Dear Bird Talk, I have a car registered and insured in North Carolina, where we own property and spend four or five months each year. Even though my home is in Vancouver, B.C., I grew up in Ontario and have many friends and relatives in Ontario. I like to take a driving trip from N.C. to Ontario each summer to visit and wanted to take my U.S.-registered vehicle, especially with today’s rental car prices. So, each year I search and two years ago, I found the Canadian Program TVIS. It stands for temporary vehicle import system and while it’s primarily intended to allow racers, promoters, etc. to bring their wares, section (h) is for people like me. It reads, “in the case of a vehicle that is licensed in the United States, a visit to Canada by its owner, if the owner has a residential address in Canada, and is the holder of a Canadian driver’s licence.” I’ve successfully applied online the last two summers and driven my N.C. Jetta up into Ontario and back several weeks later. Hope this helps others, Mike Valiquette Whistler, BC Ed.: Good advice. You can apply to make a declaration to import non-compliant vehicles temporarily for special purposes. Eligible vehicles include vehicles licensed in the U.S. and owned by Canadians – the Canadian owner must have a residential address in Canada and hold a Canadian driver’s licence. The Registrar of Imported Vehicles offers this service. You can “google” TVIS Transport Canada or go directly to this link: www.riv.ca/OnlineForms/Home/Landing Bird Talk Featuring the letters & concerns of our members SEND YOUR LETTERS TO Bird Talk, c/o CSANews 180 Lesmill Road Toronto, Ontario M3B 2T5 Online at www.snowbirds.org/bird-talk or by e-mail: csawriteus@snowbirds.org Bird Talk Dear Bird Talk, Our primary vehicles are in Canada, and we have a secondary vehicle in AZ. If we intend to leave it there for longer than 12 months – or permanently – should we license, register and insure it in the state where it is located? Or should we maintain the provincial plates and insurance which we currently have? The vehicle was manufactured in the U.S. Ken Budzak Saskatchewan Ed.: If you intend to leave your Canadian vehicle in the United States for longer than 12 months, you should import the vehicle through U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and register it in the state where it is located. Canadian-registered vehicles are only permitted to be in the United States for up to 12 months. Also, your Canadian automobile insurance carrier will likely not insure your vehicle if it is in the U.S. for longer than six months. Dear Bird Talk, As a followup to the email in the fall edition’s Bird Talk about leaving a Canadian-registered RV (or boat) in the U.S. for a long period, even more important is the six-month rule. We were planning to leave our B.C.-registered RV in Washington state, rather than return it to B.C. after our winter vacation. We planned to store it there for about seven months and return in the fall to head south again. Just to be certain that we would not have a problem, I emailed the state tax department and they emailed back stating categorically that any RV, yacht or airplane remaining in Washington state for longer than six months is subject to the prevailing state sales tax. This would be in addition to the Internal Revenue one-year rule that you mentioned and could well be even more expensive for the shorter term. Other states may be different, so I would encourage interested Canadians to contact the respective state tax department. I may not have liked the answer, but I was pleasantly surprised by the quick reply which I received from the Washington state office. Dennis Dean North Saanich, BC Ed.: Thank you for sharing your real-life example of the tax implications of leaving a Canadian-registered vehicle in the U.S. for longer than six months. Dear Bird Talk, With reference to Sandi Elliot asking Bird Talk about selling your U.S. home and moving some of the belongings that you acquired while living in the U.S. back to Canada. I watch Border Security and, on one episode, a young woman had everything packed and had a list of everything that was in each box. As everything she had were items that she had been using and had obtained over the years, the security officials considered them as ‘yard sale’ items and let her be on her way. Similar to the Elliots, I had a home in Tennessee for 18 years and, when it came time for me to move back to Canada, I did exactly what the person on TV did. At the border, I gave them my numbered pages which listed everything in each numbered box. They flipped through the pages and asked if anything was new. I replied no, but pointed out that about half of what I was bringing back to Canada had been purchased over the years in the U.S. He asked what I thought the value of some of the things was and I replied that they would be more or less yard sale value. He handed me back my papers and said, “Drive Safe.” Tom Barnes Georgetown, Ontario Ed.: A satisfactory repatriation of your personal belongings at the end of your “snowbird career.” Bravo! CSANews | WINTER 2023 | 9
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