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Originally posted by dwd1985:

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Originally posted by chellim1:

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I'm thinking about purchasing a new vehicle, but the high tax rate in Louisiana has me looking at alternatives. Could I purchase in Texas, Florida or Alabama, and then register in my home county in Colorado, and circumvent Louisiana entirely?

Be careful, or you may end up paying both.
I bought a vehicle recently in Texas and they added on Texas sales tax. I had the car shipped to Missouri, licensed and titled in Missouri and had to pay sales tax again in Missouri.
I have to fill out a form in Texas to try to recover the sales tax paid in Texas.

Exactly, this is the type of stuff I am worried about. If I buy in LA right now I'll likely pay 10% at the dealership, and then when I take my paperwork to CO (4% rate), its not like they're going to give me a refund for that 6%. So I guess my next question (maybe a dumb one) is, do dealerships automatically charge you the sales tax rate of your homestate, or of the state you are physically in at the time?

I'm stationed in Pascagoula MS, we bought a car from carmax in baton rouge and paid la tax then, and when it was tagged in nc (my home of record) i recived a check from the dealship for the tax i paid

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Originally posted by dwd1985:
... I really don't want to get rid of my 2006 Tacoma, but the problems just keep adding up, and dropping a few thousand into a truck that's only worth about $10k doesn't make good financial sense.

Not what you were asking, but this statement is not correct. If you don't feel the vehicle is reliable enough to make the trips you need to make, or if the inconvenience of having it in the shop is too great, then buy a new(er) vehicle. But buying a new one is not a better financial decision.

If you buy a new truck for $30,000, in two years it will be worth $20,000 at most. That $10,000 will keep your current Tacoma running until you are an old man.

I have a 2002 Tahoe with 250,000 miles, and I just spent $3200 to get the transmission replaced. But it's a reman trans with a 3 year warranty. I could not buy anything nearly new and drive it for 3 years for a cost of $3200.

I have a newer VW Touareg that I love, and I probably wouldn't take the Tahoe cross country, but there's no question that financially speaking it was worth spending the money to drive it another 3 years, even though it's only worth $5000-$6000.

I have bought about a half of dozen cars outside of my home state, and once I explained to the salesman that I would be registering in my home state and that I was just temporarily in his because of orders I have never had them try to charge me local sales tax.

I had exactly one salesman who had difficulty with this, and when I told him "no thanks" he reconsidered and the sale was done as out of state and I paid taxes to my state when I registered up there. If you have orders placing you in that state and your home of record is different it shouldn't be a problem. Granted it is much easier if you are buying near a large base as they deal with this all the time.

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Originally posted by dwd1985:

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Originally posted by chellim1:

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I'm thinking about purchasing a new vehicle, but the high tax rate in Louisiana has me looking at alternatives. Could I purchase in Texas, Florida or Alabama, and then register in my home county in Colorado, and circumvent Louisiana entirely?

Be careful, or you may end up paying both.
I bought a vehicle recently in Texas and they added on Texas sales tax. I had the car shipped to Missouri, licensed and titled in Missouri and had to pay sales tax again in Missouri.
I have to fill out a form in Texas to try to recover the sales tax paid in Texas.

Exactly, this is the type of stuff I am worried about. If I buy in LA right now I'll likely pay 10% at the dealership, and then when I take my paperwork to CO (4% rate), its not like they're going to give me a refund for that 6%. So I guess my next question (maybe a dumb one) is, do dealerships automatically charge you the sales tax rate of your homestate, or of the state you are physically in at the time?

I purchased my Van in Ohio and paid no sales tax in Ohio only a 30 day registration fee for a temporary tag ($10 I think). I paid the sales tax to my state when I registered the vehicle there.

Louisiana might be different call the dealer and ask if you purchase a vehicle to be registered out of state (you will be handling this not them, some dealers will handle everything for a fee) do they collect the Louisiana sales tax.

I live in Ohio not too far from Pennsylvania. I have purchased a number of cars in pa. I do not pay Pennsylvania sales tax on purchase but when I title the car in Ohio I have to pay Ohio sales tax.

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Originally posted by a1abdj:

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I bought a vehicle recently in Texas and they added on Texas sales tax. I had the car shipped to Missouri, licensed and titled in Missouri and had to pay sales tax again in Missouri.
I have to fill out a form in Texas to try to recover the sales tax paid in Texas.

Last time I did this the DMV looked at the paperwork and deducted the tax I paid out of state from the tax due here in Missouri.

The sales tax was higher in Texas.... so I wanted all of that back, not a credit against Missouri. So, I paid Missouri sales tax at the time of titling, and received a refund from Texas for the full amount paid in Texas.

Bought many cars out of state, both while in the military and since retiring. Since I like manual transmission cars and they are hard to find I end up traveling to buy them much of the time. I've been a "civilian" resident of TN since 2002 and have bought 5 new cars out of state. Always paid the TN sales tax when I registered the vehicle in TN. Never paid any local sales taxes in TX, GA, MO or AL where I bought those 5 vehicles.

Back in 2000, while I was still in the CG I bought a new Harley from a dealer in Pensacola. They would not sell me the bike unless I paid FL sales tax. I was a legal resident of CT at the time but was stationed in Mobile AL. I even showed them the CT statutes that allowed me to title the bike in CT and pay their sales tax (which they exempted me from since I wasn't in state) but they refused to sell the bike without collecting the sales tax for FL. I think I applied to get the sales tax refunded but I can't remember if I ever did get it back. I bought several cars in similar scenarios and never had a dealer balk at allowing me to pay the sales tax in the state I was registering the vehicle.

Shouldn't be an issue to pay the tax in your home state when you register the car.