Hello everyone, I'm new, and just possibly may become a new (new to me) owner of a very nice looking 1991 Silverton 41. My dilemma at this point is that nobody seems to know what taxes are applicable to the government on the sale of this boat. It's a "REGISTERED boat", so apparently at some point in the past registered boats were exempt from sales tax. Nobody seems to know if that exists today or whether BOTH PST (provincial sales tax) or GST (general sales tax) apply or only PST applies. Any information from the broker has been vague on the issue. I dread contacting any government Retail sales tax office, so I thought I'd just ask: I'd be interested in hearing from anyone that has purchased either a "Licensed yacht" or a "Registered yacht", in Ontario, and would like to hear what taxes were you hit with? Thanks in advance Piper (hopefully soon to cruise the Trent to my home base in Thousand Islands)
From the Ministry of Finance: http://www.fin.gov.on.ca/publication/sales-tax-specified-vehicles-en.pdf
You have to pay 13% HST whether it's registered or not. The only way to reduce the tax is a doctored bill of sale. Since the clerks usually don't have any idea as to the value of a boat, they don't ask questions
Hey Piper. If you buy the boat in Canada you pay the tax on the based on purchase price. Used to be IF you bought a boat in the US and waited 1 year before importing it into Canada you payed tax, not on the purchase price but on the book value. I think duty is waived due to the Free Trade Agreement since Silverton is US made. I think I found out about this on one of the GOC websites, Customs, CRA? Sorry about so many "thinks"...I blame it on boatzeimers. I would not suggest you even TRY to fudge a sales receipt.
