8-9 business days |
| UPS | 2nd Day Air | $31.43 | 2-3 business days |
Around nineteen dollars for a coast to coast carton with no declaration, no duty and no consignee tax number is a useful benchmark to hold in your head when you are weighing up whether a cross-border order is worth the trouble. The lanes we do cover are mapped on our lanes page, and what we sell is described without embellishment on the services page.
A Canadian customer ordering CAD 200 of goods is going to be assessed, and finding that out at the door reads as a scam to somebody who was never warned. One line in the listing prevents almost every one of these disputes.
Thresholds are applied to the declared value of the goods, so discounting an order below a threshold on paper is not an option. Declaring something other than what was paid is fraud and it fails at the first inspection anyway.
A cross-border return means a second customs process, usually with duty already paid on the first crossing. Building a returns policy that keeps low value items in the destination country is cheaper than shipping them home.
No. Our checkout produces United States domestic parcel labels only, and there is no setting or workaround that changes that. Labels for Canada, Mexico and the United Kingdom come from USPS, FedEx or UPS directly, or from a broker who resells their international services.
Under the CUSMA arrangement in force since July 1, 2020, goods sent by courier from the United States are duty and tax free up to CAD 40, and duty free but still taxable from CAD 40 to CAD 150. Items sent by mail fall under a CAD 20 threshold instead, and so do goods that only pass through the US without entering its commerce.
For Mexico, the US Department of Commerce country guide states USD 50 free of tax and duty free up to USD 117 for US origin products, subject to conditions, with the consignee tax number now required for the simplified express route. For the United Kingdom, gov.uk states that Customs Duty applies above GBP 135 and to excise goods of any value, with gifts of GBP 39 or less outside VAT.
In the default arrangement the recipient does, and they are contacted for payment before the parcel is released. Both couriers offer billing options that move that charge back to the sender, which is worth using on consumer orders because an unexpected bill at the door is the most common reason a cross-border parcel gets refused.