Courier Brokerage Fees on Clothing Orders: How to Avoid Surprise Charges at the Door

The charge at the door is often two bills stapled together. One is the government’s: duty, and on some US-origin goods a surtax, and GST, HST or PST. The other is the carrier’s: brokerage, clearance or a handling fee. People argue with the wrong one. This page splits them for clothing orders, says what you can refuse, and points the refund at the form CBSA actually uses. It does not quote a courier’s dollar fee unless that carrier’s page is the source. UPS, FedEx, Purolator and DHL amounts are “See carrier.” How any carrier bills the surtax stays check with the CBSA Border Information Service at 1-800-461-9999 or your carrier. The clothing math for the surtax itself is the US clothing guide. Cosmetics are the US beauty guide.

What brokerage is and who charges it

Brokerage is the work of accounting for the goods: classifying them, declaring the value, and arranging payment of what is owed. A courier may do that for a personal shipment. CBSA’s “Importing by mail” page says so, and it says to verify shipping and handling fees before you finish the purchase. The fee for that work is the carrier’s price. It is not a line in the Customs Tariff.

Canada Post is the mail case, and it prints a number. Its customs page, checked 29 Sep 2026, says it applies a handling fee of CAN$9.95 per dutiable or taxable mail item. You can pay online when the item is eligible, or at delivery or pickup. Payment methods on that page include credit card online, and at the post office cash, debit, credit, cheque or money order. CBSA still does the assessment. Canada Post collects. If the item is not dutiable and not taxable, CBSA’s mail page says no amount is charged. A $9.95 fee on a parcel that owed nothing is a question for Canada Post, not a second duty.

Courier fees are not copied from Canada Post. See the carrier’s own fee page for UPS, FedEx, Purolator or DHL before you accept a brokerage amount. This guide does not state those amounts. Paragraph 18 of Customs Notice 26-23 says amounts for Canadian customs brokerage fees that are included in the price paid or payable may be deducted as associated costs and are not included in the transaction value. That stops the fee from being taxed as if it were part of the goods, when the rule’s conditions are met. It does not erase the fee. Estimates of transportation costs are not acceptable for that valuation. The notice points to the valuation memoranda.

Postal vs courier shipping choices

Mail and courier are different thresholds, and the choice is the seller’s shipping method, which you sometimes see at checkout and sometimes do not. Mail: $20 and under, duty- and tax-free from any country. Above $20, duties and taxes, and Canada Post’s $9.95 if an amount is owed. The amount owed shows on Form E14 attached to the item. Courier from the United States or Mexico, after the goods entered that country’s commerce: up to $40 duty- and tax-free, above $40 to $150 duty-free with tax, above $150 both. Courier from anywhere else, including a transshipment that never entered US or Mexican commerce: the $20 line. Memorandum D8-2-16, paragraphs 11 and 12, are that commerce test. The full table is on the overseas clothing guide and the US clothing guide.

Neither set of bands turns off the surtax. Paragraph 9 of Customs Notice 26-23 says the surtax applies to US-origin goods including shipments under the de minimis thresholds, and paragraph 29 says those goods must be accounted for. Paragraph 17 says GST is calculated on a value for tax that includes the surtax even when customs duties are remitted, and that GST is not payable on a non-taxable importation even if surtax applies. That is why a US courier order at or under $40 can show no ordinary GST and still be a surtax question if the goods are marked as US goods. How the courier collects that surtax, and whether it adds brokerage, is check with CBSA or the carrier. Goods marked as originating in Puerto Rico, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, American Samoa or the US Virgin Islands are excluded from the surtax.

'Duties paid' vs 'duties unpaid' checkouts

Read the checkout as a list, not as a badge. “Duties paid,” “taxes included” and “delivered duty paid” are the seller’s words. Write down whether the lines include ordinary duty, GST or HST, and the surtax if the garment is marked as a good of the United States. The apparel lines on the 50 percent schedule are specific. The list covers specific tariff lines, not all clothing. Footwear is not on it. Whether your parcel is one of the lines is classification: check with CBSA. A prepaid total that matches only the GST, and not a surtax the marking would suggest, is a reason to pause, not a reason to invent the carrier’s fee.

Unpaid means the carrier or Canada Post will collect later. Budget the government amounts from the verified rules, and budget the carrier fee only from that carrier’s page. If you cannot find the fee page, the honest cell is “See carrier,” and the honest act is to ask before you pay the store. The shipping and return-fee guide is the domestic postage version of the same pause.

Refusing a package: what happens

Mail with Form E14 is the path CBSA describes in “Disputing duty and taxes,” modified 13 August 2021. You can refuse the parcel and request a reassessment before you pay. Ask Canada Post to return the goods to CBSA. Canada Post takes your phone number and a form. CBSA contacts you. If nothing is owed, Canada Post delivers the parcel. If an amount is owed, you pay when it is delivered. Canada Post’s customs page adds a practical warning: if you choose the return-to-CBSA option, the parcel is not released until the review is finished, so you wait. Paying and appealing means you have the item while the adjustment is processed.

Refusing a courier shipment is the carrier’s process plus CBSA’s. Do not assume the mail steps are the courier steps. Ask the carrier what refusal does to the brokerage fee and to the return of the goods to the seller. A seller may treat a refusal as your cost. Read that term before you order. The chart puts refusal and Form B2G on the mail path CBSA wrote down, and it sends every other “this charge looks wrong” question to the same fork: reassess before paying, or pay and adjust.

Getting refunds for overcharges

If you paid, the casual form is B2G, CBSA Informal Adjustment Request, printed on the back of the top copy of Form E14. Send it with invoices or other descriptions to the Casual Refund Centre listed on the form. CBSA reviews the claim. The note on the dispute page is the one people miss: CBSA will not refund any broker’s fees or shipping and handling costs. Contact the courier or Canada Post for those policies. Canada Post’s pay-duty terms say an adjustment of the duty and tax amount is a CBSA matter, and they describe a handling-fee refund in narrow cases on that terms page, including a double collection and a lost item. Read the current terms before you expect the $9.95 back.

A later return of the clothing to the store is a different file. CBSA’s “Request a refund or adjustment of duties and taxes paid,” modified 5 January 2026, covers personal-use claims. Whether your return qualifies is check with CBSA. Customs Notice 26-23 says a casual adjustment uses Form B2G and cannot be sent through CARM. The imposition of the surtax is not itself subject to appeal under the Customs Tariff or the Customs Act. Determinations of the amount can be. Paragraph 37 says that. Travellers who carried the clothes home in their baggage are out of scope here. Paragraph 23 points to the Guide for residents returning to Canada. Use that guide. The household counter-tariffs guide is the non-apparel version of the Order.