Buying a Canadian boat with paying PST

[captain_haddock]

Long story short, I am an Australian citizen with my eye on a boat for sale in British Columbia. There is a hefty sales tax over there (PST 12%) applicable to private sales, but it states the tax is not payable if the seller organises to have the boat moved outside of British Columbia before the new owner takes possession.

On the other hand, I am finding all these rules about Canadians not being allowed to sell a Canadian boat in US waters. It is vague though and I can not find a definite answer.

Which of these is correct?

• A Canadian flagged boat can not be sold when in US waters.
• A Canadian flagged boat can not be sold to a US citizen when in US waters.

[osprey877]

I am a Canadian and have sold a cdn registered boat in the USA. However, I first had to import it into the us and register as a us vessel. I had a broker do the paperwork and I had to pay a small import duty (amount depends where vessel was built and application of current NAFTA agreement) and a brokerage fee. I was on west coast and imported it into Washington. When I sold the boat, the buyer would have had to pay Washington state sales tax, so you may not save much. The other alternative is to take the boat out into international waters and complete the sale and then return. This was quite common with sales of expensive mega yachts when BC had a thriving boat building industry.
Also, I think that some or all of the BC sales tax/GST is refundable if you remove the boat from BC. , but not sure. Anyways, it can be quite complicated and if the amount involved is significant, you should get expert advice. Ie. iyacht brokersge or a document

[GordMay]

A Canadian boat can be sold [by anyone to anyone], in the USA, when the boat has been imported to USA, and duty [& US State Sales/Registration Tax] paid.
Consult a Customs Broker.

[Sv_Kristy]

My wife and I recently purchased a Canadian registered vessel. The sellers were Canadian and the boat was in Florida. The used it from November to April in the Bahamas. Since the boat was in Florida at the time of purchase we simply had to pay Florida sales tax and registration. After the transaction was complete I had to submit the bill of sale to the Canadian Registry and pay a $50.00 fee to have the boat removed from the Canadian Registry.

Pretty simple process.

[Macblaze]

We are Albertans and have no sales tax here. Here's what we did.

The broker hired a captain to deliver the boat from Vancouver to Point Roberts (a bit of the US more or less surrounded by Canada). We took a cab to Point Roberts and took possession there and then brought it back to BC. This way we avoided BC's sales tax. The boat is registered in Alberta but stays in BC. Easy peasy.

[desodave]

We sold our previous boat to an Albertan in a similar way to MacBlaze's purchase. The broker and the purchaser sailed the boat from Vancouver Island just into US waters, having pre-arranged the transfer with a titling service, and effected the transfer of title at the moment the boat was clearly in US waters. They then turned around and returned to the Island. Purchaser avoided the provincial sales tax and kept the boat in BC. As a BC resident, I was a little PO'd with the process of avoiding our PST but it is a standard process AFAIK.

[pcmm]

Originally Posted by Sv_Kristy

My wife and I recently purchased a Canadian registered vessel. The sellers were Canadian and the boat was in Florida. The used it from November to April in the Bahamas. Since the boat was in Florida at the time of purchase we simply had to pay Florida sales tax and registration. After the transaction was complete I had to submit the bill of sale to the Canadian Registry and pay a $50.00 fee to have the boat removed from the Canadian Registry.

Pretty simple process.

How did you handle the import process? or did you just skip that part?

[ElGordo]

I am a BC resident and purchased a US boat from Washington state. After I purchased the sailboat I had to remove it from Washington state to avoid paying state tax. I did this by sailing it to White Rock and clearing customs in Canada. I then sailed to Point Roberts where I moored the boat. I then registered the boat in Canada. At that time the BC tax authority asked for payment of provincial tax on the acquisition, however, because the boac is moored full-time outside of Canada it is exempt. The tax authority asked for evidence of my moorage rental agreement, which I provided, and there was no amount due.

I have since sold the boat to a couple from Washington state. We sailed the boat to White Rock, cleared customs, then while still tied to the dock completed the sale and signed the paperwork. We then sailed to Anacortes where they registered the boat in Washington state. They dealt with the import taxes as it was a Canadian registered boat.

[boatpoker]

I have been involved several Canadian vessel deals on the east coast where the sales paperwork was assembled, the vessel sailed more than 12 miles out and the sales contract signed and vessel handed over outside the 12 mile limit.

[deblen]

This sounds like a Canadian "good" can be bought by a foreigner on Cdn soil,as long as it is exported within 60 days.
I would suggest checking with the Fed HST/GST folks,as well as BC PST folks.
I can't imagine our laws are so screwy as to require that a Cdn has to physically take his "goods for sale" outside our borders to sell them foreign.

https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-age...s-exports.html

On another track,I decided to buy a boat in Maine in 2006. I checked proceedure beforehand with local customs.I was told to bring the boat & trailer to border with sales receipt,pay the 15% HST on the boat and 7% on trailer. The additional 8% PST was paid to province when trailer was regd in NB.
As it turned out,I bought a bigger,non-trailerable boat,sailed it home, reported to customs with receipt,paid the 15% HST & that was it.
It was done many times here in N.B & N.S back in those times when our dollar was worth something.The only problem I heard of was when some Cdn showed up at border with a low$$ sales receipt that obviously didn't match the big$$ boat.