Random Thought Thread

Lorien said:
how do you guys feel about tarrifs? Is it one of those things where people don't mind paying the 35% or whatever it is if you know it's going back into your gov't? Like a patriotic thing?

The reason I ask is that unless I apply for an exemption under CUSMA, I'll have to add 35% to the price for my work in order to pay the import tax into the US. I'm pretty sure my work is exempt, but if it's not, would you have a problem with paying an additional $175 on a $500 knife if you knew that the US gov't was gonna use that money to pay down the national debt or whatever it was gonna be used for?

There are a number of countries suspending mail service to the US because of the cancellation of the de minimis exemption altogether- fortunately Canada is not one of them. It's just not clear to me yet whether or not I have to charge my US peeps for the import tax, (which I have to pay when I ship my stuff).
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Did something happen I don’t know about?
 
Lorien said:
just did a quick search, here's an article that lays things out fairly well; https://toronto.citynews.ca/2025/08/09/de-minimis-tariff-exemption-suspension-small-business-impact/

it's all good if you love doing paperwork!
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Ya. The extra paperwork sucks.

But we don’t pay the tariffs on things we send to the USA. Our customer would, unfortunately.

Canadian’s have been paying “duties” for years. We now just have to also pay tariffs on things coming from the USA.

It’s an unfortunate situation. I still love all my USA friends though!
 
Nathan the Machinist said:
We could literally double the amount the federal government takes on income taxes and we probably wouldn't pay off the national debt in my lifetime.

I don't think it will ever be paid. So, from that point of view, paying on it is pointless. It will be dealt with in one way or another at a certain point I suppose, but me paying towards it, isn't going to make any difference. There are too many zeros.
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By design
 
Sharp & Fiery said:
Ya. The extra paperwork sucks.

But we don’t pay the tariffs on things we send to the USA. Our customer would, unfortunately.

Canadian’s have been paying “duties” for years. We now just have to also pay tariffs on things coming from the USA.

It’s an unfortunate situation. I still love all my USA friends though!
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we pay the tariff to the carrier up front and will be forced to recoup it from our customers- unless we drop our price 35%. The $100 sheath we sell to our American friend will cost them $135. The paperwork we'll have to deal with will nix the tariff, but it takes more time and time is money.

as for us paying a tariff on things coming from the US, our PM just nixed most of them, which means we won't be paying the additional 25% that was tacked on previously
 
jlauffer said:
F HOAs. That is all.
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Just to demonstrate that you can always make something worse, I saw that some private equity firms decided to start buying up HOAs. So now those poor saps will find out that maintenance needs to take a back seat to repaying the the debt the PE boys lard it up with, and then argue about it with an outsourced call center.

I'm probably leaving California in the next couple years, and one of a very few hard rules I have for whatever my new place ends up being is no HOA.
 
adluginb said:
That’s why I ran for president of ours…. It’s my first term and I already have 2 households mad at me🤷🏼‍♂️
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What's that old adage? Never are people more vicious than when the stakes are so low? Nothing says "land of the free" better than giving your disgruntled neighbors the power to foreclose on your property for failure to* adequately store your trashcans, rake your lawn, paint your fence, park your guests' car in the driveway after midnight, or renting out the room above your garage.


*more accurately, failure to pay fines/fees imposed as a result of....
 
snuffle said:
Just to demonstrate that you can always make something worse, I saw that some private equity firms decided to start buying up HOAs. So now those poor saps will find out that maintenance needs to take a back seat to repaying the the debt the PE boys lard it up with, and then argue about it with an outsourced call center.

I'm probably leaving California in the next couple years, and one of a very few hard rules I have for whatever my new place ends up being is no HOA.
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Wow, I had to look that up. Apparently 2 things are happening:

1. PE firms are buying up HOA management companies, increasing prices and reducing quality of service; and

2. PE firms buy up a majority of homes in a development, use their votes to install their employees in a majority of seats on the HOA board, then dictate whatever terms they want.

Of these, I think #2 is more insidious as they can raise dues/assessments at their leisure and effectively force homeowners to sell out to avoid (or pay off) the fees and assessments. This tactic decreases marketability of the homes (b/c who in the hell would want to move into a place like this) so sellers are motivated to sell out to the PE firm when they extend an offer. Then the PE firm gets more votes...
 
This happens when residents don’t serve on the HOA board. Then a management company is hired and it all goes down hill. Even I’d serve before I let a management firm take over. And I don’t even like people. So far, three of my closest neighbors have thrown themselves on that grenade.
 
Lorien said:
we pay the tariff to the carrier up front and will be forced to recoup it from our customers- unless we drop our price 35%. The $100 sheath we sell to our American friend will cost them $135. The paperwork we'll have to deal with will nix the tariff, but it takes more time and time is money.

as for us paying a tariff on things coming from the US, our PM just nixed most of them, which means we won't be paying the additional 25% that was tacked on previously
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Can you source where we pay up front?

The info I have says that the receiver gets the bill…just like us here in Canada. 🤷‍♂️
 
Belgium Post website posted this:

The US government has decided that from 29 August 2025, import duties for all shipments with goods must be prepaid, regardless of value. At this time, this is not yet possible because the US has not provided details of the procedure.

We are therefore in a temporary transition: as long as there is no clarity, bpost cannot correctly process shipments with goods to the US.

Who will pay the import duties?

The sender will prepay the import duties before the shipment leaves for the US. The recipient will not need to pay anything on delivery.

How will the duties be calculated?

Exact rates are not yet known. Costs will depend on:

  • the type of goods
  • the value of the shipment
  • the country of origin of the goods
Can I pay duties later?

No. If the duties are not prepaid, the parcel will not be accepted for transport to the US


Maybe this only applies to Europe? Unknown. The European shippers are complaining about a lack of clarity on the new rules. From other articles I have read seem to say that there is no mechanism, for lack of a better word, to handle this on either side of the border. I guess this change was expected two years from now.

There’s a bunch of news articles out there.
 
oldmanwilly said:
Wow, I had to look that up. Apparently 2 things are happening:

1. PE firms are buying up HOA management companies, increasing prices and reducing quality of service; and

2. PE firms buy up a majority of homes in a development, use their votes to install their employees in a majority of seats on the HOA board, then dictate whatever terms they want.

Of these, I think #2 is more insidious as they can raise dues/assessments at their leisure and effectively force homeowners to sell out to avoid (or pay off) the fees and assessments. This tactic decreases marketability of the homes (b/c who in the hell would want to move into a place like this) so sellers are motivated to sell out to the PE firm when they extend an offer. Then the PE firm gets more votes...
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I was aware PE firms are buying up homes (artificially increasing house values..?) but I wasn’t aware of the HOA aspect.
 
here is a helpful link for us Canadian exporters to the US;

Step-by-step guide to CUSMA compliance - Tradecommissioner.gc.ca

www.tradecommissioner.gc.ca www.tradecommissioner.gc.ca

that is a lot of reading and mumbo jumbo. Not my strong suit, so it'll take a little while.

I'm just glad I got my last batch of stuff out when I did, and am sitting on no one's money , and no significant commitments at this point, (just floating commitments!).

So far I think just about everything arrived at its destination by now- I have to admit that this whole issue kind of snuck up on me. There is an absolute clusterfuck of weird shit going on right now in 'the world', so I find it hard to keep track of each new thing that enters my brain each day. This one is a big one, though. Shit just got real- 95% of my work gets sold to US customers.

It's not like I have a business plan, but I did have a general idea of where I wanted to go and how I was going to get there. All this stuff throws a lot of that out the window, short term anyway.

As far as the prepaid tax collection component, I'm pretty sure I have the right info, but we'll find out for sure on the 29th.
 
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