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Are you talking sales tax on vehicles sold, annual registration or an annual tax on vehicles in addition to the other 2? When I lived in NY we would pay the high sales tax when we bought a vehicle but then after that it was registration and annual inspections. In Colorado our sales tax is lower but our registration fees are higher but we don't have the inspection. Colorado does require emmissions testing but you can curtail it by driving by the mobil inspectors who can test the vehicle while it's moving.
Are you talking sales tax on vehicles sold, annual registration or an annual tax on vehicles in addition to the other 2? When I lived in NY we would pay the high sales tax when we bought a vehicle but then after that it was registration and annual inspections. In Colorado our sales tax is lower but our registration fees are higher but we don't have the inspection. Colorado does require emmissions testing but you can curtail it by driving by the mobil inspectors who can test the vehicle while it's moving.
I'm referring to an annual tax on vehicles in addition to the other two you mentioned. I'm talking about the "property tax" on your vehicle or in some places they refer to it as "excise tax" or "ad valorem" i believe. Basically if someone doesn't know what I'm talking about then they very likely live in a place that doesn't levy this tax annually and that should be a good thing for them. For those of you that have never lived in a place that has an annual property tax on your vehicles this is a tax bill that you get from your local county or municipality each year that basically demands that you pay a % of your cars worth to the appropriate government agency. This is in addition to sales tax that you pay on your car when you buy it, and registration, inspection and emission fees that you pay as well at the appropriate times. I'm sure it's a bit different in each place but how it works for me personally is i have to pay a few hundred dollars on average each year to my local county just for "owning" my car. This is in addition to whatever sales tax i paid for the purchase, and the registration fees, inspection fees and emission fees. It's the same as paying property tax on your house or land except it's on your car. I guess it begs the question, even if you have your car paid in full, who really owns it since you still have to pay taxes on it years after it's paid off. My car has been paid off for 4 years now but i don't feel like i own it. I'm sure there is some fine print or law on the books where if you don't pay your annual property tax on it, then the state can seize it and auction it off. Even if i decided to stop driving and just let the car sit in my garage and not register it or get new plates when i was supposed to, i would still get the property tax bill for it each year. I read something a couple of weeks ago where some states are trying to get it to where people have to register their bicycles and get license plates and insurance for them and pay taxes on them. I'm guessing that pretty soon there will be toll booths on the sidewalks for pedestrians too.
I just moved from California where you do NOT pay property tax on vehicles, to North Carolina, where property tax was added beginning November 2013. I had to pay the county I live in and also the town I live in, Holly Springs. I paid $123 for a 2011 Kia Soul. The 3% "highway tax", which is payable only once, when you first register your vehicle in NC, was $350! I don't know how people can afford to have $40,000 cars here! YIKES! This is scary CRAP, folks! What are they going to tax next??? What is left? Our Nikes?????
Texas, California, Florida, and New York do NOT impose a personal property tax on vehicles whereas Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, North Carolina, Georgia, and Arizona do.
Arizona calls "vehicle license tax;" Rhode Island calls it an "excise tax;" and Georgia calls it an "ad valorem tax."
We definitely have it here is Missouri. It sucks but Georgia had Ad Valorem which is the same but different, they both suck.
One thing I found weird when I moved to Mo is the fact that you have to pay all of the sales tax at once when you buy a vehicle. Every other state I've lived in rolled the sales tax into the financing. The first vehicle I bought here was a brand new Tahoe so when I had to pony up over $3000 to the tag office in order to get plates, I was surprised to say the least.
A friend of mine in Missouri once did that and didn't have the money for the tax, so he drove it for over a year with no plates, just the dealer's little advertisement in the plate holder. He was never stopped. He was even in an accident, and the officer just wrote "no plate" in the space for license number on the accident report. Even then he was never ticketed (nor queried) for not having a plate.
New jersey doesnt have personal property on vehicles either! I moved from nj to missouri and found out the hard way. Missouri does have it.
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