Quite a ways’ back in 2005 or so, Doug and I devised a spreadsheet calculator tool that would help us assess how much tax we should expect to pay when we ordered tobacco from the US to Canada.

We named it “TTAX” and we decided that it would be made available free of charge to any and all who wanted to use it. Over the years, I’ve had a few pipers reach out to me for the updated copy of the spreadsheet. It is now here for anyone to download and enjoy. I will endeavour to update it from time to time here, as provincial budgets are announced and information changes.

TTAX is a small MS Excel spreadsheet application that calculates the charges that should result (if or) when your package is assessed by our border service folks (CBSA assessment). If should be compatible with Mac’s or PC’s.

TTAX is a benign spreadsheet (no macros or active controls) and its only purpose is to allow Canadian pipe smokers to:

• estimate total costs, assessments, and expected savings on US imports;
• determine what they should pay on assessment in advance and provide support for any appeals;
• obtain some insight into the actual taxation rates and resulting costs in different provinces in Canada; and
• carry out more complex cost comparisons across vendors or vs. domestic.

TTAX supports assessment calculations for anyone located anywhere in Canada. All of the green areas are yours to fill in. There is also a notes area for your convenience. The rest of the sheet is protected so that you don’t overwrite something important inadvertently – it’s for your convenience only, the protection is not passworded. There is a menu selection for your province (more about Ontario below). There are cells to enter counts of all pipe tobacco package sizes ordered. There is also a place for you to include the US retail price total for tobacco, any accessory (eg, pipes, etc.) pricing in the order, and the shipping cost. You’ll find that TTAX provides some nice cost metrics per oz of tobacco that are quite useful. The local cost estimates are based upon local aggregate averages that are backed up by very little real data. The local cost averages are reasonably accurate for Ontario and BC. If people send us the tin and pouch sticker prices for other locations this will become more accurate for other provinces and territories.

One will notice that there are two classes of provinces for CBSA assessment of imported tobacco by mail. While the CBSA does collect the Federal tobacco excise tax on each assessed personal tobacco import for all residents of Canada, collection of the (much higher) provincial tobacco taxes depended upon your province of residence (for mailed parcels). There was an apparent chink in the armour. Today, the CBSA collects provincial tobacco taxes for any assessed mailed tobacco parcel for residents of BC, Alberta, Manitoba, Quebec, New Brunswick, and most recently now, Ontario. CBSA is not authorised to collect provincial tobacco taxes on mailed parcels for residents of Saskatchewan, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, and all of the Territories. Slowly, the provinces are authorising the CBSA to collect the tax on their behalf. This means that for some, the cost advantage of buying from the US will shrink a little bit.

A note about Ontario with the spreadsheet. Once upon a time, Ontario did not authorise the CBSA to collect the provincial tobacco tax on mailed imports. Now it has. It’s still interesting to see the difference this makes by selecting one or the other choices in the list. You will see ON1 and ON2. ON1 reflects the time when CBSA did NOT collect the provincial sales tax for Ontario. ON2 has the CBSA assessing the Ontario provincial tobacco tax. This sheet will keep both scenarios intact for informational purposes.