FET Relevance When Importing from Canada
Originally published in the January 2014 edition of Tech Trends
(e-newsletter and as an article within NTEA News), this article is also
available to you below as an employee of an NTEA member company.
In the past month, the NTEA’s Technical Services Department has
received quite a few federal excise tax (FET) questions on trucks and truck
bodies imported from Canada. Many of these questions concern the applicable
taxes and who is responsible for paying the FET to the Internal Revenue Service
(IRS).
What You Need to Know
- Taxable truck bodies and truck
chassis imported from Canada are taxable upon their first retail sale or use in
the U.S.
- Used taxable truck bodies and
taxable truck chassis exported from Canada are subject to FET when imported into
the U.S. — unless the importer has full documentation that can prove the body or
chassis was sold at retail in the U.S. prior to exportation to Canada.
- The importer is responsible for
paying the tax to the IRS. If a U.S. end-user purchases a taxable truck body or
taxable truck chassis in Canada and brings it to the U.S., the end-user is
considered the importer and is responsible for any paying FET due to the
IRS.
- When purchasing used taxable
vehicles or bodies in Canada, assume you will be responsible for the FET due
after importing them to the U.S. and plan accordingly.
Are you faced with
technical or engineering challenges?
Contact the
Technical and Engineering Hotline at 800-441-6832 for individual attention on
varied topics such as Federal Excise Tax, truck certification and labeling,
vehicle compliance and truck spec’ing. The Hotline is available Monday-Friday,
8am-5pm (EST). Members can contact the Association as frequently as
needed.