mbevins
Guru
Actually Bay Pelican is correct.Bay Pelican:
This is so much drivel. First, in order to register a boat in Canada, you have to prove that the Canadian taxes have been paid. Before you get to the sales taxes, the Duty, if any has to be paid. When it comes time to sell, the new purchaser, has the same responsibilities, so if he/she is taking the boat out of Canada, then no new Canadian taxes apply, but those of the new home will have to be paid.
Second, no, this should be first!: you assume that Canadians are scofflaws. I beg to differ.
Third, you have it backwards. If I bring a non-US flagged boat to the US and sell it there, I, or the purchaser, has to go through the importation process, to make it into a US flagged vessel, paying all of the applicable duty and taxes. Never get the idea that the tax man will let you bring it in without doing so.
I personally know of a situation where that is happening, and he learned it from other CDN cruisers in the Caribbean.
Next year he will sell the boat either in the Caribbean or the US, and walk away paying no tax and having no tax owed in Canada because the boat never entered the country. He owed no tax at time of purchase because it was purchased in Florida and he removed it from the state before the 60 or 90 grace period expired.