Do you pay duty on carbon wheels shipped to Canada?

A carbon road wheel photographed on black, spokes and hub in view

If you order carbon wheels from a seller outside Canada, you will normally pay duty, sales tax and a brokerage fee on arrival — and none of it appears on the checkout page where you decided to buy. That is the whole problem: the number that persuaded you is not the number you end up paying.

What arrives with the box

Three separate charges, from three different places:

  • Customs duty — a percentage of the declared value, set by what the goods are and where they were made.
  • Sales tax — GST, and in Québec also QST, calculated on the value plus the duty. Tax on tax is normal here and surprises almost everyone.
  • Brokerage or disbursement fee — what the courier charges for doing the customs paperwork and fronting the money. This one is not a government charge at all, and it is often the line people find hardest to accept, because they never agreed to it.

The courier collects all three at the door, usually from a driver who cannot discuss it and will not leave the box without it.

DDU and DDP, and why the acronym matters

Almost every international order ships DDU — delivered duty unpaid. The seller ships; you are the importer; the charges are yours. A shop can advertise a low price honestly and still leave you several hundred dollars short of the real landed cost, because from their side nothing was hidden — it simply was not theirs to pay.

The alternative is DDP — delivered duty paid. The seller clears the goods, pays the duty, and hands you a box with nothing owing. It costs the seller more and it makes the sticker price look higher than a DDU competitor's. It is also the only arrangement where the price you agreed to is the price you pay.

What we do

RC Vélo ships DDP. Duty is cleared before your wheels move, the price on the product page is in Canadian dollars, and there is nothing to settle when the box arrives. Shipping anywhere in Canada is free.

Sales tax is the one thing that is not absorbed — it is calculated at checkout, where you can see it before you commit, which is where it belongs.

Comparing a Canadian price with an overseas one

If you are weighing us against a seller abroad, compare landed cost, not sticker price. Take their price, convert it at today's rate rather than the one you remember, then add duty, add GST and QST on the total, and add the courier's brokerage fee. Do the same sum on a second wheelset and you will find the gap is rarely what it looked like on the first page.

Then add the part that has no dollar figure: if something goes wrong with a wheel that entered the country as your personal import, the warranty conversation is yours to have, in the seller's language, on the seller's timezone, with the shipping both ways to arrange yourself.

The short version

Duty on imported wheels is real, it is charged late, and it is charged by someone you cannot argue with. A DDP price looks higher and usually is not. Ask any seller which one they ship — it is a fair question and the answer is short.

Our answer is on every page: duty paid, priced in Canadian dollars, free shipping across Canada. The rest of the questions we get asked are answered in one place.

Once the price is settled

What is left is choosing the wheel itself: which rim depth suits your riding, and — if you are anywhere near 120 kg — which families carry no rider weight limit.

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Still asked

Do I still pay GST and QST on an order from RC Vélo?

Yes. Sales tax is a Canadian tax on a Canadian sale and it is not something a seller can absorb quietly — it is calculated at checkout, on the page, before you commit. What is covered is the customs duty and the clearance, which is the part that normally arrives as a surprise at the door.

Is there duty between Canadian provinces?

No. Duty is a border charge. Once goods are cleared into Canada they move between provinces freely, so a wheelset shipped from Montréal to Vancouver crosses no customs line and incurs no further charge.

Does free shipping mean the duty is included too?

They are two separate things and you get both. Shipping anywhere in Canada costs nothing, and the duty is cleared before your wheels move. The only thing added at checkout is sales tax.

How long does customs clearance add to delivery?

Nothing you have to wait for at the end. Clearance happens before the wheels reach you rather than while a courier holds the box waiting to be paid — which is where most of the delay in a DDU delivery comes from. Wheels in stock in Montréal reach most of Canada in 5 to 8 business days; wheels ordered in from the factory take about 4 to 6 weeks.