Quote:
Originally Posted by sck5
... I am not sure if the feds or provinces there give credit for taxes already paid in the US. ....
|
No. This is the problem with having a boat that moves around. It is very possible to pay much more in taxes than a boat is worth. Every county, state, province, and country wants you to pay their taxes. There are often agreements that will have you pay only the highest state or provincial tax but crossing international borders for extended times can get expensive if one is not careful.
BUT these things also depend on who is at the counter that day and sometimes who is in office. Kinda a pet peeve of mine that these folks receive no training for the unusual and no authority to do anything other than charge the regular rate. BTW: Having a boat that moves is very unusual, the vast majority never leave home.
Also some areas have official positions on taxes but different practices. Just as an example BC at one time was making a big issue of out of province boats paying their 7% tax. The docks were walked so to speak, letters where sent, cases went to court. Now they are much more reasonable. Out of country boats are not driven away by such tactics, out of province boats are also allowed to stay for at least a while (didn't stay more than a year so can't say beyond that).
Then there is another issue.
Licensing.
You do not have to register or document the boat if you are sailing Canada/US. A State or Provincial license is fine. Some states make it clear that if your boat is in their State for a certain time and it is not licensed then it must be licensed in that State BUT some States will not license a boat owned or part owned by non-resident. When I was in Florida there did not seem to be any problem with that. They seemed keen to have me license everything there, even my car but I didn’t actually try. The one State I did try to pay their taxes and license the boat said residents only, which was after I was informed they would want the boat licensed and inspected.
So I licensed the boat in my home province. Of course I had to pay Provincial taxes but did not pay federal taxes until I sailed across the border. I guess if I stayed in the US I could have saved a few thousand but I like to have all paperwork in order and having a boat that has taxes owing seems like a really bad idea to me.
Generally speaking you are going to be spending lots of money so I would suggest being in a area that wants it and makes it easy for you to stay.
EDIT: oops I was thinking all boat. As for immigration you will have to check back in after being in the US for more than one year. Ask at the border.
If you license your boat in Canada you will be required to have all the safety gear required in Canada. You will be boarded by various reps of the US government quite often depending on the area you are sailing so have the following in order at all times.
Passports or Nexus cards for every person on board. All the regular warnings around borders apply, do not pick up anything for anyone, do not give anyone transportation, do not let people have access to your boat, so on and so on..
Always have your Bill of Sale to show that you bought the boat in the US and have not yet returned to Canada. This will explain why you do not have a form I95 (or something like that, maybe I94) which is a customs crewman landing permit. You may still need this be sure to ask or research it.
Of course that depends, if you license the boat in the US then you have to have USCG equipement and so on.
Connect with Facebook
