Andy3

I wonder if anyone have done this before.
Can I purchase a car from Alberta which only charge GST and drive it back to Vancouver ? Do I have to paid the PST back when I register and insure the car in BC ?

Johnny

You'll have to register (and insure) the car in Alberta first, which then means you'll have to prove residency there both in terms of time and address. By the time you can satisfy Alberta's requirements, you'll have spent more than what you would have paid here in PST. If you have relatives there, I suppose you could have them purchase it for you, register it, and then transfer ownership to you at a later date. A bit of a hassle I think...

There are a lot of discussions about this topic; Google is your friend...

RudeDoggy

Dunno how it is in BC (I assume very similar to Ontario) but when you buy a vehicle used, when you transfer ownership of the vehicle into your name, you have to tell the ministry what you paid for it and then you pay PST on it accordingly. The ministry also lists a "wholesale" price on the car and you pay PST on the greater of either your buying price or wholesale price. So I guess you could have a friend/relative buy you the car in AB (assuming they have residency there), get it plated in Alberta, and then have them "sell" you the car for $1, then bring it back to BC and when you get a BC plate, pay PST on the "wholesale" price of the car (assuming they do it similarly to how it's done in Ontario).

Doesn't seem like it'd be worth the effort. If you're going to do that much work, you may as well buy it in the US. At least you'd be saving a significant amount of money for all the time you'd be spending doing this.

Andy3

Thanks all for the info.
I shall start to go South of the border. One thing bording me to do that is the speed indicator which in Mile instead of KM.

Stormforge

i know that sr auto group can swap that. not sure what is involved; you can give them a call to see how much they charge for this service.