Im an American. I currently am in montreal and opened a bank account at BMO and was issued a debit card. I need to purchase a few items on amazon.ca with my capitalone360 card from the US as i can’t use my bmo card for amazon.ca. I also am using this card as oppose to bank of america because there isn’t any foreign transaction fees.
Items (2): USD 295.77
Shipping & Handling: USD 0.00
Total before tax: USD 295.77
Estimated GST/HST: USD 14.78
Estimated PST/RST/QST: USD 29.51
Order Total: USD 340.06
When i make purchases in amazon.com in the us, i usually get free shipping or pay a bit if i want it faster. Usually most of the stuff i order doesn’t have sale tax unless its electronics.
Im purchasing electronics here. Here, i see that GST/HST is estimated sales tax. But there is also another PST/RST/QST sales tax? Can someone explain this to me? Surprised its this much sales tax for 296 dollars worth of electronic that is just a monitor and a blender.
QST is Quebec’s sales tax of, as I see, 9.975%, so you’ll pay that plus 5% GST, or 14.975% total (CA$44.29 total). Math looks right.
Amazon has been fighting sales tax in the US. You are supposed to elect to pay use tax if your states assesses it. I believe they lost/are losing that battle.
Of course you can use a US credit card, but the exchange rate will not be good. I am a bit surprised that Amazon won’t take a BMO debit card. They pay a lower fee than on a credit card, don’t they?
Figure the combined sales taxes at 15% and you won’t be off by more than a few pennies.
Is the BMO debit card Interac or MC/Visa? Some, not all, merchants take Interac Online. If Amazon.ca takes Interac Online, you can use a standard Canadian debit card to buy the stuff. If the debit card is a Canadian Visa/MC debit card, you might not be able to use it.
Do brick & mortar stores sell Canadian Amazon gift cards in Canada? In the United States, most larger food, drug, and discount stores sell US Amazon gift cards.
If so, buy an Amazon gift card with your favorite form of payment and apply that gift card to your Amazon account.