The rules, and where they come from
Buying from a dealer
A dealer sale carries 5% federal GST plus 9.975% Quebec sales tax on the agreed sale price, which is 14.975% in total.
IN-624-V carries a month-level version, 2024-12, so the day in the date beside it is nominal. One Quebec quirk worth knowing before you read the rest: a retail vendor is not authorized to collect the QST on a motor vehicle at all. The SAAQ collects it when the vehicle is registered.
Revenu Québec, The QST, the GST/HST and Road Vehicles (IN-624-V), version 2024-12, page 9 · dated 2024-12-01
Buying privately
Buy from another individual and there is no GST at all, because a private seller is not a registered vendor. The 9.975% QST still applies, and you pay it to the SAAQ when the registration is transferred rather than to the seller.
Revenu Québec, The QST, the GST/HST and Road Vehicles (IN-624-V), version 2024-12, page 9 · dated 2024-12-01
What the tax is charged on
On a used vehicle the QST is charged on the greater of the agreed sale price and the estimated value, which Revenu Québec defines as the average wholesale price in the Guide d'évaluation Hebdo minus $500. Revenu Québec's own worked example: a $10,000 sale price against a $13,000 average wholesale price is taxed on $12,500, so the QST is $1,246.88 rather than the $997.50 the price alone would produce. A new vehicle is taxed on the agreed sale price.
Revenu Québec, The QST, the GST/HST and Road Vehicles (IN-624-V), version 2024-12, pages 6 and 12 · dated 2024-12-01
The rule that closed the one-dollar-car loophole
Since 1 January 2025 the estimated-value rule applies to motor vehicles 14 years old or less, and the SAAQ states plainly that the QST is always collected when the vehicle is registered, whether you bought it from a person or from a dealer. Writing a low number on the bill of sale no longer changes what you pay.
The rule is published positively, as a rule about vehicles 14 years old or less, and that is how it is stated here. We do not state the complement, how vehicles 15 years and older are treated, because Revenu Québec's own pages refuse automated requests and IN-624-V predates the change. Not asserting it is the honest position until the page can be read.
SAAQ, purchase or sale of a used vehicle: changes to the rules on applying the QST · dated 2024-11-18
Buying from family
A used vehicle transferred between related individuals is taxed on the agreed sale price rather than the estimated value. Form VD-80.1-V goes to the SAAQ with proof of the relationship. Read the definition before you rely on it: spouses and people related by blood, marriage or adoption count, and a niece, nephew, aunt or uncle does not.
Revenu Québec, IN-624-V, version 2024-12, pages 7 and 12 · dated 2024-12-01
When the car is genuinely worth less than the book says
A vehicle with damage or unusual wear can be taxed on the lower actual price, provided you get an evaluation report from an appraiser certified by the Groupement des assureurs automobiles at the time of the transaction and give the SAAQ a copy at registration. If you have already paid on the estimated value, form VD-60.R-V claims the difference back.
Revenu Québec, IN-624-V, version 2024-12, page 12 · dated 2024-12-01
Cars the guide does not list
Where a model year is no longer listed in the evaluation guides, the QST is usually charged on the agreed sale price. There is one named exception: eight luxury marques, Aston Martin, Bentley, Ferrari, Hummer, Lamborghini, Lotus, Maserati and Rolls Royce. If one of those is under 25 years old and out of the guide, an appraisal is required instead.
Revenu Québec, IN-624-V, version 2024-12, page 6 · dated 2024-12-01
The annual fee on a car over $40,000
Quebec charges an extra registration fee on a vehicle worth more than $40,000 that weighs 3,000 kg or less and is seven years old or younger: 1% of the value above $40,000. It is payable when you first register the vehicle and again at every annual renewal, so on a $60,000 car it is $200 a year for as long as the vehicle stays inside the age limit. Motorcycles, mopeds, scooters, snowmobiles, ambulances, motor homes, school buses, tow trucks and minibuses are outside it.
The SAAQ page carries no visible revision date, so the date beside it is the day we read it rather than a date the page claims. A widely repeated report that the $40,000 threshold is rising to $62,500 appears only in an undated secondary blog and is not on this SAAQ page, so it is not published here.
SAAQ, additional registration fee for luxury vehicles · dated 2026-08-29
Electric vehicles are exempt from that fee
A fully electric, plug-in hybrid or hydrogen fuel cell vehicle valued between $40,001 and $74,999 is fully exempt from the additional registration fee, and has been since 1 January 2018. Above $75,000 the exemption tapers by powertrain across the range up to $125,000.
SAAQ, additional registration fee for luxury vehicles · dated 2026-08-29
Where the federal luxury tax lands on top
The federal luxury tax applies to a vehicle over $100,000 made after 2018 and never previously registered. Where it applies in Quebec, the province's additional registration fee is payable on that tax as well, so the two stack rather than sitting side by side.
SAAQ, additional registration fee for luxury vehicles · dated 2026-08-29
How a private transfer actually runs now
A transfer between two individuals goes through SAAQclic. The QST and the registration fees are debited from the buyer's bank account, and the buyer has 48 business hours to accept the transfer and register the vehicle. The seller has to be eligible to start it, which among other conditions means a vehicle under 25 years old and no unpaid fines.
The fact sheet is stamped 25-05, a month-level version, so the day in the date beside it is nominal.
SAAQ, fact sheet C-6932-2-A (25-05), transferring a vehicle between individuals · dated 2025-05-01