Out of Province Vehicle Purchase - Guidelines

[Neils]

Hello,

As some of you know, two years ago I decided to put my deposit for the C8 with some Ontario dealers, instead of here in Quebec, to increase my chances and better my odds of getting a C8 sooner. Two years later, I have had to jump thru some hoops and go thru various steps required to allow me to go and pickup this car in ON and be able to drive it back to QC. Not as straight forward as you think it might be, there was a lot of back and forth with the dealer for them to Purloator some docs to me. It was a learning experience to say the least.

So rather than just say I learned something and walk away from it, I figured I would spend an hour or two this morning documenting some of these important steps, with respect to vehicle registration, insurance and sales tax for out of province purchases like mine. I am by no means a legal expert here, but simply capturing the steps I had to go thru to allow me to insure and register the vehicle for the drive back next week. I tried to stay generic in the document, as some of you may be doing an out of province purchase from other dealers in other provinces, versus my case from ON.

If you are having your vehicle shipped by the dealer from another province to yours, the registration and insurance part should be a lot easier than the steps I had to go thru, but the sales tax section would still apply, some good info in there !!

I don't mind if the document is built out further by some of you, if you want to correct anything or add more info to it, but at least it will serve as a base, to educate those of you who are about to take the same steps I just took. So hoping you find it useful.

 

[Afterimage]

Ahhmmm, did they change some stuff since 2019???

In 2010 I bought my new 09 Z06 from Nicholson Chevrolet (now Sherwood Park) in Edmonton. They collected the Ontario sales tax along with the federal government tax from me. I did not pay any taxes to Alberta (then again Alberta doesn't or didn't have PST at that time).

2019 my ZR1 was purchased from Birchwood in Winnipeg, same thing they collected the taxes for Ontario and I didn't pay any PST taxes in Manitoba. I had no problems registering both cars at Service Ontario when I went there with all my paperwork in place.

Both cars were shipped to me to my home in Toronto. I arranged TFX both times for this and both dealers DO NOT release the car until they have proof of insurance. From what I remember your insurance coverage must be active on the vehicle before it leaves the dealership whether you drive it or it gets transported from them to you.

Tony

 

[MKinOntario]

They make it tough so you'll "shop at home"?

 

[Afterimage]

Probably, if they make you pay PST in the province that you bought a car because you didn't shop at home and pay your home province PST......................like I said in another thread people just have massive amounts of disposable income to do this.

Yes, I get it you fill out some other form and get your tax amount back that you paid in the shopping province...................but really............who's gonna fork out that kinda money and calmly wait at home till the cheque shows up??? No way that would be me. When I shopped for both cars if they told me I had to do that I'd hang up the phone with the salesperson at that dealership.

 

[gone]

Thanks Neils. Appreciate the effort and you wanting to help others.

It's been many years since I purchased an out-of-province vehicle but did buy two: one from Victoria, BC (BMW 7 Series, purchased new) and the other from Oakville, Ontario ("executive driven" so used less-than-10,000 km BMW 330i Cabriolet), with both shipped to Alberta by rail. I didn't find the process complicated and perhaps it's changed since then. For me:

-I had to provide each dealership with a copy of my Alberta driver's licence and one other government-sanctioned piece of ID that showed my Alberta address (to prove my Alberta residency)
-I was then charged the Alberta taxes and the dealership remitted them directly to Alberta, so I didn't have to do any of that paperwork. In each case, the higher taxes from the other Provinces, were "waived" (they didn't apply)
-the selling dealerships arranged for transport (at my cost)
-I had each vehicle delivered directly to an Alberta dealer, with that dealer doing an "out-of-province" vehicle inspection (for a nominal cost)
-once the inspection was done and the vehicle passed, I submitted that inspection report and the BOS plus proof of insurance, to a vehicle registry in order to register each vehicle
-with plate in hand, I went to the Alberta dealership that did the inspection, put on the plate and drove away

This sounds similar to the experience of Afterimage, although I had to get an inspection done of each vehicle to ensure they complied with Alberta vehicle regulations. With someone in another province such as Neils in Quebec, there may be different regulations in that province governing this process.

FYI: I hated the "sportiness" of the BMW 330i and after driving it home in late October, I contacted the local BMW dealer and worked out a trade for a new M3 Cabriolet, which came in the next Spring, parking the 330i until then. Those were back in the days when I was buying BMW's...never again given my experience with the 7 Series +++ problems (sigh).

 

[Neils]

@netsinah I was told that the process has changed recently to reclaim any differences in provincial taxes. The dealers no longer handle that part (at least not in ON). It is up to the buyer to handle the paperwork and send it in to the CRA to get the refund on the full amount of the provincial tax for where the vehicle was purchased. So in my case, I ended up paying 9.975% for QC during local registration, but also paid 8% for ON on the dealer invoice (part of 13% HST). So now that I filled out the form, will get back the full 8% to offset what I paid here. Really is no big deal at all, a bit of paperwork and a small waiting game. And no inspection required since it is a new vehicle (confirmed by the registration office).

I hear you on the BMW, the brand is despised in our family, wife had a low KM 440 2-door, and my brother had the beastly M5 (latest one). Both were horror stories for reliability, and both my wife and my brother have since moved onto other brands. Ironically, we used to bring the 440 to a local garage (we were regulars like Norm in Cheers), and when we announced that we were getting rid of it to move to a Lexus ('22 IS 300 F-Sport 2), their exact comment was that they will never see us again (aka reliable as hell). My brother went to an Audi RS7 (new design).