Sales tax rates at different WA Tesla centers

[EVKANE]

Lynnwood: 10.8%
Bellevue: 10.3%
Renton: 10.3%
Spokane: 9.1%

As far as I understand it, the sales tax rate is determined by the location of the dealership.

First observation: never take delivery in Lynnwood. 20 miles away in Bellevue you're saving 0.5%.
Second observation: you would save 1.2% by picking up in Spokane and drive 300 miles back to Seattle.

I ordered a MY and thinking through my options here. 1.2% on a $53k car is $636. Not sure it's worth doing the Spokane trip. Where I live in Woodinville the rate is only 8.9%. I wish there would be a way to take delivery at my home and get the lower sales tax rate. Any ideas?

 

[ptronus31]

I was under the impression it is the sales tax rate of the address with which the vehicle is registered.

 

[acarney]

In Washington state it's determined on where you take delivery of the car. From my understanding Spokane does not to deliveries yet, just service.

If you pick up in Portland make sure to NOT pay sales tax to the service center and instead go to your local licensing office and pay the tax there. Tesla took 40+ days to get mine licensed and registered and Oregon only can issue a ~24 temp permit... WA will not issue an extension or new temp permit unless you pay tax right then and there... sales doc showing you paid Tesla is NOT enough proof for them. I ended up having to buy 3 day travel permits to use (~$33/each, limit of 3 in a 30 day period) about four or five times... and just hope no one paid attention to me using more than 3 in a 30 day period... and still I ended up using a 3 day permit for 4 or 5 days a couple times since I was just going 2 miles to work and back and mostly along residential streets...

But I did only pay 8.9% tax

(I opted for a Portland pickup for other reasons, not just getting my local tax rate)

 

[EVKANE]

Portland is another idea but I wanted to avoid the out-of-state hassle. Thanks for sharing your experience.

I went ahead and had the delivery changed from Lynnwood to Bellevue. Saved me $266.45.

 

[ArmandRose]

Brand new to this forum and am preparing to order our mY soon. Does anyone have a breakdown of the "fees" that are charged here in WA at delivery besides the tax? Just want an idea of what it will be out the door for the vehicle for financing purposes. Thanks in advance.

 

[jbakes09d]

Hopefully the link will work, but this PDF has a guide for calculating the tab fee. Other than tab fee and taxes it would just be the $1200 destination+documentation fee that Tesla charges., but does not include in the configurator.

https://www.dol.wa.gov/vehicleregistration/docs/VehicleFees.pdf

 

[EVKANE]

My recent order shows $1,125 destination fee and $75 doc fee.

 

[Robotpedlr]

Can you take delivery in Spokane? I thought that was just a service center.

 

[acarney]

Can you take delivery in Spokane? I thought that was just a service center.

As of October of 2020 they were just a service center.

 

[Jeff Davlt]

How does the no touch home delivery work with all this?

 

[EVKANE]

I had a home delivery in December. It went really well. Super easy.
In regards to sales tax you’re still paying the rate of the dealership location.

 

[VandalSibs]

I had a home delivery in December. It went really well. Super easy.
In regards to sales tax you’re still paying the rate of the dealership location.

This. When I got my M3 SR+ in November '19, I thought of going with home delivery, but I was told that I would be paying the Bellevue sales/car tax rate anyway, as it is still "delivered" there according to state law (or something weird). I also had a trade-in, and I trusted dropping it off at the store instead of a trucker loading it up and maybe misplacing paperwork.

Plus, it's my first Tesla and I wanted the in-person experience - and it was nice to get to drive it across the state right after getting it!

I think that the Bellevue store is the lowest sales tax delivery location in Washington right now - at least it was when I ordered. Some people pick up in Portland, but it can get complicated due to having to the separately pay Washington tax after picking up the car.

 

[acarney]

I had a home delivery in December. It went really well. Super easy.
In regards to sales tax you’re still paying the rate of the dealership location.

This. When I got my M3 SR+ in November '19, I thought of going with home delivery, but I was told that I would be paying the Bellevue sales/car tax rate anyway, as it is still "delivered" there according to state law (or something weird). I also had a trade-in, and I trusted dropping it off at the store instead of a trucker loading it up and maybe misplacing paperwork.

Plus, it's my first Tesla and I wanted the in-person experience - and it was nice to get to drive it across the state right after getting it!

I think that the Bellevue store is the lowest sales tax delivery location in Washington right now - at least it was when I ordered. Some people pick up in Portland, but it can get complicated due to having to the separately pay Washington tax after picking up the car.

Home delivery and carrier direct are two different things; home delivery is usually only offered within about 50 miles of the delivery center. You work with the store that is near you and a Tesla employee literally drives the car to your house or place of work, hands it over to you, and drives back in your trade in or gets an uber. Tax would be based on the store location.

Carrier direct is handled by a separate part in Tesla; the store will hand you off to another office that will arrange transport and you need to be 220 miles or more from the closest delivery center. This used to be a free option (when I took delivery of my Model 3 in August of 2019 it was free) but now is a paid option. All payment happens before the car is loaded on a 3rd party carrier (so not Tesla operated), the vehicle is then transported to you and handed off. Tax is based on your home address. Tesla will then register the car for you like normal but will mail the plates to you home address.

I'm not sure what carrier direct would do in the situation of a trade in. They are a 3rd party so there is no guarantee that they are actually returning to the Tesla store, and if they were returning to that area, you're using up a paying spot on their truck.

 

[Jeff Davlt]

My understanding is that with Home Delivery the ability to reject the car is slim to none. I don't really plan on rejecting my car, but ... agreeing to pay for a car sight unseen makes me a bit nervous.

 

[p4594spa]

There is no delivery center in Spokane.

 

[Robotpedlr]

As of October of 2020 they were just a service center.

There is no delivery center in Spokane.

Confirmed... I called the service center there yesterday and they said they "hope" to be set up for deliveries in a couple of months..but not today.

 

[acarney]

My understanding is that with Home Delivery the ability to reject the car is slim to none. I don't really plan on rejecting my car, but ... agreeing to pay for a car sight unseen makes me a bit nervous.

Home delivery and carrier direct is different. Carrier direct there is zero way to do that since the car is fully paid for before loading onto a 3rd party transport. Home delivery there might be some ability because I think we still interact with the Tesla employee for a few minutes when he drops it off at your home. Home delivery is usually only an option within about 50 miles of a store.

 

[VandalSibs]

Home delivery and carrier direct are two different things; home delivery is usually only offered within about 50 miles of the delivery center. You work with the store that is near you and a Tesla employee literally drives the car to your house or place of work, hands it over to you, and drives back in your trade in or gets an uber. Tax would be based on the store location.

Carrier direct is handled by a separate part in Tesla; the store will hand you off to another office that will arrange transport and you need to be 220 miles or more from the closest delivery center. This used to be a free option (when I took delivery of my Model 3 in August of 2019 it was free) but now is a paid option. All payment happens before the car is loaded on a 3rd party carrier (so not Tesla operated), the vehicle is then transported to you and handed off. Tax is based on your home address. Tesla will then register the car for you like normal but will mail the plates to you home address.

I'm not sure what carrier direct would do in the situation of a trade in. They are a 3rd party so there is no guarantee that they are actually returning to the Tesla store, and if they were returning to that area, you're using up a paying spot on their truck.

Thanks for the corrections! I don't like giving out incorrect information, so your update is appreciated.

 

[acarney]

Thanks for the corrections! I don't like giving out incorrect information, so your update is appreciated.

It's a common thing I see. Tesla is kinda confusing in "home delivery."

Delivery Options

Carrier Direct is the only option for people that aren't "local" to a sales center (other than going and picking it up of course). The other options are all alternatives to picking the car up at the sales center and I believe are still all handled as if they happen at the sales center (since it's usually within a handful of miles of the sales center).

 

[mstatkus]

Thanks for clarifying, I saw a pretty heavy sales tax number at the end and knew it was 10%+ just looking at it and figured I must be too close to Seattle haha.