Canadian Tariffs on US vehicles being imports
Question brought forward; does the new tariffs covering vehicles/cars effect the 25 years and older duty exemption
This is from a reliable source, this duty/tariff exemption for 25 years and older is still valid/currently effective.
Here is the rationale:
A vehicle manufactured more than 25 years before the date of importation can continue to enter duty-free under tariff item 9966.00.00, provided it is an eligible type of vehicle and generally remains in its original appearance and configuration. Importantly, the Canada Border Services Agency has also confirmed that qualifying vehicles under this tariff item are not subject to the new 25% surtax on U.S.-origin vehicles.
GST, however, is generally still payable on the vehicle’s value. The 6.1% rate you saw is the regular customs-duty rate that may apply to vehicles that do not qualify for the collector-vehicle provision or another preferential tariff treatment.
The important wording is “more than 25 years old,” measured from the actual month and year of manufacture rather than simply the model year. A substantially modified vehicle may also be treated differently.
I hope this clears things up.
A success story & advice
Went over Wednesday and trailered the car back with no issues. A nice little 14 hour day! Appreciated your help with your MP and after the initial Sept 8th confusion CBS finally realized that 25+ year old cars of Canadian or USA manufacture (that are not heavily modified) were NOT subject to any retaliatory surcharge. Even though I’m no expert, here are a few notes that could help your members out:
1) the new FinCEN Form 105 process for when you are bringing in any combination of US funds over $10,000 is now online and fairly easy to self use. The site will then generate a Confirmation Number and receipt you can print out and submit upon entry at a US border crossing.
2) This FinCEN number is only good for 72 hours once you get it. They still had me go in an inspect my tow vehicle and just look at the cash but it really only cost me an extra 20 minutes of process to make sure I wasn’t a notorious drug dealer.
3) That US company you referred me to no longer does the ITN # work and specific border crossing notification. They changed the legislation about a year ago and increased penalties for non-compliance so many firms decided they didn’t want to do ‘one-offs’ for the little guys any longer. Now this ITN # and notification process has to be done at least 72 hours ahead of exiting the USA.
3) It used to be the Canadian customs folks could care less about this pre-exit US submission as it’s really about the USA preventing insurance fraud. Now however, we have a new reciprocal border agreement and if Canada Customs doesn’t see the big red stamp on the US Title – the Canadian folks won’t process it – so that’s new.
4) My local brokerage house (as below) was very efficient and (once I filled out two forms) took under two hours to: get an ITN # for me, a list of directions for the border pre-inspection, and a validation email that they had notified US customs at my specific port of entry. They charge $125 CDN plus tax for this service.
5) I don’t mind doing a lot of the legwork at the border and clear it personally as to have a broker pre-clear it could be over $1000 plus whatever Federal (5%) tax you owe on the vehicle at the border. Upon personally clearing the car at CNDa Customs, I get a Transportation Canada Form 1 – that gives me 90 days to get it safety inspected in Ontario then apply to register the car and pay the remaining 8% Ontario Provincial sales tax in this case. I believe there is a different form / category if you are bringing in a non-running car.
6) The tariff exemption is not based on the 99.66.00-00 legislation but rather that USA built vintage cars are still CUSMA compliant. Once that runs out in the Spring – the ruling might change again. If you are currently bringing in say a vintage Porsche they might want a 25% surcharge – buyer beware!
7) Cars with a DOM (date of manufacture) over 25 years old are NOT subject to the RIV (register of imported vehicles) process which is nice as that’s now an approx., $325 additional cost if you were bringing in a 10-year-old Buick. Not cheap!