Customs form shows CAD price in USD

[Jill]

I just looked at our customs form and it shows the Canadian price with 'USD @ 1.000000' beside it. Was this a mistake or is it normally done this way? Not sure how I convince the DMV that a CADUSD conversion rate needs to be applied against this. Did anyone else experience this?

[SpokanEscape]

We used the bill of sale which showed the amounts we paid in US funds.

[float5]

Same here. They converted the total $CAD to the $U.S. equivalent on the day we did the registration. We told them what we had paid but they did not care. They used the total off of the paperwork.

[Jill]

Ok we'll do that. We were told to take the customs form to the DMV but if the bill of sale works, we'll do that instead. Would love to get the exchange rate on the day we register as it has gone down about 5 cents since we paid for it!

[Mary F]

Originally Posted by Jill

I just looked at our customs form and it shows the Canadian price with 'USD @ 1.000000' beside it. Was this a mistake or is it normally done this way? Not sure how I convince the DMV that a CADUSD conversion rate needs to be applied against this. Did anyone else experience this?

Ours, from late September, has "CAD @ 0.796242" - but even that wasn't the exchange rate we actually got when we paid in August (the Bill of Sale shows about $1000 US less, even though it also included the wheel chocks, broom, step rug and other items we purchased at ETI when we were there for orientation/pickup). That particular U.S. Customs form wasn't one of the few that my county's tax office worker was even interested in: he took the sales figure from the Bill of Sale.

Of course, California may be different.

[dfandrews]

Originally Posted by Jill

Ok we'll do that. We were told to take the customs form to the DMV but if the bill of sale works, we'll do that instead. Would love to get the exchange rate on the day we register as it has gone down about 5 cents since we paid for it!

Good ol' California DMV. ; Different stories at each office.

On our last trip to a DMV office (Ventura), we had with us the customs cert., signed/final bill of sale, and also a copy of our cancelled checks, and a printout from XE.com showing the exchange rate for each day that we paid something.
Our DMV person ended up using ETI's final bill of sale (probably the clearest document to read), wherein ETI's staff had indicated what we paid in Canadian dollars and what the US Dollar equivalent amount was on that date.

They shouldn't be using the exchange rate for the registration date, because the registration fees/taxes are based on what you actually paid.


Edit: Oh, Yeah. And be prepared: imported 'anything' now gets a review by an office manager, then all paperwork gets sent to the DMV state office in Sacramento. You get a temporary sticker for the back window of the tow vehicle.
We got our license plate and pink slip about 40 days later in the mail.

[Steve Clark]

All good information, especially on Ca. Don, Thanks for Posting!

[Loren & Cathy]

Originally Posted by Jill

Ok we'll do that. We were told to take the customs form to the DMV but if the bill of sale works, we'll do that instead. Would love to get the exchange rate on the day we register as it has gone down about 5 cents since we paid for it!

Every DMV is different, but to be safe take every last piece of paper that you have on the trailer. Nothing like waiting 2 hours in line and then having to start all over. In our case, the bill of sale was used, but it was about a 45 minute battle. Loren

[Jill]

Originally Posted by Loren & Cathy

Every DMV is different, but to be safe take every last piece of paper that you have on the trailer. Nothing like waiting 2 hours in line and then having to start all over. In our case, the bill of sale was used, but it was about a 45 minute battle. Loren

Good advice! I will take the customs form but not pull it out unless I have to, especially since it sounds like ours was a mistake (thanks Mary!). I will contact Escape to see if I can get a correction, just in case it becomes an issue.

[Jill]

Just a quick followup on this. Even with an appointment my husband spent 90 minutes at the DMV getting our plates but it all went smoothly. They did look at the form that had the wrong USD amount but only to see the import date. They took the Canadian dollar amount from our build sheet and used the rate on that day (just over .70) to calculate our USD tax basis. Saved some money there!

And the funny thing was that a few people were interested in the trailer. One guy even waited 30 minutes for Kevin to finish with the DMV so he could get a peek at the inside! This trailer sure draws attention!

[float5]

Originally Posted by Jill

Just a quick followup on this. Even with an appointment my husband spent 90 minutes at the DMV getting our plates but it all went smoothly. They did look at the form that had the wrong USD amount but only to see the import date. They took the Canadian dollar amount from our build sheet and used the rate on that day (just over .70) to calculate our USD tax basis. Saved some money there!

And the funny thing was that a few people were interested in the trailer. One guy even waited 30 minutes for Kevin to finish with the DMV so he could get a peek at the inside! This trailer sure draws attention!

What sales percentage do you pay there? That was a fantastic rate for you.

[Jill]

Originally Posted by float5

What sales percentage do you pay there? That was a fantastic rate for you.

It looks like the actual tax rate was about 7.4% but with all the fees on top of that the ending amount paid was about 8.4%.

[float5]

Originally Posted by Jill

It looks like the actual tax rate was about 7.4% but with all the fees on top of that the ending amount paid was about 8.4%.

Thanks. Was wondering what others pay. Don't know that we had other fees. We paid 5%. Our reg is very low, probably about $37 per year, which is based upon square footage. Apparently every state is different.

What are you Canadians and others paying in sales tax? I am guessing it is by province.

[Dave Walter]

Originally Posted by float5

What are you Canadians and others paying in sales tax? I am guessing it is by province.

In Alberta we have no Provincial sales tax, but we do have to pay a 5% Federal Goods and Services Tax at time of purchase. When we register the trailer, it is a "perpetual" registration, with a nominal one-time fee (cannot remember how much) probably about $110.

[float5]

That is interesting that you pay a federal tax on a vehicle purchase as our sales taxes are by state with no federal.

[emers382]

Cathy we have two taxes, the federal GST and the provincial (PST) except for Alberta which has no provincial tax. We pay these on almost everything we buy except most groceries. I had to pay a combined total of 13% in order to register ours two years ago. Some provinces like Ontario now have a combined tax called harmonized (HST), just adds the two taxes together. ON HST is 13%, some Maritime provinces are even higher. Another reason Canadians like to or at least liked to shop in the US to save on taxes, but now with our poor dollar some US merchants near the border are suffering from our lack of trips just to shop.

Adrian

[float5]

Whoa, that's a bundle, Adrian. I guess most Canadians are paying close to that. And I guess you cannot save by buying any vehicle in the U.S. because Canada will probably get you on that, too.

[J&G]

Looking for TN info on getting the tag and title. We just got all the paperwork from Escape and are not sure what TN will want to create a title. Do you go to the DMV or county clerk office? We hope to leave to pick up the trailer in a couple of weeks. Will they give us a temporary tag? Also did you insure your trailer before you picked it up? Thanks.

[float5]

Originally Posted by J&G

Looking for TN info on getting the tag and title. We just got all the paperwork from Escape and are not sure what TN will want to create a title. Do you go to the DMV or county clerk office? We hope to leave to pick up the trailer in a couple of weeks. Will they give us a temporary tag? Also did you insure your trailer before you picked it up? Thanks.

People can tell you what they did but you will often get what you get depending upon which office you visit, or which person you talk with. You can call the DMV, just for fun, to see what they say they will do. And then see what they do.

[titanizer]

Hello John,
I went to the county court clerk's office here in Cheatham Co. to get tags, title, etc. Had no problem whatsoever. It took maybe 10 min. Take all the paperwork ETI sends you and you should be good to go.