do we know why it’s supposed to be based on base price? Seems kind of odd when sales price can be so much higher than base price
-
Want to remove ads? Register an account and login to see fewer ads, and become a Supporting Member to remove almost all ads.
Seattle area RTA registration tax
- Thread starter drawfour
- Start date
do we know why it’s supposed to be based on base price? Seems kind of odd when sales price can be so much higher than base price
RCW 82.44.035(3) requires use of the MRSP and excluding options, taxes, etc. So the answer is "because the state legislature said so."
Shocked! 1.5 yrs after appealing to have my 2018 LR RWD MSRP corrected, I just received a letter from DoL informing me that the valuation has been adjusted and received a refund for the overpaid amount.
I had completely given up on this ever being corrected and ironically it happens when I'm days away from trading it in. Such is life. Lesson learned, double check that RTA calculation when you pick up the car or spend a ridiculous amount of time trying to get it fixed. If I knew it would be this hard, I wouldn't have of pursued it at all but I didn't want to encourage bad behavior by DoL
I had completely given up on this ever being corrected and ironically it happens when I'm days away from trading it in. Such is life. Lesson learned, double check that RTA calculation when you pick up the car or spend a ridiculous amount of time trying to get it fixed. If I knew it would be this hard, I wouldn't have of pursued it at all but I didn't want to encourage bad behavior by DoL
ChadS
Last tank of gas: March 2009
The last time I bought a Tesla (Nov 2018), Tesla collected RTA tax from me even though I'd told them I'd moved to a house outside the RTA area. I asked Tesla for the money back, but of course that was a black hole. Since I moved just before delivery, I figured it wasn't worth chasing after - I would have owed it if I would have moved just a week later. I didn't bother to contact the DOL.
But about a year later, the DOL sent me a check for the full amount. I'm glad someone there does review and correct things every now and then...
But about a year later, the DOL sent me a check for the full amount. I'm glad someone there does review and correct things every now and then...
Always a good idea to post that you are committing fraud against the government on a public forum!
The fine is less than the RTA fees at least. Feels like a solid gamble!
They got that covered too
Also, technically in WA, the Judge can put you in jail for up to 364 days for a gross misdemeanor.
It’s my girlfriend’s primary residence, but thanks for assuming otherwise. Maybe there are some support groups to help with the anger management / resentment over not thinking through a legal way around a tax that voters successfully voted to repeal only to have the government overturn to build public transit that few want and fewer use?
That's still illegal unless those cars are registered in her name, and you have no legal claim to them at all. Nobody refers to their primary residence as "we have a cabin in the Cascades for registering our cars". If this is legal, they're not "our cars" they are "her cars," and her drivers license and voting better be in the cascades, and why would you mention it being a cabin if it's just where you live all the time? Sure sounds like a vacation home. It's weird how all the pictures in your post history are of the car in a Seattle driveway, not a Cascades cabin driveway.
I'll just leave this here too, totally the way someone would phrase things where the car was owned by the girlfriend who totally has the cabin as her primary address. Why would you be "Avoiding" the RTA tax that you don't even owe if the car is really primarily based in the Cascades? There's no "Avoiding" a tax you don't legally owe.
As for repealing the Tax? You mean Tim Eyman's unanimously unconstitutional initiative that asked people in Spokane, who were not subject to the RTA tax at all, if people in Seattle are allowed to tax themselves? The one that was overwhemingly rejected by people in the RTA zone? The one that violated the rules about covering only one topic in an initiative, while simultaneously claiming the RTA tax was unclear? The one that Tim specifically structured to get crushed by the supreme court so that he could collect more money for yet another initiative, pay himself a huge salary, and scream about Washington Taxes, instead of actually making progress?
If you're so focused on voting, The RTA tax was voted in by voters like you, with mailing addresses in the RTA zone. Sound transit 3 passed in 2016 by the people that would have to pay the tax, because we want better transit in Seattle, and was passed in spirit in 2019 again by these people when they voted against I-976. Stop being a jerk and pay the tax you know you owe by law and by vote, or at least don't post about your illegal schemes on the internet. You 100% know you are breaking the law here - don't attack people that call you out for these behaviors. It gives Tesla drivers and SLU Amazon employees with a high enough income to afford vacation homes a bad name.
Last edited:
There you go assuming again on whose name is on the title. What we did is 100% legal, so I don’t owe a dime. But thanks for trying to Internet shame me into paying a tax I don’t want, don’t support, and don’t have to pay. Oh, and thanks for confirming my suspicions on anger management…
Curious if you’ll be paying the new WA State Long Term care “tax” or not, my bet is no
(And rightfully so, I jumped so fast to ensure I could exempt out of that!)
The long term care tax has a specific, legal, defined exit method of having private insurance in place on a specific date. It is quite intelligent to take advantage of, and clearly legal.Curious if you’ll be paying the new WA State Long Term care “tax” or not, my bet is no
Having a cabin in a far away place and calling it your "primary residence" even though you only take the car there every few months and spend almost every day in Seattle because you work here does not meet the definition of a Primary Residence in Washington:
Living at your "boyfriends" house for 28 days out of the month yet not calling it your "true home in WA" is like avoiding the LTC by claiming you have private insurance when what you actually have is $50K in the bank and think you are smart by calling yourself "self insured" and ignore the rule that it has to be a policy accepted by the state.
I bet that "primary residence" in the Cascades even has a Seattle mailing address for property taxes.
usna92
On order LR3 - Midnight Silver - Black -18"
While the LTC does have a defined exemption plan, it isn't accessible because WA ESD cannot get the website functioning to actually apply for an exemption. The process is too onerous and unforgiving (which is what the legislature wanted I suspect). Hopefully this changes soon, but I doubt it. As for the RTA Tax, I am outside the zone, but I had my SA make sure to pull it from our account details when we put the order in. I wouldn't have as much of a problem with the RTA tax if they stopped pretending that the Eastside stops at Bellevue and Kirkland. I would happily take a train into Mercer St., if I had any hope of being able to park and get on one. I'd even take a bus into Seattle if there weren't only two a day and the trip didn't take 2 hours. I feel bad for those inside the zone in Renton and Federal Way there were sold a train with ST3 only to have the plans change, putting the possibility in doubt.
Your argument is that because the website isn't working great 7 days after the exemption process went live, that functionally the exemption doesn't exist even though there are ~90 more days to apply? I mean, the website does exist and I know people that have used it. It's clearly going to happen.
As for the RTA tax, you can love it or hate it, just like 50% of people do with any laws / taxes / whatever get voted on. But the law is the law, and if your primary residence is in the RTA area, you owe the tax. Either pay it, actually move away from the dense area that has provided you with great jobs and other living, or start an initiative to repeal it that isn't purposefully unconstitutional. You can't just buy a cabin in 2021 that you visit once every 7 weeks and suddenly call it your primary residence despite spending 95% of your time in a Seattle home while working downtown, and claim to be doing things 100% legally.
It works, I was able to apply for it and my status is "submitted." I have a couple coworkers that jumped on it the first day and actually already got a exemption letter that they've now forwarded on to HR at my job. Apparently you don't need to submit any documents so I'm not sure if this exemption is just a "we trust you" type of thing, or if they can see on some state back end insurance policies that residents have with agents authorized to write policies in WA...
I'm kinda hoping I'll have a chance to submit a document because I currently have two policies (one a pure LTC plan and the other a Universal Life with a rider). I really want the Universal Life to count but of course there is some wiggle room from the requirements WA listed and until I get a clear exemption I'm not sure the policy is valid or not. To me a policy with a death benefit, LTC coverage, and a cash value if I cancel it when I retire is WAY better than a pure LTC plan that wouldn't pay a penny to me if I never used LTC.
Also, while this has a clear exemption, what's stopping people from cancelling their personal plans in a year or two? That was more of what my comment was based on about suggesting the above poster probably wouldn't be paying into the LTC plan....
Similar threads
