With a mission to inform, empower, celebrate and advocate for British Columbia's current and aspiring business leaders, BCBusiness go behind the headlines and bring readers face to face with the key issues and people driving business in B.C.
Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/1388249
JULY/AUGUST 2021 BCBUSINESS 39 Canada's federal tax court shows no cases with references to daigou, and the Canada Revenue Agency's only comment on the practice, in response to a question, was a generic email noting that Canada's tax system is based on voluntary compliance and that "[w]hether the degree of activity in Canada is sufficient to be considered as carrying on a business in Canada needs to be determined on a case-by-case basis." Costco, Canada Goose and Nordstrom—three places mentioned by shoppers or retail workers as popular spots for daigou—didn't respond to requests for interviews or information. The only details that anyone has on what's going on are official Canadian statistics that calculate underground economic activity, which has always been somewhat more pronounced in B.C. than most other places in Canada. Statistics Canada had reported it at about 3 percent of the province's gross domestic product in 2016, but others think it's higher and has grown more than elsewhere for various reasons. Not an easy life But even if the official organizations don't know exactly what's going on, the shoppers are there. There aren't quite as many as in previ- ous years, thanks to the pandemic and a new Chinese law from 2019 aimed at requiring daigou shoppers to register and pay import taxes. Still, daigou remains an attractive occupation for many immi- grants, students and others because the work is so flexible, requires few English-language skills and can function with almost no work- space or infrastructure except a vehicle for transporting goods. It also pays well, especially because it's tax-free for most. Tan says that, in some cases, a daigou shopper could make a profit of 90 yuan—about $17—on a single can of milk powder that sells locally for $20 to $25. Yolanda, who worked for a headhunting firm in China before she came to live in Richmond with her son in 2017, says she's been making between $2,000 and $4,000 net on purchases of $20,000 to $40,000 in a month, after paying for gas, courier fees and the goods themselves. "In the past four years in Canada, I worked full-time as a purchas- ing agent and I did nothing else except this." But it's not the easiest life. "Industry competition is certainly big. Hard work is inevitable—get up earlier than the chicken, go to bed later than the dog, basically, is the life of daigou," says Angela, another young mother who spends consid- erable time scouring stores—mostly super- markets and Costco—to get products on sale. "When I was full-time, I did my shop- ping during the day and went to sleep at 3 or 4 at night." Angela, who has run to outlets like Coach to grab the "best bags" during holi- day sales, saves up her Shoppers Drug Mart points to buy skincare products. Daigou shoppers also need to find a reli- able local courier that specializes in getting packages to China, although that's rela- tively easy in a city like Vancouver, which has so many ties to the country. Some shoppers simplify their lives by focusing only on certain products for a lim- ited group of customers. Zlatan, a young man who dedicates about two hours a day to daigou, concentrates almost exclusively on Canada Goose, buying about 200 to 300 items a month. "It is tiring to purchase too many dif- ferent kinds of goods," says Zlatan, who started his buying business in 2015. "If I do this kind of product purchasing, there are too many categories of them, and I need to go to different places often, and the time, cost and transportation will be higher." "Hard work is inevitable–get up earlier than the chicken, go to bed later than the dog, basically, is the life of daigou. When I was full-time, I did my shopping during the day and went to sleep at 3 or 4 at night" –Angela, daigou shopper ISTOCK