Took the plunge on a machine that I've been looking for and am having it shipped NAVL from Texas to Champlain NY where I will be picking it up when it arrives and driving it over. Any suggestions on how to reduce the GST PST costs? If at all, I will have to pay . Can I show an invoice of a lower amount ? Drive across a smaller border crossing ? Guess it all depends on  the customs officer. At least there is no duty as the machine was made in the USA

Why asking for serious trouble??

No one likes to pay taxes, however staying honest pays in the end.
Present the real invoice and the real amount to the customs agent and pay the applicable GST/PST...

Be honest, don't hide anything and if it wasn't a super expensive machine, they will probably just wave you through. I have only had to pay on one machine out of the probably 2 dozen I have brought back, and that was my ToM because of the value involved. If you try to deceive them and get caught you *will* forfeit the machine, and possibly anything else the want to take, like your vehicle. Don't be stupid.

Last time they brought me in to logon to my email account / paypal to show if the amount I declared was the right one...

Be safe and indeed have official papers to backup what you say

I agree: be honest.

A lot of these guys have seen many pinball machines crossing the border.
They know pretty much the value. Some apparently even went on the web
to check prices, such as eBay transaction, dealer pricing, etc.

There are two legal potential ways to save cdn taxes while crossing the border, as far as I know:
- stay over more than 48 hrs in the US before crossing back. You can claim $400 cdn deduction;
- cross over in a different province than your province of residence. Should save the PST I believe.

Make sure you have a real receipt (with the real paid value) to show the customs officer.

Bonne chance !
- Sylvain.

I am also paying for the cost of shipping ( NAVL ), do I also have to pay duty /tax on that as well ?

Quoted from MrWalker

I am also paying for the cost of shipping ( NAVL ), do I also have to pay duty /tax on that as well ?

No you pay taxes only on the amount you payed for the pin. If it is an american pin no duties apply.

The advice you have gotten so far is pretty much bang on.   Probably won't save you any money to stay in a motel for two nights just to get $400 knocked off the total value of goods, but you could certainly make it a "mini-vacation" and remind yourself that you are knocking about $60 off the cost of bringing the machine back.   Older pins with values around $500 can often be brought back free of charge, since most customs people don't sweat the old, cheap machines too much.  If you are buying a $4000 Circus Voltaire or even a $1500 Jurassic Park, you can expect to pay to bring it back.

Something that hasn't been mentioned yet is that they will charge you GST and PST on the NAVL costs as well !   That blows my mind, but they consider any costs you incur to get the machine across the border as part of the machine's value.  So assuming a $350 -$400 NAVL charge, you can expect another $60 at the border.

I guess the one way you could save $$ is to not mention the shipping cost.  They probably won't ask you how you got it...they'll just look at your invoice.   But really, why bother ?  When you think about it, if the value of the machine is high enough for you to pay GST/PST, then you shouldn't bother trying to cheap out on the taxes.   You'll also breathe easier as you cross the border...definitely worth it.

One word: catapult.

What if you bring a machine over the boarder to trade for another machine of equal value (give or take a few hundred bucks)? What happens then? Im sure people have done similar things going to Allentown, etc..

Quoted from Hippochrome

What if you bring a machine over the boarder to trade for another machine of equal value (give or take a few hundred bucks)? What happens then? Im sure people have done similar things going to Allentown, etc..

Then you tell the border guard you are bringing the pin over to "display" at the show and get Free entry.  

Then on the way back after you traded for a different machine you tell them you are bringing it back

Quoted from Vengeance

Then you tell the border guard you are bringing the pin over to "display" at the show and get Free entry.  

Then on the way back after you traded for a different machine you tell them you are bringing it back

Even this gets dicey now though, I know from my musical instrument buying/trading/selling history that a lot of times in these cases they are requesting serial numbers, and may stop and spot check you on the way back to make sure it matches.

The mini vacation idea is the best.  When i went down to PA a couple of years back, i wanted a big green egg BBQ (thos of you who are bbq fiends know what that is, needless to say. expensive.. and it was almost half the price in PA as to here!)  When we got to the border (an SUV with 4 people in it) they asked what we spent on our vacation.  I honestly  told them all in, around 1500. the border guard smiled and waved us on.  If we had been asked to fill out all the forms, i spent around 700 bucks, and would have had to pay duty on $300 of it.

A couple of years back they nailed my brother in law because he crossed the border and tried wearing his purchases home. he ended up getting a pretty hefty bill (said he went over for lunch) and since he had threw away his recipts, they charged him duty based on MSRP of his new shoes and jacket!