Title, tax and license

[RustyMD]

Anyone besides me have a bit of a surprise with regard to the amount of the title, tax and license fee when they went to the courthouse to register their trailer? For me in Texas it was ~$5,000. I’m pretty sure I was informed that I wasn’t paying sales tax in Tennessee, but the amount in Texas was a significant add on to the cost of the trailer. Just feeling kind of ignorant and surprised.

Robert Youens

[Dave and Kimberly]

  Not surprised.   We have a sales tax on everything except food here in Ohio.   We pay 7.25% here... which I thought was high.  I was surprised that in Tennessee it was 8%!  Investigating... I learned that there is typically a state sales tax and then local county taxes added on as voted on by each county.    For example, Ohio starts out at 5.75%... but then local taxes added on... total up to our 7.25%.   

    Is it a bite?  No it's HUGE BITE!!!!

 

[Rivernerd]

I expect most of the cost is the Texas use tax.   Use tax is the way states collect tax on vehicles purchased in another state.  Since the "sale" occurs outside the state, Texas cannot collect "sales" tax.  But, if you want to "use" your trailer, you must license it, so states with sales tax normally tax the "use" of the vehicle at the same rate as if it was purchased in the state.

If you lived in a state with no sales tax (like Oregon), you would normally pay no use tax.

When you buy a vehicle in another state (like Tennessee), you are not required to pay Tennessee sales tax.  But, you must pay use tax in the state in which you title and license the vehicle, in your case, Texas.

We were not surprised by our high Idaho title, use tax and licensing fees, because we knew we were bound to pay the use tax when we titled our Oliver.

[Mike and Carol]

We were not surprised.  We expected to pay sales/use tax when we registered.  We were a little used to that because we’ve purchased vehicles in Europe, tax free, and when we came back to the US and registered them (in Texas) we had the state tax to pay.  Mike

[Golfnut]

I saved a few bucks , I told our sales guy to  put the  Oliver cover on the bill of sale.. so I paid 6.50% sale tax in the county I live in Ohio instead of the 8% in Tennessee if I got it separate….  I knew what the hit was going to be when I titled it..

[Kathy Tewart]

We live in Harris County Tx and I estimated the total before I went to register Ollie, so no I was not surprised but not happy about it either.  We also purchased a new truck to tow it with so the state got a lot of my money this year!

[Steph and Dud B]

We knew it was coming in CT, but your post is a good reminder for others to check their tax liability before taking delivery.

[Frank C]

No surprise here. It’s the same as registering any other vehicle here in PA.  Have to pay sales tax, title fee, plate fee, etc at time of title registration.  And PA also requires annual safety inspection of the trailer.  

[John Welte]

3 hours ago, Rivernerd said:

I expect most of the cost is the Texas use tax.   Use tax is the way states collect tax on vehicles purchased in another state.  Since the "sale" occurs outside the state, Texas cannot collect "sales" tax.  But, if you want to "use" your trailer, you must license it, so states with sales tax normally tax the "use" of the vehicle at the same rate as if it was purchased in the state.

If you lived in a state with no sales tax (like Oregon), you would normally pay no use tax.

When you buy a vehicle in another state (like Tennessee), you are not required to pay Tennessee sales tax.  But, you must pay use tax in the state in which you title and license the vehicle, in your case, Texas.

We were not surprised by our high Idaho title, use tax and licensing fees, because we knew we were bound to pay the use tax when we titled our Oliver.

Oregon has no sales tax, but since January 1, 2018 there is a "use tax" when a vehicle is bought in another state.  Ours is 1/2 of 1% of the sales price.  I didn't know about this tax since we buy vehicles very rarely.  It was a surprise, but not a huge amount.  Ours came to about $430.

John

[Katjo]

No surprise here, we knew it would be another approx $5000 “taxed” onto our purchase price. It bites but what are you going to do?🤷🏻‍♀️😏

[SeaDawg]

No surprise,  as we'd brought other vehicles in, and looked ahead to the taxes and fees.

It is what it is.  As @Katjo said, what can you do...   not much. 

[Geronimo John]

On 12/18/2022 at 7:42 AM, RustyMD said:

For me in Texas it was ~$5,000.

True.  At least the $68/year for the registration is super reasonable in TX.  

[Dave Mazone]

Indeed, a lot, but I knew it was coming. I had it built into the financing and Oliver cut me the check back. I'm in CA and mine was over $6k. They (DMV) almost dinged me for another $600 late fee on the registration, but I explained my purchase was in Tennessee and I didn't ENTER Calif. until a week later. That extra day saved me $600!

[Patriot]

Knowing we owed zero sales tax in Tenn on the purchase, we went over to our local DMV and got an estimate on our approximate sales tax, and registration and property tax fees. This allowed us to have our payment to the DMV ready once we returned home to register our Ollie. 

 

 

[CnC]

In Arizona, it's state, county and city sales taxes (unless buying from a private party aka previous owner), plus the insurance costs AND your Arizona license plate.

The Arizona license plate for our 2020 cost us $825.  You can imagine what a new Class A license plate would cost!

Charlie.