Out of State Sales Tax when Purchasing used Tesla

[Tesla S1]

Can anyone help me out here?

I live in Florida and may purchase a used Tesla in Illinois from a NON-Tesla dealership.
The dealer is saying I have to pay THEM sales tax at the Florida rate of 6%.

1. Is this correct? I would assume when I register the vehicle in Florida that I PAY SALES tax at that point?
2. Bill of sale shows "State Sales Tax" but does not specify FL. The last thing I want is to pay 6% sales tax in Illinois THEN TURN around and pay another 6% sales tax when registering vehicle in Florida.
3. I do not want to get "scammed" as once I purchase vehicle, there is no recourse.

ANY advice would be great. Has ANYONE purchased a car from OUT OF STATE (does not have to be Tesla) and paid an Out-of-State Dealer sales tax???

Thank you

 

[StaceyS]

I purchased a CPO Tesla from Ohio. The Tesla rep in Ohio said I would have to pay my state's sales tax and they would incorporate that into the purchase docs. Since I live in Oregon, there's no sales tax.

If you pay your Florida tax at time of registration, I would not pay an Illinois dealer that money unless they are handling the title transfer and registration through Florida for you. That's my guess. Might be most prudent to talk with your DMV.

 

[dgpcolorado]

...ANY advice would be great. Has ANYONE purchased a car from OUT OF STATE (does not have to be Tesla) and paid an Out-of-State Dealer sales tax???

Thank you

Yes. I purchased my LEAF from an Oregon dealer (and Oregon has no sales tax, as StaceyS mentions above) and they checked the sales tax rate for Colorado and charged me that amount. Then when I went to register the car in my county they verified from my contract that I had paid the Colorado sales tax and didn't make me pay it again.

While I can't say for sure how things work in Florida, it does seem to be a standard practice. I suggest talking to the office where you register cars in your home county to see if this is how it is normally done, but I'd guess that it is. FWIW.

 

[Cyclone]

Even if you pay 6% to the Illinois dealer, Florida does provide an offset for what was paid to another state, no greater than the amount you would pay in Florida. You should be ok either way.

 

[tga]

I have purchased several cars out of state and registered them in my home state. I have never had a dealer try to tell me they are collecting my home state sales tax. I have occasionally paid sales tax to the state in which the dealer is located (but only when taking delivery of the car in person, not when it is put on a truck and shipped to me), and then gotten a credit for that when paying my home state's sales tax at time of registration.

This sounds like a scam. Charge you an extra 6%, show it on the invoice as sales tax, and pocket it. Provided no one gets audited, they've made an extra 6% at FL's expense. How does an Illinois car dealer have a license to collect and pay Florida sales tax (unless they are a large, multi-state operation)?

Now if they were charging you Illinois tax, that might be a different story. But that should only apply if you are picking up the car in person, not if it's being shipped to you.

Personally, I would refuse to allow them to collect "Florida sales tax" - that's between you and Florida. Tell them to fedex you the title and bill of sale, and you'll handle it yourself, thank you very much.

Some threads on this:

Is a cross country road trip to pick up a Tesla a good idea?
Buying out of State
Sales tax

Florida's rules: FL Dept Rev - 2014 Tax Information Publication 14A01-01

 

[kf93]

you have to pay sales tax to the state where you buy the vehicle in most cases. For registration in FL you just show FL proof you paid another state at least 6% or whatever the total FL rate for your county of registration is, and you don't have to pay anything to FL. I've registered multiple cars through the years in FL while they have been purchased in other places due to military orders and that's how they do it. There's a great explanation on the FLHSMV website. You will only pay tax once, and you pay it to the state where you buy the car. I agree with the other people, you aren't paying the dealership FL tax, you are paying tax for that state and then FL doesn't double charge you.

 

[tstafford]

I've bought at least six or seven cars out of state and the sales tax thing varies by dealer. Some can collect it for you while others can't (or don't want to). If it's a larger dealer and they are offering to handle registration for you I'd think of this as a service not a scam.

 

[Tesla S1]

Looks legit. Since DMV is closed, did some searches online and from Palm Beach Co. Tax Collector site shows: Sales tax will be collected if there is a change of ownership or if used less than six months in another state without proof of paid tax. Seems like FL does offer the offset, as long as I can prove with my bill of sale that tax was collected. Asked dealer to send me a bill of sale showing this and they did. So hope all works out.
Monday will call Tax Collector to verify though.

 

[Cyclone]

Looks legit. Since DMV is closed, did some searches online and from Palm Beach Co. Tax Collector site shows: Sales tax will be collected if there is a change of ownership or if used less than six months in another state without proof of paid tax. Seems like FL does offer the offset, as long as I can prove with my bill of sale that tax was collected. Asked dealer to send me a bill of sale showing this and they did. So hope all works out.
Monday will call Tax Collector to verify though.

tga's FL DOR link above pretty much spells it all out. Just look at the table entry for Illinois, second and third column.

 

[P85DPB]

Can anyone help me out here?

I live in Florida and may purchase a used Tesla in Illinois from a NON-Tesla dealership.
The dealer is saying I have to pay THEM sales tax at the Florida rate of 6%.

1. Is this correct? I would assume when I register the vehicle in Florida that I PAY SALES tax at that point?
2. Bill of sale shows "State Sales Tax" but does not specify FL. The last thing I want is to pay 6% sales tax in Illinois THEN TURN around and pay another 6% sales tax when registering vehicle in Florida.
3. I do not want to get "scammed" as once I purchase vehicle, there is no recourse.

ANY advice would be great. Has ANYONE purchased a car from OUT OF STATE (does not have to be Tesla) and paid an Out-of-State Dealer sales tax???

Thank you

Hi there, i am here in Palm Beach County and have bought several cars out of state. It is NOT A SCAM, some out of state dealers are required by law to collect taxes regardless where the car is being registered. The buyers or purchase order will show a line showing you paid 6% tax, take that with you to the DMV! PM me if you have any more questions on this....

 

[Tesla S1]

tga is right on with the links..thank you.
Thanks everyone..P85DPB...will PM if any issues come up.

 

[zer0cool]

I have purchased/leased 3 cars out of state in the past 3 years and all of them (2 BMW and one Mercedes dealership) collected all taxes (amounts calculated based on my state of registration) at time of sale/lease. This should be the standard service at all luxury car dealerships. This way, they will handle all registration related paperwork and you will simply get your tag in about a month.

Otherwise you will have to personally go to tax office and DMV to pay taxes and register your car... which could be a lot of time and effort on your side.

I like it much more when dealerships take care of all registration related matters.

 

[Shortmanz]

I live in Texas and purchased my Model S from a Porsche dealer in Chicago, Ill. I had the car transported to Dallas where I paid the sales tax when I registered it. I did not pay any Illinois sales tax. Texas sales tax is 6.25% on vehicles. It was really hard to write a check for $5K just for the tax, but at least it is only a one-time tax and not an annual tax as in some states.

One thing that almost cost me an expensive late-fee penalty was that I didn't have the paperwork to register the car until 3 days after the 30-day deadline. They were going to charge me a 10-20% penalty fee for being late. The problem was caused by several things:
1. The day I bought the car, the rear passenger window dropped and would not roll up, so it needed to be repaired by the Chicago Tesla service center - that took about a week.
2. It took another 3 days for a transporter to accept our bid of $850 to bring the car to Dallas. Another 4 days went by before they actually picked it up, and another 7-8 days to meander their way to Dallas.
3. The Porsche dealer sent the title paperwork to the Texas DOT promptly, but it took about 4 weeks before I received the paperwork from the DOT that was necessary to register the car.

Bottom line - if your state has a sales tax, register your car as soon as possible!

 

[Tesla S1]

Thanks for all replies. zer0cool. I will be transferring my FL plates from my 1st tesla to this one so I do not think dealer will take care of that and according to tga links (THANKS!) state of FL requires VIN authentication which forces me to go to DMV anyways.

 

[travwill]

It's definitely an awesome car so enjoy it!