California Use Tax

[Vinja]

Hello, Military here. I tried to call the DMV and have looked it up in the rules. I could not find anywhere in the technical write-ups which price it will tax when I register it in CA. Either the original sale price, or what I have left to pay off. The wait time was 30 minutes on the phone, and it charges me long distance because I am calling from Spain. This is a difference between 4k. If anyone could help me I would appreciate it. If whoever my savior is can post from a reference or point me in the general direction. I have searched CA Use Tax, and other searches along the same line. I even threw military overseas and other keywords in there. Maybe my google skills aren't strong.
Thanks In Advance
Vinnie

[Hollywood Hogan]

I don't think you have to pay use tax on your M3 unless you just bought it? If you are simply moving it to California I'm assuming you would pay licensing fees and whatnot but not sales tax?

[Vinja]

I bought it at the end of 09, I really am not good at deciphering the legalese

[kibosh]

From the California DMV website:

Use Tax: Collected at the same rate as your California city of residence sales tax. Legislation requires payment of use tax on a vehicle purchased outside California and brought into California within 365 days of the purchase date.

http://dmv.ca.gov/pubs/brochures/howto/htvr9.htm

If you purchased in 2009 it sounds like you are okay but you might want to check out the Registration Fee Calculator as well: https://www.dmv.ca.gov/FeeCalculator...esidentForm.do

[nick3753]

If its within that 1 year, you can always try to wait until the 365 days pass then register and hope you don't have any issues with insurance during that time period.

[Schmoman]

Hi Vinnie,

Another military guy here. I absolutely loathe having to deal with CA DMV.

Anyway, I bought my M3 overseas (via MSP) and had it shipped directly to BMW San Diego. They weren't much help during the registration process... they had no idea what do since they don't get MSP deliveries that often (plus, I didn't buy the car from THEM and so they were probably less inclined to help).

I had to take the car to the DMV so they could "inspect" it to make sure it was US spec, etc. etc. The dealer did the smog check for the DMV inspection--yes you're required to get a smog check on a brand new car .

You WILL have to pay the CA use tax if you've owned the car and had it registered elsewhere for less than 12 months. I've done the research to see if I could have it waived, but there's no way around it. The total price of the car is taxable--and yes, they taxed the $1200 gas guzzler tax. I believe it's 8.75% for San Diego. It's a shitload of money that's supposed to go toward the upkeep of the roads--it's obvious that the money isn't going toward that!

The $700 registration fee, however, is waived since you're military.

You are also able to register it in your home state (assuming it's not california) and avoid all those nasty fees.

(see bottom of this page)
http://www.dmv.ca.gov/pubs/brochures...militaryvr.htm

(see the use tax section on this page, if you've owned your vehicle outside of CA for more than 12 months, then you don't have to pay Use Tax)
http://www.dmv.ca.gov/pubs/brochures...cts/ffvr10.htm

- Dave

[Enzo08]

Vinja,

Military here as well and I just registered my 09 here in SoCal 2 weeks ago. PM me if you would like the $$ figure. Not a large amount for a TX resident in CA.

I paid to join AAA as I heard horror stories about the CA DMV and I think it was worth every penny as many AAA offices perform DMV services without the painful wait of a normal DMV office.

I agree the DMV website is not very intuitive nor military obvious!

Enzo08

[FlashTwoSix]

Originally Posted by Schmoman

Hi Vinnie,

Another military guy here. I absolutely loathe having to deal with CA DMV.

Anyway, I bought my M3 overseas (via MSP) and had it shipped directly to BMW San Diego. They weren't much help during the registration process... they had no idea what do since they don't get MSP deliveries that often (plus, I didn't buy the car from THEM and so they were probably less inclined to help).

I had to take the car to the DMV so they could "inspect" it to make sure it was US spec, etc. etc. The dealer did the smog check for the DMV inspection--yes you're required to get a smog check on a brand new car .

You WILL have to pay the CA use tax if you've owned the car and had it registered elsewhere for less than 12 months. I've done the research to see if I could have it waived, but there's no way around it. The total price of the car is taxable--and yes, they taxed the $1200 gas guzzler tax. I believe it's 8.75% for San Diego. It's a shitload of money that's supposed to go toward the upkeep of the roads--it's obvious that the money isn't going toward that!

The $700 registration fee, however, is waived since you're military.

You are also able to register it in your home state (assuming it's not california) and avoid all those nasty fees.

(see bottom of this page)
http://www.dmv.ca.gov/pubs/brochures...militaryvr.htm

(see the use tax section on this page, if you've owned your vehicle outside of CA for more than 12 months, then you don't have to pay Use Tax)
http://www.dmv.ca.gov/pubs/brochures...cts/ffvr10.htm

- Dave

Good Read. thanks for the info

[Vinja]

Thank you for the quick and very informative replies. The calculator says 600 some odd dollars. I read and confirmed that military out of state do not have to pay VLF. This takes a bit of a burden off of my brain. I knew I came to the correct place to ask a question.