Sales tax based on estimated value

[Fourthbean]

Just paid the taxes on my car, but here in Texas they have changed over to a a system of charging you tax on what the ERV or Estimated retail value of the car is. So I searched and searched for a good deal on a car and end up paying 86 dollars more in taxes because of it! The car didn't even run right (no starter) when I bought it. How can it be worth a retail price without a starter?

Just a rant, I will stop now.

Out of curiosity though, have any of you run into this recently in your state? Is it just a Texas thing or is this happening everywhere?

[SVOboy]

I guess it makes sense, since people are always attempting to scam taxes on cars buy just writing in a lower sales price, but still it does end up screwing others.

Don't think NJ does that yet.

[Erdrick]

You have to stick it to the man. I am not paying any more money than I need to. Always stay one step away from the line...

[2TonJellyBean]

Ontario will do that if the receipt seems too low. Pretty subjective. They also contact some vendors to confirm what they sold the car for in case the receipt is for a lower value to save on paying the tax for registration purposes.

[Fourthbean]

Hmm, thought I just submitted a post. Must not have gone through.

After some research I have found that they will honor the appraisal of a dealership. So I have an email off to the local Saturn dealership to see if they can help me out and get my 87 dollars back.

BTW, I do understand why they do it this way. But I think they need to do a few things to make it better, such as let the public know they can get their car appraised.

Oh, and make their databases talk to each other. They have a database of flood damaged vehicles but the appraisal calculator does not consult it when figuring up the retail value...

[trebuchet03]

Originally Posted by Fourthbean

Oh, and make their databases talk to each other. They have a database of flood damaged vehicles but the appraisal calculator does not consult it when figuring up the retail value...

Hey now... that's one Left Join too many

[Mentalic]

Originally Posted by Fourthbean

Out of curiosity though, have any of you run into this recently in your state? Is it just a Texas thing or is this happening everywhere?

Well I hear every thing is bigger in Texas, suppose that includes tax too.

No such tax in Louisiana, yet.

Checked the state fuel tax rate for Texas and Louisiana and there both at 20cents a gallon. Thought Texas might be less and were using the vehicle tax to make up for it but nope.

http://www.taxadmin.org/FTA/rate/motor_fl.html

[MetroMPG]

Yup, in Ontario, you're taxed on whichever is higher: book value or reported value (bill of sale). It's been like that for quite a while - maybe 10 years?

The occasional vehicle will not be in their database (older, or low volume ones), in which case tax is due only on the reported value.

[Fourthbean]

Mentalic, do you not have tax on the sale of used motor vehicles?

MetroMPG, I guess we are just heading that direction. I will be thankful that I have a way of lowering it to the sale price for the time being.

[McPatrick]

Paying sales tax for a used vehicle struck me as really odd the first time I had to do it. In the Netherlands and as far as i know in most other European countries as well, the person that buys the car new pays sales tax to the government and that's it. Why pay salestax on the same itme over and over again that the sales tax has already been paid for?
And then it seems somewhat arbitrary as a system as well, or is it just because car sales can be checked, because if I buy an old couch from someone, should I pay the local state sales tax?