Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site utcsrgv.UUCP Path: utzoo!utcsrgv!mart From: mart@utcsrgv.UUCP (Mart Molle) Newsgroups: can.politics Subject: Re: B.C. Provincial Sales Tax Message-ID: <385@utcsrgv.UUCP> Date: Thu, 1-Nov-84 10:39:13 EST Article-I.D.: utcsrgv.385 Posted: Thu Nov 1 10:39:13 1984 Date-Received: Thu, 1-Nov-84 11:44:12 EST References: <857@ubc-ean.CDN> Organization: CSRI, University of Toronto Lines: 43 > > Thus, if I wanted to buy a car in *Alberta* and bring it back to > B.C. I would have to pay *B.C.* provincial sales tax on it. > And if an Alberta construction company wanted to do some work > in B.C. it would have to pay B.C. sales tax on any equipment that > was initially purchased in Alberta that was to be used in the > B.C. job, even though this equipment would be going right back > to Alberta when the job was finished. > > J.B. Robinson Although I can't offer Dave Sherman's legal insight into the problem, I *have* bought a car in Manitoba while I was a resident of Ontario. I was told that as a resident of Ontario I could claim that I was *exempt* from Manitoba sales tax, because as Dave pointed out the goods were not for use in Manitoba. Instead, I should be paying my sales tax to Ontario. Same idea as all those mailorder houses that say "residents of please add x% sales tax". In practice one could make this claim whenever you purchased an unregulated/unlicensed item, such as stereo gear, out of the province and avoid paying any tax to anyone. However, automobiles are licenced, so the government catches up with you when you try to get plates. My first set of Ontario license plates for that car were *very* expensive... The question about your Alberta company doing business in B.C. is less obvious, even based on reasonableness rather than law. On one hand, it is an *Alberta* company with an Alberta address, which suggests that any sales tax it owes should go there. On the other hand, it is *working* in B.C., and if you or I go to work in another province for any length of time, I think we are supposed to become residents of that province and put local plates on our cars, etc. (The Ontario auto registration permit that I carry around in my wallet states that I have *six* *days* to notify them of a change of address -- and they would probably object to my sending them a B.C. address.) On the third hand, it is a company rather than an individual, and continuing with the vehicle registration analogy governments are well known to make a distinction (generally in their favour) in the treatment of commercial vehicles. That's why Greyhound buses are covered with license plates from every conceivable jurisdiction that they might enter. I don't think I'd want to guess this one... Mart Molle Computer Systems Research Institute University of Toronto