question re selling Canadian flagged boat

[ChesterLee]

Has any one had experience selling/buying a Canadian flagged boat in the U.S.?
The difference with this specific situation is that the boat was bought in the U.S., subsequently registered and flagged Canadian, but never imported into Canada. Therefore never paid Canadian import tax or exported from the U.S.
Now it is being sold and a U.S. buyer is interested. What would the buyers/sellers need to do in order to deal with the sale properly?

 

[BrianRobin]

I'm sure that registering it in Canada ,is provincial, (sales tax/import tax is to be paid within 3 months of purchase). Licenseing is federal, either way someone will be paying the tax somewhere down the road, with added interest

 

[dlochner]

I think the way to approach this is to look at what the buyer will need in terms of documentation that you owned the boat and have a right to sell it and he bought the boat. There may be different requirements for state and USCG documentation.

Is a broker involved? They will know how to handle this.

 

[joker460]

Many Canadians have done this. You don't pay Canadian Tax (HST) on the boat until you land in a Canadian Port.
Canadian and American built boats fit under NAFTA(at least the old one) so there should not be any import fees.
You're just going to pay tax in which ever State it's in. Shouldn't be a problem and if you go through a broker even less of a hassle.
Good Luck

 

[peacheykeen]

As a Canadian with a boat in Florida I've done this process twice.
First: a Canadian boat is federally registered or licensed by the federal department, Transport Canada. Registration is equiv. to US CG documentation, ie you put a registered name on the boat. One used to get a fancy- formal velum document where 64 shares were allotted to owner(s) but that has become a 81/2x11 piece of paper.
Licensing is when one gets a number for the boat with another 81/2x11 piece of paper. Many people mistake this as a provincial license because the number is prefixed with two letters, eg ON QC MB, that denote the province the boat lived in when licensed. There are NO provincial charges involved other than a HST or GST which TC collects. Interestingly, a boat bought privately has not tax burden; if purchased via a broker there is! Either a registration or a license have to be renewed every 5 years, for a small administrative charge. TC is trying to keep up with lax ownership records.

Selling a Canadian boat in US "should" involve de-registering or delicensing it with the Transport Canada, technically before documenting or state licensing is issued. In my experience, the State DMV didn't care about that process other than seeing the "original' document to verify the provenance, ie ownership validity. A simple bill of sale was NOT accepted in Florida. I doubt that any state/county level office even knows that "Transport Canada" exists. I merely provided a high-quality colour copy of the license, on bond paper -so that the colour certification stamp looked good- not wanting to surrender my original documents that I would need to cancel the license with the TC. Interestingly when I tried to cancel the license, back home in Canada, the TC response was that the "new" owner has to submit the request.
My rude written/scrawled response, over top of their letter, pointed out the naivety of that buearo-crapic expectation.

So nothing onerous, just pay y'ur taxes to y'ur state folks; be good citizens, eh.

 

[Oatman]

I bought my boat, a 35' Allied Seabreeze, about 10 years ago. Although berthed in Rock Hall, Maryland, It was owned by a Canadian Gentleman and was on the Canadian Registry. Tough I bought the boat through a Mutual Broker, the only problem I encountered was a 6 or 8 week time period before a clean Bill of Sale was obtained. This was because the "Boat of Foreign Registry" was extensively vetted by the United States Department of Homeland Security! Once that was accomplished, a clean Bill of Sale was entered and I took possession of the boat.

Keeping the boat in Illinois, I supplied them with the Bill of Sale. They gave me an Illinois Title to the boat, and papers certifying it to be lawfully registered in the State of Illinois. It was still on the Canadian Registry, but that didn't seem to make a difference.

A few years later, contemplating offshore voyaging, I wanted to put the boat under United States Registry. I was told by The U.S. Coast Guard, that first I needed to Remove it from the Canadian Registry. I wrote a letter to the Canadian Agency (found in an online search). In the request I included all the known numbers of the boat, both U.S. AND Canadian. They sent a letter, soon after, confirming the boat had been removed from Canadian Registry.

I then went to a boat dealer and requested help. He gave me the forms for requesting U.S.A. Ship's Documentation, which I filled out. I paid him the fees. He then faxed all the needed paperwork to His Liaison in the Coast Guard, which expedited the process. Within a week, I received the Documentation Papers from the U.S. Coast Guard.

Hope this helps.

Oatman

 

[capta]

I think your biggest problem will be having a sales document the new registering agency will accept.
A documented vessel must be removed from documentation before being registered in any other country. If it was never registered in Canada, the new owner will need a bill of sale from the last documented owner if he wishes to redocument the boat. Each state has it's own registration regulations which must be followed if the vessel isn't going to be documented.
I'd certainly have all those things arranged before any money exchange or someone may end up with an unregisterable vessel.

 

[jssailem]

I paid him the fees. He then faxed all the needed paperwork to His Liaison in the Coast Guard

Oatman... So your saying the documentation works much like the Mafia.. You got a know a guy...

 

[free cruiser]

I'm sure that registering it in Canada ,is provincial, (sales tax/import tax is to be paid within 3 months of purchase). Licenseing is federal, either way someone will be paying the tax somewhere down the road, with added interest

Registering in Canada is federal, licensing is provincial.