Monday, December 10, 2007

My Car, My Hassles (Part 5)

I think it's time for an update on my car situation. For those of you new to this blog, you might want to read my previous four posts on my car-buying adventures, starting with Post 1.

Let's see, where were we. My car is in Ontario. It's been registered in Ontario. I have paid the Ontario provincial tax as well as the Nova Scotian provincial tasks.

Edgar is still dead.

When I left you in Part 4 I had sent in a form to the CRA to get my Nova Scotian provincial tax money back. The only thing the form requested from me was that I fill in the form, and send the original bill of sale with the form. I did that.

I sent the form to the CRA on May 4.

Four months later on August 16 I received a letter from the CRA entitled "Notice of (Re)Assessment GST/HST Rebate Application". They rejected my application for a rebate because I did not send in proof that the vehicle has been moved from Nova Scotia to Ontario.

It makes sense that they would want to see proof of movement. But, as the Bible says, "Ask and ye shall receive." (Matthew 7:7). But the CRA didn't ask. Until now. So I had to resubmit my rebate application, this time with proof that I registered the car in Ontario.

Oy.

On December 4 I received a letter from the CRA saying "We got your request for a (re)assessment, and we are looking at it. We will send you the results in another letter."

It seems to me that it would save time, and money to skip that step, and just send me the results. But, that's just me.

I'm still awaiting the results. I'll let you know what happens next.

UPDATE:
On December 14, over 8 months since this whole fiasco began, I received a cheque from CRA to reimburse my Nova Scotian tax.

That closes this story. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it, and way more than I enjoyed living it. The morale of the story: Don't buy a car in a province other than the one in which you live.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

wow!!!
I am actually trying to register a used car that I am in the midst of purchasing (last two days of hassle) ... I was trying to find out why is it that Northern Ontario is half the price for vehicle registration/sticker compared to Southern Ontario, and I thought I had beef with the way their system works..

you my friend, have a lot of patience. I would probably raise hell on some consumer report show, trying to get them to get it on the air.


Glad you shared your experience, I see that its an old post but.. who knows it still may be just the same.


Christina
http://flickr.com/tunka

Andrew said...

Yeah, that whole car-buying experience really grinds my gears.

And this story is nothing compared to my student loan story, which I will one day have to blog.

Long story short:
* I am on academic probation for the rest of my life for OSAP (Ontario Student Loans) purposes because of my poor performance in University.
* I graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science at the top of my class.

Figure that one out.

Kyle Schmidt said...

I’ve been reading your blog post since part one. Upon reading it, you definitely proved that patience is truly a virtue. Car-buying is really frustrating for there are numerous things that need to be done before you get the car in your possession. Based on my research, I know that there are car dealers near Ontario that help their customers with issues such as car proof report, financing, and more, without wasting your time.