Next message: De Clarke: "Re: lv-ab: buying a boat in Canada for use in the US?"
I think that if you US Federal document the boat, you would not have to pay
sales tax if the boat does not reside in a state for more than 90 days at a
time. If California requires a license in addition to the fed document, I
assume that you could do that at purchase, or when you bring the boat home.
If there is a selling broker, he may be required to collect Canada sales
tax, and thus would also know what to do for a US resident taking the boat
home that does not want to pay twice. If you license in US, you will need a
Canada cruising permit.
Would US Customs handle the duty? They have a web site & contact numbers
http://www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/home.xml
Lee Haefele
----- Original Message -----
From: "De Clarke" <>
To: <>
Sent: Friday, September 03, 2004 12:09 PM
Subject: lv-ab: buying a boat in Canada for use in the US?
>
> The deal is just about closed on the boat I'm trying to buy up in
> Canada. Now I have to find out about the rules and regs surrounding
> tax, licensing, and import into the US.
>
> Last I looked at US Customs docs, the import duty on boats post-NAFTA
> was 1 percent, so that is not a big deal.
>
> Tax/licensing seems potentially scarier. The boat will remain in Canada
> for some months -- at least 9 months -- pending some repair and upgrade
> activity. Question is, do I need to pay taxes in BC and license the
> boat there? Is there some "grace period", and how long is it? If I pay
> taxes and license the boat in BC, what will the State of CA require when
> I bring the boat into the US later on? I know someone, somewhere, is
> going to demand sales/use tax on this boat. But who, and when?
>
> Doing the wrong thing with vessel licensing and taxation can lead to
> all kinds of persecution by officials at distant desks, so I'd like
> to tread carefully. I've been googling for info on "canada boat tax"
> and "canada vessel purchase" and so forth, but oddly am not finding
> much. Does anyone know of a good source of info, preferably a nice
> simple checklist of steps to go through and people to contact, to make
> a freshly-purchased boat all legal and documented? (I don't mean
> "documented" in the US sense, what the Canadians call "registered" --
> just documented as in "has some paperwork").
>
> I know this is a bit OT, not having strictly to do with living aboard
> (though I do plan to live aboard this boat when I retire); but there's
> such a deep pool of experience on this list that I thought someone might
> know the answers... by all means redirect me to a better group or
> list for this question, if it's inappropriate here...
>
> de
>
> --
>
............................................................................
.
> :De Clarke, Software Engineer UCO/Lick Observatory,
UCSC:
> :Mail: | Your planet's immune system is trying to get rid
:
> :Web: www.ucolick.org | of you. --Kurt Vonnegut :
> :1024D/B9C9E76E | F892 5F17 8E0A F095 05CD EE8B D169 EDAA B9C9
E76E:
>
>
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