On Tue, 15 Jun 2004 13:44:48 -0400, Jeff Wisnia wrote:
Gary Coffman wrote:

snipped

Yep, they operate at arm's length so the mailorder part won't be subject
to every state and local sales tax where they have a retail presence. The
state and local tax folks are squalling about this, but so far I've been able
to avoid the 6% sales tax by ordering from the catalog instead of driving
3 miles down the road and buying at HF's storefront.

I'm not being critical, and definitely not holier than thou Gary, but it
would suprise me if the state you live in doesn't have a law on the
books saying it's *your* responsibility to "fess up" and pay the
equivalent sales tax to your state yourself.

To the best of my knowledge, Georgia doesn't have such a law.
But I am aware that several other states do.

Ohio is the one that gets me, they insist on trying to collect sales
tax for all private sales among private parties. At least Georgia
doesn't try to tax private sales (they tried a few years ago specifically
for used cars, but there was such an uproar they promptly repealed
that tax law, no one was paying it anyway).

Kentucky is sneakier. They don't tax at the point of sale of a car,
new or used, they get you when you go to first register it in your
name. They charge sales tax on the Blue Book value of the car,
whether you paid that much or not. Argh!

But some Kentuckian's are even sneakier, they register the car
in another state first, then *transfer* title, already in their name,
to Kentucky, thus avoiding the sales tax (though they do get hit
with a $15 Sheriff's "inspection fee" when "importing" an out of
state vehicle). To do that, they have the dealer "deliver" the car
to another state (often the buyer will offer to do the delivery for
a nominal fee, a dollar, which they build into the price).

Or they just neglect to transfer the title into their name at all
(for beaters), and avoid the tax that way too.

The latter is flatly illegal, and can get you in trouble for other
reasons than trying to dodge the tax. The former skates thinly
along the letter of the tax law, and is technically legal if the
*other* state doesn't have a law against it. (Most don't, because
they want the registration fee.)

I have dual residency, so I've had to keep track of this sort
of thing. For example, I bought a truck in Kentucky (no sales
tax at point of sale), had it (self) delivered to Georgia where I
registered it (no sales tax because I didn't buy it here, and
no Georgia real property tax since it was a first registration),
then immediately transferred it back to Kentucky ($15 Sheriff's
inspection fee), again no sales tax, and no Georgia real
property tax in following years either. This is all within the
letter of the law for both states.

Note that I had to do all this in less than 30 days, or I'd have
lost insurance coverage, and that's illegal in both states.
Insurance for someone with dual residency can be a nightmare
anyway.

It can also get interesting dealing with cops when you have a
driver's license from one state, and insurance and registration
from another. I always carry the necessary papers (including
copies of the relevant statutes) so I can show I'm in compliance
with the laws of both states. Hassle? Sure, but it is worth it to
save several thousand dollars in tax.

Note, people with dual residency *used* to be able to get two
driver's licenses, one from each state. But that was made against
federal law a few years back. Having matching licenses, insurance,
and registrations made dealing with cops easier, and we can't
have that.

Frankly, I'd sort of like to see us do away with state issued driver's
licenses and state vehicle registrations. Just do it all at the federal
level. That'd make things a lot easier for people like me. It probably
wouldn't provide any wiggle room for legally dodging state and local
automobile related taxes. But OTOH it would make it lots harder for
states and localities to prove that you owed them any tax. :-)

Gary