MOPED ARMY

I had a thought. Here's a creative idea I had while driving home today. I don't necessarily endorse it, but I'm not a big fan of paying taxes, so I might give it a try if it were me.

Here's a brief background, please bear with me, I will get to the point soon. I'm in Ontario and I bought a '74 moped from a guy in Kingston a couple of months ago. He had no formal title, so he hand-wrote a bill of sale in which he indicated the make, model, serial number, the selling price, my name and signed and printed his name and the date.

I got it insured and went to the license bureau to get it licensed. After the license bureau lady figured out what a moped was and found the red moped license plates, they had the usual round of questions about the title. When I said that there was none, they found a form that you could complete for older vehicles (I think at least 15 years old opens the door to use this form) where you simply write in the selling price and sign that it belongs to you. They charge you the GST, of course. Anyway, they kept the original bill of sale (seller's address was not indicated) and after I paid the $30 or so, I walked out of there with the license plate and the registration slip. Legally the moped is mine at that point, and is legal to drive. (I'll get to the point in a moment). The key thing here is that they granted me all these papers even without seeing the moped! Obviously I couldn't legally drive it to the license office as it wasn't licensed yet. The point here is that the moped could have just as easily been in the seller's barn in Ohio as in my garage in Ottawa.

So, if you're starting to get my drift, you could get a US seller to mail you a bill of sale with scanty information, present yourself at the license office, get the license, go to the US and pick up the moped, attach the license and go home. At the border, it is obvious that it is yours as you have the license plate attached and you have all the papers. Obviously you took the ped down to visit your buddy in Ohio to go for some riding.

I can't see any flaws in the above logic. If anyone can, please enlighten me as it looks pretty clean and risk free to me.

Thor

Hey That sounds pretty good, but don't they check the licence plates going in and out of ontario/US States?

i mean don't you have to drive a moped into US to drive a moped (not necessarily the same one) into ontario?

Martin, you asked the board this same question on April 11. Did you not believe me?

Here's another one: You can ship through Pilot Air a moped from north of the Delaware River to Toronto for about $225 CDN, plus crating and duty. I have been told that it's best to get a stake or cube truck and bring 10-15 back at a time. It would still cost you duty.

Me neither, not without an importer's licence. A friend who has a store always has his US shipments held at customs.