You won’t find much on the CBSA website either, they don’t like people doing this. It is however perfectly legal and done all the time.
The problem will be using terms like ‘import’ or ‘importation’ that means permanence, what you want is a temporary visit to Canada with a a vehicle that is positively returning to the US.
You are NOT IMPORTING a vehicle, you are driving it into Canada temporarily.
As with most things the CBSA officers have a wide degree of latitude on what they feel is admissible and what is not and you need to be properly prepared when you hit the border. You need to have documentation showing that you own and maintain the vehicle in the United States and that you are not attempting to import it and evade paying the taxes.
This of course is a very silly idea and I’ve pointed it out numerous time to CBSA agents who bring this idea up. No Province or Territory will accept an imported vehicle for registration without a Form 1 issued by Canada Customs. If I ‘smuggle’ a vehicle over the border as a ‘visitor’i don’t get a Form 1 and can’t register it here. So what’s the issue?
The one thing you need to bear in mind if you were purchasing a new vehicle however is that you will not pay the taxes in the state where you buy the vehicle and in Canada also. There are arrangements between states and countries where if you buy a motorhome in Florida but register it in Canada the US side will not charge you any sales tax as they consider it being sold into Canada tax free.
As a Canadian it is perfectly legal for you to own items of personal property outside of Canada. The Canadian government can’t put restrictions on your personal property UNTIL it crosses the border. Importing them means paying the taxes and possibly duty on them, bringing them in and back out as ‘luggage’ (personal property temporarily in Canada) is different. There is no tax or duty if it’s NOT “imported”.
This is why as a Canadian citizen you cannot bring someone else’s personal property into Canada without their written permission or them accompanying you, it is not YOUR ‘luggage’ it’s theirs.
