Canadian GST refund - ITRS

Patty,

This is news to me. I have emailed the CRA for
clarification/confirmation of this. It's good news to the consumer if
it's true. However, there are still a lot of benefits when going
through Global Refund: The refund happens in minutes, it's hassle free
& it's done before you leave the country.

Did you know that 80% of tourists don't ever bother getting their GST
back?

-sasha



Patty Winter wrote:
In article ,
moveman wrote:

The Canadian Government refunds GST to every non Canadian applicant
via a cheque in Canadian funds - the only exception is US tourists
who
will receive a refund in USD.


http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/tax/nonresi...urrencyofissue

Where possible, rebate cheques will be issued in the currency of the
visitor's home country. All cheques that are not issued in one of
the
specified currencies will be issued in Canadian dollars.

("specified currencies" links to a list of 51 countries.)


Patty

wrote...
... there are still a lot of benefits when going through Global Refund:
The refund happens in minutes, it's hassle free & it's done before
you leave the country. Did you know that 80% of tourists don't ever
bother getting their GST back?

I believe both statements. The first is for those who are anal about
getting every penny back they can, the moment they can, and the
second is for lazy-ass people who can't be bothered with paperwork,
saving receipts and such. Strangely enuff, I'm with the 1st group,
and my brother is in the 2nd group.[R]

wrote...
... there are still a lot of benefits when going through Global Refund:
The refund happens in minutes, it's hassle free & it's done before
you leave the country. Did you know that 80% of tourists don't ever
bother getting their GST back?

I believe both statements. The first is for those who are anal about
getting every penny back they can, the moment they can, and the
second is for lazy-ass people who can't be bothered with paperwork,
saving receipts and such. Strangely enuff, I'm with the 1st group,
and my brother is in the 2nd group.[R]

Many thanks for all the replies, especially moveman who has actually
confirmed what's going on.

The Canadian government refunding in your own currency must be fairly
new - in any event there must be old forms all over the place which
say $CAN only. I am certain that the (government) forms I picked up
last year in Newfoundland (on the ferry) and this year in Vancouver
(rail station) did not mention it, or I'd have used one.

Given that it costs $CAN 25 to 40 to exchange a $CAN cheque in the UK
even a 10% fee doesn't seem too much to pay (in the lack of the above
knowledge).

And the stub of the ITRS envelope does say : 'ITRS provides
exceptional service for free' and 'ITRS does not charge a fee to
process your claim either'. I assume that whatever they were making
came from the exchange rate.

So I assume my receipts are lost, with a faint hope they might get
returned or sent on to the Canadian revenue. I shan't hold my breath.

On a slightly different tack, I believe there's a strike in the
Canadian Revenue at the moment - does it affect this area of their
work?

Many thanks for all the replies, especially moveman who has actually
confirmed what's going on.

The Canadian government refunding in your own currency must be fairly
new - in any event there must be old forms all over the place which
say $CAN only. I am certain that the (government) forms I picked up
last year in Newfoundland (on the ferry) and this year in Vancouver
(rail station) did not mention it, or I'd have used one.

Given that it costs $CAN 25 to 40 to exchange a $CAN cheque in the UK
even a 10% fee doesn't seem too much to pay (in the lack of the above
knowledge).

And the stub of the ITRS envelope does say : 'ITRS provides
exceptional service for free' and 'ITRS does not charge a fee to
process your claim either'. I assume that whatever they were making
came from the exchange rate.

So I assume my receipts are lost, with a faint hope they might get
returned or sent on to the Canadian revenue. I shan't hold my breath.

On a slightly different tack, I believe there's a strike in the
Canadian Revenue at the moment - does it affect this area of their
work?

Many thanks for all the replies, especially moveman who has actually
confirmed what's going on.

The Canadian government refunding in your own currency must be fairly
new - in any event there must be old forms all over the place which
say $CAN only. I am certain that the (government) forms I picked up
last year in Newfoundland (on the ferry) and this year in Vancouver
(rail station) did not mention it, or I'd have used one.

Given that it costs $CAN 25 to 40 to exchange a $CAN cheque in the UK
even a 10% fee doesn't seem too much to pay (in the lack of the above
knowledge).

And the stub of the ITRS envelope does say : 'ITRS provides
exceptional service for free' and 'ITRS does not charge a fee to
process your claim either'. I assume that whatever they were making
came from the exchange rate.

So I assume my receipts are lost, with a faint hope they might get
returned or sent on to the Canadian revenue. I shan't hold my breath.

On a slightly different tack, I believe there's a strike in the
Canadian Revenue at the moment - does it affect this area of their
work?

Patty Winter wrote:
http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/tax/nonresi...urrencyofissue

Where possible, rebate cheques will be issued in the currency of the
visitor's home country. All cheques that are not issued in one of the
specified currencies will be issued in Canadian dollars.

("specified currencies" links to a list of 51 countries.)

Even so, foreign banks can still charge hefty fees to cash those cheques
even if they are denominated in local currency.

I once needed to send EUR 18.00 from Canada to someone in Holland. I
purchased an international money order from my bank, denominated in EUR.
My recipient's bank in Holland wanted to charge him 10.00 EUR to cash the
money order, leaving him with EUR 8.00 So he sent it back to me, I redeemed
it where I purchased it, and just mailed him cash.

K.

In article nJk5d.97696$KU5.1898@edtnps89,
=?ISO-8859-9?Q?Kir=E1ly?= wrote:
Patty Winter wrote:

Where possible, rebate cheques will be issued in the currency of the
visitor's home country.

Even so, foreign banks can still charge hefty fees to cash those cheques
even if they are denominated in local currency.

I once needed to send EUR 18.00 from Canada to someone in Holland. I
purchased an international money order from my bank, denominated in EUR.
My recipient's bank in Holland wanted to charge him 10.00 EUR to cash the
money order, leaving him with EUR 8.00

Banks don't necessarily treat money orders the same as checks, do they?


Patty

In article nJk5d.97696$KU5.1898@edtnps89,
=?ISO-8859-9?Q?Kir=E1ly?= wrote:
Patty Winter wrote:

Where possible, rebate cheques will be issued in the currency of the
visitor's home country.

Even so, foreign banks can still charge hefty fees to cash those cheques
even if they are denominated in local currency.

I once needed to send EUR 18.00 from Canada to someone in Holland. I
purchased an international money order from my bank, denominated in EUR.
My recipient's bank in Holland wanted to charge him 10.00 EUR to cash the
money order, leaving him with EUR 8.00

Banks don't necessarily treat money orders the same as checks, do they?


Patty

Patty Winter wrote:

In article nJk5d.97696$KU5.1898@edtnps89,
=?ISO-8859-9?Q?Kir=E1ly?= wrote:
Patty Winter wrote:

Where possible, rebate cheques will be issued in the currency of the
visitor's home country.

Even so, foreign banks can still charge hefty fees to cash those cheques
even if they are denominated in local currency.

I once needed to send EUR 18.00 from Canada to someone in Holland. I
purchased an international money order from my bank, denominated in EUR.
My recipient's bank in Holland wanted to charge him 10.00 EUR to cash the
money order, leaving him with EUR 8.00

Banks don't necessarily treat money orders the same as checks, do they?

Patty

Cheques would be the same. The problem is that banks have a clearing
system, usually automated, and cheques from foreign banks have to be
dealt with manually. I had a U.S. dollar bank account at a Canadian
bank. Cheques that I sent to the U.S. were in U.S. dollars but could not
be cleared through the U.S. banking system and needed to be handled
seperately. This meant that the cheque recepient in the U.S. also had to
pay $10 or $15 for this.

I now have a U.S. account where the cheques clear through a U.S. bank so
there is no extra fee involved. I would think this applies to Europe
etc.