Automobile Title Tax(No more Sales Tax)

[Bernie]

So since I bought my car and paid the tax, I don't have to worry about this?

Check with the guys that did your paperwork. I think they had the option of doing sales or the title tax at the time of purchase.

If they did sales tax, it'll be as simple as grabbing paperwork from the tag office, then proving you already paid sales tax equal to or less than the 6.5% title tax.

[remy lost]

My bet is that the state will undervalue cars a bit to avoid any hassle of having dispute the value of the cars. They already base ad valorem off of vehicle value, and in any instance where I've checked their values they seem reasonable.

Here is my issue, You find a good running car in nice condition, and pay 1200 for it. Similar models are selling at 1800 to 2400 due to the longevity of the car and its great gas mileage. But the state and your insurance company says it is only worth $300. How much is the state gonna tax you for and how much do you think the insurance company is going to give you if its totaled. I'm sure the insurance company will tell you that you agreed to the value of the car being that low when you paid the tax on it.

And yeah I've already paid ad valorum this year and from what I am seeing it is not refundable nor am I able to put it towards paying the one time tax. Which I can't afford to pay in one chunk right now anyway. I bought my car for about a third of what the blue book is on it. According to the tax calculator on their website the amount of tax on it is roughly a quarter of what I paid for the car already. WTF

[nickt93]

It could also benefit you in the opposite way too. Say you buy a '95 Miata with an LS1 swap for $12k. The state is only going to value the car at $2k and that's all you will pay taxes on.

Solution: buy an LS1 Miata

[Bernie]

I'm pretty sure the lady that I chatted with at the tag office told me that they would look at sales tax paid and any ad valorum you paid on the car before March 1st. But I don't see that listed on the FAQ sheet she gave me, so it could have been an error on her part, or the way that I heard it.

[JEMERY]

Taxes are crap. I know we're not debating that right now but I'm just venting a little. I'm sick of these fat, overbloated government jacklegs always coming up with new and improved ways of separating the common man from his hard earned money rather than cutting their out of control, wasteful spending on junk that government was never meant to even have it's filthy fingers in. Infuriating.

[/rant]

Agreed. I was just about to purchase a car too. Damn it all.

[silver92b]

With the Vette, EVOs and all the nicer newer cars I had (even the FJ Cruiser), the birthday tax was always a pain in the wallet. Now, with the '92 NA, it's irrelevant

[oldgrayfrog]

So I have some new experience with this new law, I just purchased an 07' Honda Pilot to replace my VW. The dealership still credits your trade in for tax purposes. IE. You buy a $20,000 car and trade in a car that is valued at $10,000, you pay $650 or 6.5% of the difference as your new AD Valorem tax. Here's the best part, except for me, you no longer have to go to the DMV! Finally Georgia treats car dealership sales as the other 49 States! The dealership fills out alk the documents and 14-21 days later you receive your new registration documents and may then put your old plate on your new car. You still must get emissions check completed during the calendar year of your birthday, but if you buy your car in May, but have a birthday in say December, the test the dealership performed will suffice for that year. Unfortunately I still have to travel to the DMV as my plates are "Specialty" as they are DV plates, and so I must actually go in. Don't feel too bad for me though, my most expensive car is excempt from the tax anyways Hope this helps with some of the confusion. It certainly would make dealer sales more appealing to me if I didn't have to go to the DMV!

[miatastuff]

I am off to the DMV today to title a 1990 I just bought that has 273K miles. This used to be a $30 visit to get the first year tag (ad velorem came on the renewal). Update to follow.

[miatastuff]

The 1990 Miata is valued by the state of Ga at $1300 retail so I had a $85 or so Title Tax to pay plus the tag and title fees. $125 out the door, tag in hand. Had I bought it one day earlier(2-28), I would have been given "the option" .

[NA6R]

We have the option on the NB. The state values the car higher than the purchase price. Looking at the calculator. Break even will be in 4.5years

[Commanche]

We have the option on the NB. The state values the car higher than the purchase price. Looking at the calculator. Break even will be in 4.5years

That's what my tag lady said when I registered my NA, it would take about 5 years to break even. So I chose the "old ways"

[metalman]

Lets be real clear about a few things here:

1. This system is primarily instigated/motivated by auto stealerships who have lobbied for this for a long time. It is seen by them as a way to rid themselves of curbstoners and make their own ripoffs more attractive.

2. The state will always use math (arbitrary value vs actual price) that generates more of your tax cash for them to waste.

3. The net effect is/will be negative to the consumer....with but a few exceptions...such as keeping your car forever like almost no one does.

[Mazdababy]

There is some upside - I've always avoided buying from dealers for a number of reasons, one of them being the sales tax. With the law change I'll be more open to shopping at dealers since I'll have to pay tax either way.

Forgive me if someone else later in this thread mentioned this as I only skimmed through it, but at dealerships, you pay TAVT and sales tax for your county of residence...Source: I sell Mazda's

Example: If you live in Gwinnett, you'll pay 6.5% on the sale price of the vehicle, and 7% TAVT on the sale price or retail value (whichever is higher)

If you have a trade though, like OGF said, you only pay TAVT on the difference. But, if I'm not mistaken, you still pay sales tax on the entire sales price of the vehicle.


EDIT: ^^ just kidding

[miatastuff]

Sales tax went away with title tax. See my prior page post or the FAQ's on the GA site. As Kurt mentioned, one of the drivers for this was Dealerships wanting the no-tax private sale disadvantage to go away. This somewhat evens that playing field. When I register my 90 this week there was no requirement to pay sales tax. Under the old rules, I would have been required to pay it as I purchased it from an ou of state dealer and did not pay sales tax.

[lance]

Lets be real clear about a few things here:

1. This system is primarily instigated/motivated by auto stealerships who have lobbied for this for a long time. It is seen by them as a way to rid themselves of curbstoners and make their own ripoffs more attractive.

2. The state will always use math (arbitrary value vs actual price) that generates more of your tax cash for them to waste.

3. The net effect is/will be negative to the consumer....with but a few exceptions...such as keeping your car forever like almost no one does.

In the orig law the dealerships also had it so that if you bought the car out of state you had to pay both the sales tax and the advalorum for the whole time you owned the car. Ran into this when I went to opt in my cadillac on March first.
I was denied and wrote a letter to the Governor asking if this was in fact a gift to the GA automobile dealership lobby. Evidently i was not the only pissed off consumer.

I then got a call from the Governers office saying that house bill 266 had been signed by the Governor to eliminate the out of state exemption to opt in to the program. The cadillac would have had an advalorum of somewhere between $525 and $600 per year.

When I opted in, they overvalued the car and I had to pay another $85. I went to the tax assesors office and filed an appeal on the valuation. Will see how that goes,

[Mazdababy]

Sales tax went away with title tax.

Nevermind. I was misled by my sales manager; just clarified with a finance manager and you are correct.

Whoops, lol.

[oldgrayfrog]

Lance, this is the thing that concerns me, who decides the valuation of the car? This can get pricey when we start talking about late models that have depreciated. Say original MSRP was $60,000 and it depreciates 60% in he first three years, meaning we buy it for $24,000. Now the State can decide that the car's actual value is higher than that paid? So if you get a great deal through private party or even a dealership, the tax boys can decide your car's actually worth more? They should then give us the option of selling to the state if they think the car's worth more than we paid. Lol

[lance]

Lance, this is the thing that concerns me, who decides the valuation of the car? This can get pricey when we start talking about late models that have depreciated. Say original MSRP was $60,000 and it depreciates 60% in he first three years, meaning we buy it for $24,000. Now the State can decide that the car's actual value is higher than that paid? So if you get a great deal through private party or even a dealership, the tax boys can decide your car's actually worth more? They should then give us the option of selling to the state if they think the car's worth more than we paid. Lol

That is exactly the problem. Sticker on my car was $70,000 in 2011, I paid $51,000 for the car and the state valued the car at $56,000. They claim the $56,000 value is derived from the "average" of the retail (market value) and the wholesale price.

I showed them the Edmunds, KBB and Nada book values for the car where the average of retail and wholesale was $48,000! I told them I would sell them the car for $56,000, buy another one and make $5,000 on the deal.

I filed the paperwork to dispute the valuation to get my $85 back, so we will see how that goes.

[ben91]

I went to title and register my new to me truck yesterday. The lady at the tag office would not allow me opt in to the new system because I did not bring the bill of sale. It was a used/private party purchase. I am on the 'old' system where I pay ad valorem every year, but if it takes 5+ years to break even, I am happy to stay that way.

[miatastuff]

Bill of Sale is an easy word doc to create. Just sayin. But you can only "opt-in" if the purchase was prior to 03/01/2013.