Car Tax Question

[kransden]

I am planning on buying a new minivan. I live in Phoenix but can go to CA. Which sales tax would I pay?

[schums]

You pay sales tax based on where you buy something, not where you live. But registration, etc. would be based on where you live, assuming they dealership will register it in AZ vs. CA. Be sure to check any rebates, etc. -- some of them are based on where you live, not where you buy the car.

[tylersmama]

I'm not entirely sure that's true. The last time we bought a car, they based the sales tax on what city and county we lived in. I remember that because we lived in a funky area (unincorporated, so we didn't technically live in the city, but part of a county where the city IS the county, confusing I know!). Maybe that's more related to local sales tax than to state sales tax, I don't know. There have been a couple of other big ticket items that we've purchased, like electronics, that were based on where we lived vs. where we purchased as well.

[DebbieJ]

You pay sales tax based on where you buy something, not where you live. But registration, etc. would be based on where you live, assuming they dealership will register it in AZ vs. CA. Be sure to check any rebates, etc. -- some of them are based on where you live, not where you buy the car.

I bought a car in MI, but I live in IL. So when I went to register the car in IL, I had to pay IL taxes on it.

You have to check and see what your home state does.

[BelleoftheBallFlagstaff]

I know private party sales in AZ are NOT taxed....

[Snow mom]

I believe it's typically based on where you live. The dealer in CA should not charge you tax (or perhaps they rebate the tax later?) and then you pay the tax when you register it in AZ. I bought a car in OR once which doesn't have sales tax and I know I would have had to pay the tax to register it elsewhere.

[tylersmama]

Yeah, I think it partially depends on how your state does it, but it definitely may be tied to registration. When we moved to CO, my lease payment on my car (leased in NJ, which doesn't have sales tax on cars) went WAY up as soon as I changed my address. I remember being quite annoyed about it. :p

[Momof3Labs]

When I lived in IN and bought a car in IL, the IL dealer didn't charge me sales tax. I had to pay IN state sales tax when I registered the car in IN.

[sariana]

We bought a car in San Diego right before we moved to northern CA. We had to pay the higher NorCal sales tax because that was where our address of residence was. I'm not sure how it would work when two different states are involved.

[katydid1971]

We bought our car in Washington state but live in Oregon ($2000 difference in price from the local dealership) Because so many people from Oregon and Montana shop in Washington they wave sales tax for people in those states. (Both Montana ans Oregon don't have sales tax).
I don't know if this is still the case but I use to live in California and a friend sold cars there. He had a customer from Neveda who didn't want to pay California sales tax. So the dealership had someone drive the car to the NV border and "deliver it" there, thus avoiding CA sales tax. Then he paid Neveda tax when he registered the car there.
HTHs

[Piglet]

I think it varies by state. We bought a van in Montana and live in Canada. We didn't have to pay sales tax, but were told that if we bought in Nevada we would have to pay their state tax. The dealership should know the answer to this question since it is pretty common.

[Dyonia]

I checked with DH -- he said that you pay your local sales tax at registration which is normally done at the dealership...if you don't live in that state they don't do the registration at time of purchase.

We live in Casa Grande. That said, we haven't done an out-of-state purchase for a car :-)

--Donna

[rlu]

Going the other way (purchase in AZ and live in CA) you would have to pay CA use tax upon registration.

CA has high smog requirements which may make the car more expensive. The tax rate in CA is higher than Phoenix (unless there is a surtax on auto, I don't work with them so not sure exactly).

As for purchasing in CA but living in AZ, you might want to look at section 0611 in the following. This is the audit manual CA BOE auditors use to do audits and addresses what the dealer needs to do in order to exempt the sale from CA sales tax. I haven't read the entire section, but there is a lot of language about the dealer or his agent delivering outside the state. Maybe this is common as a pp mentioned that.

http://www.boe.ca.gov/pdf/fam-06.pdf

eta: Ah, 0611.15c is exactly onpoint (and 0611.25). You need to work with the dealer to make the exact arrangments for the dealer to deliver out-of-state or else the dealer will be liable for sales tax and the dealer will most likely pass that on to you (CA is a seller's tax state so the tax is on the sale and the seller has the option of passing on the charge or not, most do.)

[pharmjenn]

I purchased a car in Las Vegas and registered it in CA. I paid Nevada sales tax, then when I registered, I only had to pay CA the difference in rates. So did not have to pay the full CA tax.

Since CA sales tax is now 9.25% (and higher in some cities) I don't know whether you will find a cost benefit to buying here. And I don't know what AZ tax is, but doubt AZ would rebate you if you paid more tax in another state.

I would suggest emailing the internet salesperson at a dealer in each state. They don't work on commission so are much easier to ask questions of without being pushed to buy. They should be able to answer your question.