Fact or Fiction: Gifting a Vehicle

In this blog, Campbell & Haliburton is going to review if gifting a vehicle to a family member is fact or fiction!

Can You Gift a Vehicle?

The short answer is “it depends.”  

What do you mean by a family member?  We all consider “family” to mean different things. For some, our spouse’s second cousin’s aunt’s brother-in-law twice removed is family. For others, we got lost with the “second cousin” part. Thankfully SGI has defined who is and who is not qualified as family when it comes to gifting as vehicles.  The term that they use is “first degree relatives.”  First degree relatives would include a spouse, parent, child, grandparent, grandchild and sibling.  Actually, it gets a little more technical than that, so it’s best to ask before you give away your vehicle. You can contact our motor license issuers at hello@mych.ca.

So your first step is to determine that the person to whom you are gifting qualifies as a first degree relative. Then you will need to draft a letter stating your relationship with the new owner. The new owner needs to present this letter when they are registering the vehicle. Now if the vehicle has not had the Saskatchewan tax paid, it will be subject to PST. But again, our knowledgeable staff can assist with the fine points of this!

What if you want to, not gift the vehicle, but sell it for a low, low cost? The same rules apply. If you are looking to sell for less than the fair market, or red book value, it must again be to a first degree relative.

Fact: You Can!

Therefore, based on our research and the current guidelines from SGI, it is a fact that you can gift a vehicle to a family member. 

We get it, when we are passing on vehicles to family members, typically we either give them the vehicle or sell them for a dollar. However the mold can be broken. When Daryl’s daughter was due to inherit his car, he sold it to her for a whopping $3.28. Why that amount? Simple! Daryl loves coffee, and a large dark roast coffee at his favourite coffee shop cost exactly $3.28. That’s him!  How about you? What is the most outrageous price you have ever sold a vehicle for? Let us know on our Facebook page!

This is a general overview. There are many different insurance companies and there are always differences in insurance policies. For specific details on your policy and coverage, we recommend that you contact your agent or advisor).