States that charge tax for tax-free cars?

[insayne_kokane]

I was wondering if anyone knew if there was a list of states somewhere that charge tax on the tax-free vehicles we bought overseas (and are exempt from the federal tax since we had it for over 6 months).

Reason I ask is because I was supposed to be stationed in New York, who has a tax exemption policy for non-residents who purchased the car outside of New York. However, they decided to cancel those orders and send me to Idaho, who I contacted about it, and they tell me I have to pay a 6% tax on the car since it was never paid before (I'd need a state-issued title to avoid that).

On afcrossroads.com, I did notice it saying they will charge the tax for overseas purchases, but didn't know if that was still current so I hit them up with an email. Of course, info was current

Or maybe someone knows about this for Iowa (my home of record)? I know it's expensive to register a newer car in Iowa, but I'd rather pay a few hundred instead of almost $2000 to register my car.

I've searched everywhere on Iowa's DMV site to no avail and even emailed the county assessor, but I got a "Delayed delivery" response back from their email address. Afcrossroads.com doesn't have any info since there are no bases in Iowa...

Anyway, anyone know of a site showing this type of laws?

[tanker19kilo]

Take leave go back home to your home of record and register it there. Thats all I can suggest. Also Kentucky does the tax thing too. My buddy had to pay $1500 up front when he got his car there.

[insayne_kokane]

Did a bit more digging and found out Iowa charges 5% one time on new cars along with a $300/yr registration fee for the first 5 years (it slowly drops from there until 9+ where it's like $30/yr).

However, I did find something else out...

As part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Obama's stimulus plan), the IRS lets you deduct state taxes/fees paid on new cars (must be first owner) between Feb 17 and Dec 31. You can deduct whether you itemize or not (if not, add the tax to the standard deduction).

Note that this is also good for states without a sales tax. In those states, you deduct state 'fees' that are directly related to the price paid on the car.

IRS page on it: Sales Tax Deduction for Vehicle Purchases

Other info:
2009 New Car Tax Credit

So looking at the 2nd link, since it's a deduction and not a credit, you'll only get $0.15 back for each $1 tax paid (assuming a 15% tax bracket). Well, at least it's something.

At least I qualify for the $1300 credit for buying a new Jetta TDI

[insayne_kokane]

Got a bit more information about this...

Contacted my county treasurer's office back in Iowa and they looked up the law and replied back with the following (she said she's been there 13 years and only had something like this come up once before):

Quote: Originally Posted by Iowa DMV

Sorry it’s taken me so long to get back to you, we had to do a little research on this one. According to the Iowa Department of Revenue, if you bought the vehicle for use in Germany while you were there, with no intention of using it in Iowa the use tax would not be due. The documents that you would need to bring in are the DD form 788, military registration and all prior ownership documents.

If you have any more questions, please feel free to call or email me again.

Thanks

You can bet your ass I'm gonna print that out and take it with me when I go to register it :P

The DD788 is the shipping document where they mark off every little scratch on the car...

So maybe some good news for Iowa residents?