My friend told me he bought a beater Mazda 3 a few years ago for $500 because it really needed some work done on it. The BC government sent him a letter a few months later saying the vehicle was under valued and said it was worth $5000 and asked for the difference in taxes to be paid. He appealed and brought in a printout of the black book value (don't remember the value, but it was less than $5k) and pointed out the work that was needed; they reduced the value, but only by a $1,000 (so the car was still valued at $4,000) and he still had to pay the additional tax. He didn't actually get the work done on the vehicle yet, who knows, maybe having some receipts for actual work might've further reduced the value or justified the selling price.

Same story on my SUV.

I bought my SUV from a stock broker at his vacation home in the hills of the okanagan. He wanted more garage space and wanted to get rid of his 5 year old Infiniti FX.

Dude was rich af. Huge house in a gated community, Range, Audis, Toys he had it all. He took 10k cash for the vehicle - didn't even count the money. We went to superstore and got questioned by the broker for a LONG time about why the vehicle was heavily undervalued. We didn't have any explanation other than the seller saying that's all he wanted and didn't care about the vehicle.

Fast forward a few months I get slapped with a 1500 dollar tax bill and a telephone call from big brother. I was forced to pay the 1500 unless I could prove something was wrong with the vehicle. I just paid the 1500.

I drove the vehicle for 6 years before selling it for 10k. I did lose 1500 on the vehicle from that tax bill.

Wow now that's bs

That's a whole new level of fuckery. I can't believe they actually force you to pay fucking taxes on an amount based on what THEY deem is fair value for the car. They actually punish you for getting a good deal. Is there an arbitration process you can do for this.

You manage to find a smoking deal through no fault of your own and then your billed $1500 as a reward. Fuuuuuuuuck that, fuck them, fuck ICBC and Fuck taxes. Fuck!

Berz out.

Wow this is the first I have heard of ICBC or CRA coming after taxes.

I have mentioned this before, but in WA state you pay tax based on a book value has been predetermined. You have to apply if you need an adjustment in taxes and have to prove why you purchased the vehicle for below market value.

fucking amen to that. When I saw that posting I got in my car from Vancouver and drove 160kms/hour all the way with my mother sitting shotgun cause we needed someone to drive the family car back.

Props to my mom she hadn't driven long stretches in a while.

Every hour I'd text him to make sure the car was still there. I remember having so much anxiety that my mom and I would get there and the car was sold.

It was a steal of a deal. The car was was sitting and collecting dust! It had a clean title too. After spending money on new tires, maintenance, detail package - big brother called wanting his 1500. I spoke to the case manager letting him know he should verify with the seller and no I was not aware of any appeal process. I was 18 years old at the time and just spent all of my money on my car. I'll never forget how stressful that 1500 dollar bill was. fuck.

As I mentioned, my friend appealed, but found out that they are judge, jury and executioner. Lol!

FWIW, it wasn't ICBC or CRA, I believe it was the BC Ministry of Finance, since it's the provincial government that collects the full 12% tax on used vehicles. ICBC just collects the tax on the purchase of used vehicles sold privately; if you purchase a vehicle through a dealer, the dealership remits the funds to the provincial government.

i'm surprised no one has brought this up to the media or something for it to be followed up on in the spotlight

this is one of the biggest fuckery going in gov...it's ridiculous that something gets taxed this many times and that they can screw you over purely out of greed.

They need to get these guys in charge of real estate. They can figure out the book value of a ten year old mazda but they see no problem with zero income students and unemployed moms buying multi million dollar homes?

^ easy to go after small amounts in thousands of dollars because the amount of work/lawyer/time off and running around... most people will just give up and pay up..

But if you get slap with a 250K tax on a 2 million house... you bet people will lawyer up, take a 2 month leave from work and fight toe to toe with the government....

Same problem with small claims court... I mean you do it just to prove you are right.... rarely there is actually any money incentive to fight in court over a few thousand dollars...

Shit...

Better lock the Good Buys Thread :troll:

I just sold my wife's car and they have big stickers on the transfer/tax form stating "seller must fill out sale price." I guess lots of people mark down the value to save a few hundred in tax.

The tax really limits my ability to buy private; the amount of tax savings I get from trading in my vehicle usually exceeds any bargains I can find in sale by owner for vehicles worth over $30K.

One has to think guys like Patterson paid off... sorry lobbied our government to make it harder and less worth while to buy private.

That's ridiculous. When I bought my Jeep I got it for about 1/2 price because the seller thought it had a major ($3-4k) mechanical issue that I fixed for $50 by changing some fluids. How the hell would I even be able to prove there was anything wrong with it when I already fixed it?

You guys need to learn how to play the legal game.

There's a thing called "affidavit". You get a notary to certify one with your statement and slap that to the gov't.

Then they'd know that if they are going to pursue this any further, they'd need to lawyer up and give up...

If you don't even want to spend money on a notary... make it as "sworn declaration". It's the same thing as an affidavit, but without witness.

This would be most obvious reason

To those of you who have said the value stated on the tax transfer form has no weight on the value of your car in and instance of a total loss have any personal experience on it?
A total loss within 6 months of purchase, and icbc will try to use that tax form to value your car. Most likely only if the value is in icbc's favour because....... It's icbc

Declared value? With ICBC?

Please tell me more.

The very basic concept of insurance is to return it to the state as nothing had happened (or close to it)

In the example you provided, ICBC needs to pay enough (minus whatever known deductions) for you to get a relatively same one (the car, not the money or any sentimental value) back. (again, it's about the OVERALL price, not any single listing)

So, if you had a 2010 Honda that you got for 8G while the market price is 10G, assuming no flag was raised in the first place, what ICBC needs to do now, is not to pay the 8G that you spent, but to pay you whatever a similar Honda in the same or similar model year with similar mileage would cost.

They might use strategies to get you to sign the settlement agreement since it's their best interest to spend the least amount of money to reach that. But you are totally within your rights to research how much it would cost now to find that particular car and have ICBC to pay for that amount. Of course, there'd be some negotiation involved, but as long as you have evidence to backup your claim, it's up to ICBC to prove otherwise.

I have sat on the opposite side of the adjusters desk more than once. I've never seen a copy of my transfer form presented as documentation to prove vehicle value.

They lead with book value, you counter with comparables and maintenance receipts. You go back and forth 1-2 times and you settle.

Does this happen everytime? Probably not. But I bet it's 99% of the time.

Every ICBC horror story you've ever heard is 3rd - 10th hand. We have it so much easier than other places in NA. Do we pay a bit more? I guess. I really don't have a problem w ICBC rates - it's the BS provincial gov tax grab that grinds my gears

https://imgflip.com/s/meme/Peter-Griffin-News.jpg

I don't have a lot of info. They asked me the declared value. I only have storage insurance so perhaps that's is why? The agent told me it would help me with negotiation should the car be written off.

https://i.imgur.com/QSblVpZ.jpg

This is messed up, now i'm kind of worried. I picked up a "new to me" ride this week and got a great deal on it because the buyer didn't want to deal with fixing all of the problems with the vehicle. Seller was not a "car" guy and had everything done through the Land Rover dealership so his idea of how much things were gonna cost to fix was astronomical (he estimated $10,000). I've started working on the vehicle and it will probably end up costing me about $1500-2000 at the end of the day in parts and repairs, he estimated $10,000.

Makes no sense to me that I should get punished if gov't comes back at me asking for proof of value? Seller didn't have a clue, I got a good deal and repaired things myself, there's not much of a paper trail like mechanics bills and stuff for me to throw at them.

$79 for the year?

I just paid ICBC $160 for 5 months and my car is at the MOST $7k above your declared value.

I asked why the declared value on mine was blank, and that I was ready to give them a number and they just said don't worry about it.

wow, my 95 DC2 costs me $196 per year in storage costs

$112 for $comprehensive + $84 for 3rd party liability

Live in a condo otherwise i'd probably not get the 3rd party. Mine doesn't have a declared value neither

[EDIT] Just checked my 2007 AP2 storage and the comprehensive alone was $262 + $89 3rd party. Damn I'm getting ripped off