I'm in a bit of a confusing situation. I bought my Model 3 in Texas last year and recently moved to San Francisco. I'm trying to figure out the amount of registration fees I'll need to pay, and on the CA DMV vehicle registration fee calculator there's an option for California Dealer or Out of State Dealer. Since Tesla isn't allowed to have dealerships in Texas, I was under the impression I bought my car from Tesla in California and had it shipped to Texas. Does that mean I technically bought it from a California dealer and should be paying less registration fees? Anyone have any insight into this?
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Registration fee question (Texas to California)
- Thread starter smartsushy
- Start date
Tam
Well-Known Member
I don't actually know how it works but the Vehicle License Fee VLF is pretty cheap 0.65% compared with sales tax 7.25%-10.25% depending on California locations.
" If a vehicle is brought to California within 12 months of purchase, use tax may be due. If you paid sales/use tax to another state, you may receive credit toward California use tax not to exceed the California tax. For information, contact CDTFA at www.cdtfa.ca.gov or 1-800-400-7115"
If you pick up your car (either new or used) physically from a California location, a California dealer is required to collect CA sales tax.
However, if it ships your car to another state, it is not required to collect CA sales tax.
So if DMV wants you to pay thousands of dollars for sales tax (use tax), you'll just have to show the sales receipt of how much you paid and to whom and when so they can adjust that amount accordingly.
FlyErik
Member
I paid $700 or so for initial registration in California (varies slightly by county), and was hit with $607 this year for a single year of renewal - with no custom plate or special background.... Ridiculous.
There's a reason people are fleeing California and it's corruption. They disincentivize electric vehicles by trying to make up the lost gas tax revenue. Hypocritical at best.
There's a reason people are fleeing California and it's corruption. They disincentivize electric vehicles by trying to make up the lost gas tax revenue. Hypocritical at best.
That has nothing to do with EV's. In fact EV's are heavily incentivized in ca. Your registration is based on the cars value which kind of sucks.
FlyErik
Member
I'd thought that as well, but isn't there a new $100 surcharge specific to EVs to offset the state's 'loss' of tax revenue from gasoline...?
Yea but ya get a 2500 rebate from the state ... and we SHOULD be paying for the roads we use... not sure what's wrong with that. We pay a fraction of what others pay.
TT97
Active Member
Almost. There will be an additional DMV fee of $100 starting next year for EV's (welcome to California). They're doing this because EV's don't buy gas and therefore don't pay the tax that is used for road repairs (even though they raised other taxes that is supposed to be for road repairs...again welcome to California).
TomT
Technical Maven
I don't really have a problem with this as it seems fair... That said, vehicle registration where I live now is 20 bucks for an EV...
I think that DMV fee change makes sense. Roads have to be paid for. Repair and maintenance is costly. As we transition to EVs, gas tax revenue will continue to decline.
So yes, “welcome to California”.
I am wondering what happened with the situation described by the OP? It was over 7 months ago.
FlyErik
Member
It's funny how Californians have been desensitized to being taxed and bled of money from every angle based on excuses from career politicians.... We already pay car registration, road/bridge tolls, a portion of sales tax in many counties is supposedly for roads and transportation, bond measures, new propositions every election carefully worded to ensure people just say "YES", and all on top of the nation's highest per-gallon gas taxes and the highest overall gas prices. And they always need more - because it's not all going to roads and transportation. Anyone who thinks that all of this tax and toll and registration money is used honestly for ONLY the uses the state claims is seriously diluted.
Several people in previous posts just go along with any new DMV fee change, because that's just what we do in CA. We buy into nearly every new scheme the elitists come up with to bilk us further of our incomes. This is why we have a widening gap between lower and upper class, with middle class people struggling to keep up or just moving out of state. I know, I know. We're all busy in our lives, so that's why we don't want to take the time to research where all of this money they take from us goes.... And it does lead to a lot of dead ends, as most of this info comes from the state itself, or unelected "commissions" which make decisions which affect our lives. Anyone who's been over their head in debt knows that you can justify pretty much anything - and that's what our state does with money. Where to even start?? It's likely beyond our ability to change now.
Although posted nearly 5 years ago, the problems described in the below article have not changed for the better, and we all know it if we're honest with ourselves. The problem is that we settle for unaccountable government. We're used to it and accept it as inevitable, despite our actual ability to facilitate massive changes in this area through civic participation. We simply don't demand any accountability because we've lost interest in the shell game that is our state revenue machine...
California transportation fees Archives | California Policy Center
And to the original poster - sorry that this devolved into an unrelated string. Hope that you were able to NOT have to pay double taxes to CA, and that you're not regretting leaving TX for our illustrious state. Just tell yourself that the weather makes it all worth it.... That's worked for a lot of us for the last decade.
Several people in previous posts just go along with any new DMV fee change, because that's just what we do in CA. We buy into nearly every new scheme the elitists come up with to bilk us further of our incomes. This is why we have a widening gap between lower and upper class, with middle class people struggling to keep up or just moving out of state. I know, I know. We're all busy in our lives, so that's why we don't want to take the time to research where all of this money they take from us goes.... And it does lead to a lot of dead ends, as most of this info comes from the state itself, or unelected "commissions" which make decisions which affect our lives. Anyone who's been over their head in debt knows that you can justify pretty much anything - and that's what our state does with money. Where to even start?? It's likely beyond our ability to change now.
Although posted nearly 5 years ago, the problems described in the below article have not changed for the better, and we all know it if we're honest with ourselves. The problem is that we settle for unaccountable government. We're used to it and accept it as inevitable, despite our actual ability to facilitate massive changes in this area through civic participation. We simply don't demand any accountability because we've lost interest in the shell game that is our state revenue machine...
California transportation fees Archives | California Policy Center
And to the original poster - sorry that this devolved into an unrelated string. Hope that you were able to NOT have to pay double taxes to CA, and that you're not regretting leaving TX for our illustrious state. Just tell yourself that the weather makes it all worth it.... That's worked for a lot of us for the last decade.
Yeah gas tax here in Calif goes up to 47.3 cents per gallon in July. So... that $100 EV charge would equal tax on about 200 gallons.
My previous ICE averaged 28 mpg so that's around 5600 miles - I average 10,000 miles/yr on my Model 3..... BUT my wife puts 35,000 miles/yr on her Model S.
Let's see...
EV (2) = $ 200 (EV Tax/year)
ICE (2) = $ 189.20 (gas tax for me) and $ 591.25 (gas tax for my wife)
So that's $780.45 that would have been with the ICE vehicles - but now $200
I got no complaint here.
(of course there are other factors - such as xtra weight of the vehicle on road wear, tax on extra electric use - despite solar panels)
My previous ICE averaged 28 mpg so that's around 5600 miles - I average 10,000 miles/yr on my Model 3..... BUT my wife puts 35,000 miles/yr on her Model S.
Let's see...
EV (2) = $ 200 (EV Tax/year)
ICE (2) = $ 189.20 (gas tax for me) and $ 591.25 (gas tax for my wife)
So that's $780.45 that would have been with the ICE vehicles - but now $200
I got no complaint here.
(of course there are other factors - such as xtra weight of the vehicle on road wear, tax on extra electric use - despite solar panels)
It's a trade off. California has high taxes and fees on something, but very low taxes on things like real estate. I pay much less in real estate taxes than my family in the midwest and my house is now worth 3+ times as much as theirs. They get re-assessed every couple of years based on the current estimated value of their home. My property tax is still largely based on 1.125% of what I paid for the house 20+ years ago.
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It's only a trade off since you've been in your house for 20 years! Ive been in my house for 2 years, and trust me it is no trade off!
In 5-10 years it will be. By then you house may be worth almost twice what it is worth now. And your property taxes will be close to the same. We looked at moving to Nevada but the 3.4% property taxes with bi-annual reassessments were a killer
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