Sales tax on car purchase

I am about to buy a car from Arizona and live in California but the dealer charged sales tax on the purchase order, is that right? I bought other cars from other states and never paid sales tax to the selling dealer. Anyone with knowledge from Arizona would be great. Thanks

 

 

I am about to buy a car from Arizona and live in California but the dealer charged sales tax on the purchase order, is that right? I bought other cars from other states and never paid sales tax to the selling dealer. Anyone with knowledge from Arizona would be great. Thanks

 

It's not an AZ issue, it's a CA issue. Here (CA) , even if you buy a car out of state, they are registering and delivering it to CA, so it's no different than if you bought it at the local dealer.

 

They only way to circumvent this would be to register it in a state that doesn't charge sales tax, and leave it registered there for 1yr before transferring the reg to CA.

 

Hell even Amazon charges sales tax for CA orders now, we've got a lot of gov't employees and welfare bills to pay!

It's right if the dealer is registering the car for you on CA plates.

lol emanon, so true.

Thanks Sprite. I was planning on driving it back to So.Cal. however now I'm thinking of airfare and my time away from work I think I will ship it instead.

When you buy a car out of state from a dealer, tax is applied by the DMV in CA if the car is transported to CA. You pay no taxes to the dealer out of state.

 

If you drive off the lot out of state, you do need to pay tax at the local rate. When you register the car in CA, you may be able to deduct the taxes already paid.

 

So, just have the car shipped to CA to avoid the hassle. If the dealer insist on taxes for the car shipped, he doesn't know what he is doing. I would walk away from the deal.

 

In general, I prefer to buy from third party or if you want a peace of mind, you can always have a local dealer broker the deal for you. Either way, good luck! Make sure the car has more than 7k miles though. If not, you will have problem getting it titled in CA.

Make sure the car has more than 7k miles though. If not, you will have problem getting it titled in CA.

 

Why is this?

 

Make sure it is a CA emissions car. The only time there was a car that wasn't CA emissions certified at a dealership I worked at in AZ, the car was sold to a CA resident and there was a lot of trouble afterwards...

 

Just curious, what are you picking up?

Why is this?

 

Beats me. It's what DMV says.

7 States collect tax for each other Cal and Az are 2 of those States. The dealer will send you or the bmv the tax money, by law they have to collect it. This is normal and fact.

 

Taxes suck. On used cars I know loopholes, but they are still a mess to get around.