GHammer
What a long strange trip its been.
Time to move to Oregon $86 for two years....wait, never mind, then you'd have to pay income tax.
I knew it was coming and hence did not vote for it. Way too long a project. Once the year rolls along you will here some more stories for sure. I did warn my friend who just bought a $50,000 car. He does have a brother living in Portland though!
melindav
☰ 2018
@willcasp how does that break down?
I'm in SW WA, but out of curiosity put the highest Model X option thru the DOLs estimator with a Bellevue address and only got $329 for the ST3 RTA. ($251 for a 2016 Model S 90D)
WA State Licensing (DOL) Official Site: Regional Transit Authority (RTA) tax (the 'new vehicle' link under the 'Use our online estimator' section)
I'm in SW WA, but out of curiosity put the highest Model X option thru the DOLs estimator with a Bellevue address and only got $329 for the ST3 RTA. ($251 for a 2016 Model S 90D)
WA State Licensing (DOL) Official Site: Regional Transit Authority (RTA) tax (the 'new vehicle' link under the 'Use our online estimator' section)
RobertSeattle
Member
Gives me an estimate of $241, but that doesn't seem right as it's approximately what the RTA tax was last year if I recall correctly.
It's a 2015 Model S 70D.
My zip code is split by the RTA boundary, but I'm inside.
melindav
☰ 2018
EarlyAdopter
Active Member
Eeks. I totally missed that this tax increase over triples the old amount. It's right there in the text:
WA State Licensing (DOL) Official Site: Regional Transit Authority (RTA) tax
"In 2016, voters in the Sound Transit district approved an additional tax of eight‑tenths of one percent (0.8%) for regional transit expansions, raising the rate to 1.1%. The increase applies to vehicles with tabs beginning or renewing on or after March 1, 2017."
An increase of 0.8% took it to 1.1%, which means it had been 0.3% before. From 0.3% to 1.1% is nearly 4X! Yikes!
WA State Licensing (DOL) Official Site: Regional Transit Authority (RTA) tax
"In 2016, voters in the Sound Transit district approved an additional tax of eight‑tenths of one percent (0.8%) for regional transit expansions, raising the rate to 1.1%. The increase applies to vehicles with tabs beginning or renewing on or after March 1, 2017."
An increase of 0.8% took it to 1.1%, which means it had been 0.3% before. From 0.3% to 1.1% is nearly 4X! Yikes!
Screwbal
Member
/rant This is such crap and I don't support the project with how its structured. Don't know where I'd start to offer support but anything I can find to back which will cut this off at the knees is going to be my new free time project.
EarlyAdopter
Active Member
Could be worse. This thread here mentions in VA their annual vehicle tax is over 4%!
And at least we clearly get something for our money.
And at least we clearly get something for our money.
whitex
Well-Known Member
Why do they tax people who own cars for a public transit project that they don't want or will ever use? They should just tax the public transportation more. At least they'll have money to throw multi-million dollar holiday parties for sound transit this year.
I will give them one thing, they know how to play on voters' ignorance and good will. When they voted in the EV tax, it was "only $10" , I predicted that was only to get the "foot in the door" and it would go up the following year, and it did, 10 times. It's 15x the original fee today. They did the same with this "less than 1%" tag increase, forgetting to clearly state that it's actually a 300%+ increase as compared to previous rate. They also do negative marketing when paying for tabs, billing you for optional fees like park fee by default, so that it's on you to have to remember to subtract it if you don't want to pay it.
Things like this is why I don't give to any government causes I don't absolutely have to, even when I think it's worth while cause - I voted no on principle to the EV tax even though I thought it was a fair way to recoup road taxes. Of course the proper solution would have been to tax all cars based on weight and mileage, then remove taxes from gasoline, but who are we kidding, when was the last time our government let go of a tax, any tax.
I will give them one thing, they know how to play on voters' ignorance and good will. When they voted in the EV tax, it was "only $10" , I predicted that was only to get the "foot in the door" and it would go up the following year, and it did, 10 times. It's 15x the original fee today. They did the same with this "less than 1%" tag increase, forgetting to clearly state that it's actually a 300%+ increase as compared to previous rate. They also do negative marketing when paying for tabs, billing you for optional fees like park fee by default, so that it's on you to have to remember to subtract it if you don't want to pay it.
Things like this is why I don't give to any government causes I don't absolutely have to, even when I think it's worth while cause - I voted no on principle to the EV tax even though I thought it was a fair way to recoup road taxes. Of course the proper solution would have been to tax all cars based on weight and mileage, then remove taxes from gasoline, but who are we kidding, when was the last time our government let go of a tax, any tax.
The breakdown is:
Electric Vehicle Registration Renewal $150.00
Registration License - Renewal $30.00
Vehicle Weight $45.00
Personalized License Plate $42.00
Registration Filing $3.00
Registration Service Fee $5.00
License Plate Technology $0.25
Department of Licensing Service $0.50
State Parks Donation $5.00
Law Enforcement Memorial $30.00
RTA Excise Tax $1,144.00
$73 is my custom license memorial plate. The depreciation schedule is also a bit optimistic! WA State Licensing (DOL) Official Site:RTA MVET depreciation schedule
Black Book pricing is WAY off this depreciation schedule.
whitex
Well-Known Member
No kidding. I wonder if I could use this depreciation schedule to use my car as a tax payment. "Here, the car is all yours, please deduct 89% of the MSRP from my tax liabilities, then send me a check for any overpayments".
What really pisses me off is the depreciation schedule they use to calculate the ST3 tax. AND the tax is supposed to be based off the MSRP of the car, but when I bought my X I don't think they had an MSRP, so they based it off the actual purchase price which includes options (which is 17% more than the MSRP). When I checked for this year it looks like they are taxing me based on 95% of my purchase price. So I'm getting screwed twice 1) because my tax base is higher than what it should be 2) because of the ridiculous depreciation schedule.
Maybe there's some history here that I don't know about. Depreciation schedule is here:
WA State Licensing (DOL) Official Site:RTA MVET depreciation schedule
I could live with it if they were basing it off of the base MSRP, but that's not what they're doing.
Maybe there's some history here that I don't know about. Depreciation schedule is here:
WA State Licensing (DOL) Official Site:RTA MVET depreciation schedule
I could live with it if they were basing it off of the base MSRP, but that's not what they're doing.
Grab a coffee and a pastry, and browse the comments here: Washington drivers hit with car-tab sticker shock
Entertainment ++
Entertainment ++
I just tried that, but the total for my 2015 70D is $1121.75
So apparently it's up to date. :-(
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