Minnesota car purchase - Oregon as well

QUESTION:

as a resident of Ontario, Canada could I apply to get the Minnesota tax back
on purchasing a car?

We get taxed enough to bring the car across the border!

david ingram replies:

You have to remove the car from Minnesota within three weeks., If it is
there more than three weeks you have to register the car and pay tax to
Minnesota.

The 6.5% Minnesota Motor Vehicle tax is a separate tax from their sales tax.

You can find out more at www.dps.stare.mn.us. the phone number is (651)
296-6911 - ask for Harry.

Remember that you also have to export the car from the US and the USA border
point requires that they have the paperwork for the car 72 hours before you
arrive at the US side of the border. Canada will not allow it in without
the US export permit so make sure you conform.

Find out the fax number of the border point and fax them the VINE,
registration number - previous owner details and anything else they ask for
72 hours before you show up a the border.

I did this myself at the start of September and did not realize that the
export people (for cars) at the US/BC border crossings work limited hours.
At the Douglas Crossing south of Vancouver, it is 8:30 AM to 3:30 PM Monday
to Friday. This crossing also has an informal information sheet that they
want "you" to fill in. So figure out what border POE you are going to use
and get them to send you any special requirements.

They also are not open on holidays.

I had sent my paperwork ahead but when I arrived at the US export border
office (with my Oregon Grand Wagoneer purchase) at 2 AM on Labour day, I was
told to come back the next day. Since I could not come back the next day, I
had to leave the car on the other side of the border for an extra week until
I could get back.

Oregon, by the way, has no sales tax. When you buy the car, the licence
stays with it and your name goes on the back. The seller has 10 days to
notify the DMV that he/she has sold the vehicle. the purchaser has 30 days
to get it registered but has a valid licence in the meantime. In my case, a
phone call got me a 10 day transit insurance policy. As I had another 6
vehicles licenced at the same agency, I had no identity or other problems. I
can imagine that someone else might have had more problems doing the same
thing. (By the way, my fame or lack of fame did not good at the border
whatsoever).

I was actually NOT pleased with the treatment or service on the US side. I
had the experience of 10 people standing around seemingly doing nothing
while one poor "export" person was trying to process 6 of us who were
bringing back our special car finds from the US after leaving (combined) at
least $150,000 down there (two of the cars were Mercedes 500SL's which two
brothers were taking to Vancouver).

At the Canadian side, it was extremely fast service (enough so that I sent
Gail Stuart, the head of Customs for BC and the Yukon) a congratulatory
note.

On another note though, the Canadians were giving the two brothers a hard
time over the declared values of the Mercedes cars which were about half of
the black book value. They were justifying the low price because they had
been caught in Hurricane Katrina and flooded (made dollars and cents to me)
but the CRA official did not look like they were buying the argument. I
really wanted to stick around as a fly on the wall to see what the final
outcome was.

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