Canadian man has to pay $189 in import fees after shipping heirloom ring he forgot in the U.S.

A B.C. couple say it’s not right that they have to pay nearly $200 in import fees to reclaim a wedding ring — also a family heirloom — that was shipped back to them from family in the United States after being mistakenly left behind earlier this month.

Admittedly, the Nanaimo resident isn’t a jewellery guy, so the gold ring given to him by his late father, Jimmy, almost 20 years ago, had sat unused for many years.

“I thought about getting it resized,” he told National Post. “My fingers are substantially more slender, right? His ring was too big for all of them, other than maybe my thumb if I was lucky.”

He’d always promised to make use of it one day, and that came two years after his father’s passing in 2022, when he and his common-law partner of many years, Andrea Nelson, decided to get legally married.

They had the ring fitted for his hand, picked another of his rings for Nelson to use as a wedding band and were married in 2024.

“I think he would have just loved the fact that I had finally done something with it,” Baker-Taylor said.

While visiting his godparents in Washington State earlier this month, he removed the ring before getting in the shower — “Its structure holds water,” he explained — but then left without putting it back on dry hands. They realized and called their hosts before even departing the state, who confirmed with a photo that it was safe and sound.

Relieved, they did the practical thing and quickly arranged to have it shipped back to their address via UPS with $500 worth of insurance on the package.

When it arrived some days later, however, the delivery person informed the astounded couple that it would cost a combined $189 in cross-border duty, taxes, import tariff and brokerage fee to have it returned.

“We discovered it’s being treated like a jewelry transaction, an import across the border,” said Baker-Taylor.

“There’s no way for them to prove that I purchased this; the burden should be on them.”

They’ve since discovered that proving that the ring was, at one time, a bequest from his father is somewhat challenging.

The Canada Border Services Agency, in a statement to National Post, said the Customs Act doesn’t allow it to discuss the couple’s case specifically, but a spokesperson did clarify some of the guidelines that would apply to their situation.

Under the Act, any personal (non-commercial) goods brought into Canada are subject to duty and taxes at the time of importation “based on federal and provincial tax rates, as well as current rates of duty.”

“The CBSA’s calculation of duties and taxes owed for a particular shipment is typically based on information indicated on the customs declaration, invoices attached to the item, or an examination to appraise the value of the goods,” the spokesperson wrote.

In Baker-Taylor and Nelson’s case, those fees should be collected by the courier, UPS, which is also permitted to levy its administrative fees not regulated by the government of Canada, i.e., the brokerage fee.

Nelson went to the local CBSA office and was told much the same.

She also learned that to avoid the import fees, they would have had to provide legal documentation showing Baker-Taylor’s father had bequeathed him the ring. But because it was given to him long before his father’s death, the ring was never in a will.

In the absence of a will, CBSA said it needs “a signed/dated statement from the donor (or individual with power of attorney) transferring ownership of the goods and witnessed by someone other than the recipient of the goods.” Again, not something the couple could hope to acquire so many years later.

Nelson was also told that she could simply pay the fees to UPS and then apply for a partial refund, so long as she included a dated wedding photo, insurance documentation from UPS, an affidavit from Baker-Taylor confirming his long-term ownership and a statement from the person who shipped it.

“The amount of hoops we have to jump through just to get this done, and it’s not even necessarily a guarantee; they could still refuse,” she said.

“I’m beside myself because this has turned into a Rube Goldberg device trying to get this back,” Baker-Taylor added, referencing the American cartoonist whose work depicted simple tasks being performed in very complicated ways by chain-reaction contraptions.

In addition to contacting local MP Tamara Kronis, they’ve also started a Change.org petition in hopes of not only expediting their process but also effecting change so others don’t get caught in the same quandary.

Baker-Taylor said that while $189 may not be a significant sum to some people, it is for others and he wonders how many people have “begrudgingly paid” to get their personal property back.

“These are almost extortive,’ he said, “and my concern is how many Canadians pay these and is the government stealing money from Canadians, essentially?”

As for the ring itself, instead of it being shipped back to the U.S., which is customary when fees on delivery are refused, a UPS manager generously agreed to personally store it in his office until the situation is resolved.

• U.S. counter-tariffs help Canada bank $617M more in import duties than last March
• Cross-border shopping: How is surtax collected on U.S. goods at the Canadian border?

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