good luck fighting the ga dept of revenue GA drivers license ... check GA resident ... check GA named insured ... check car been on the state for XX days ... check you do not want to show up at the GA DMV with a montana title ... i've seen the internal memo
I paid $7k in tax to registered my 01 Spider, then filled out the dispute form. Submit pictures and inspections from dealer, along with dealer’s bill of sale. Got the tax lowered to about $4k and a refund check. Took about a month.
Wow! And I thought things were bad here in the People’s Republic of California. I would have never believed this without reading all of the responses in this thread. Since I like to buy used high end cars at relatively low prices against original MSRP I cannot imagine how much tax I would have to pay in Georgia.
well this is really a disrepancy... it is suppose to be book value or NADA... and not MSRP. it does screw you if you manage to get a car at a discount to that but then you only pay $20 a year after that. CA charge you $20 a year ?
Good point! You have restored my “faith” in the People’s Republic. I only pay 45 times that amount in annual registration fees on my Ferrari!
Just a follow up. I went to the tax collector and showed them the sales contract that I hadn't sent back to the dealer ( out of state). The clerk looked up the tax and it was about $6k. A week later I went back to double check and they told me it was $10,500. I told them I came the week before and they asked me who I talked to. I didn't have the name but I had the ticket you get at entry and date and window I went to but they said they couldn't look up that person that helped me. The clerk that helped me then got another person named Kenny who went back and forth with the supervisor and came back with a print out that had the car valued at $150K with a tax of $10,500, But he hand wrote "$6,045 estimated" on the print out and said it would be approximately this amount which is about what the clerk the first time told me. I finish the purchase and go back to register the car and they tell me it's $10,500. I asked to speak with Kenny and he tells me it's the higher amount. I pointed out what he wrote on the print out and he said that was an estimate. I said I understand it wasn't an exact amount but almost double the amount? That's not even close. We went around and around and he got short with me and basically said I need to pay the $10,500 or not register the car or sell it and shoved the paperwork back to me. This is a total rip off. I paid just a bit over half of what they told me the car was worth. I had my Ipad and showed them all the for sale listings which backed up my price paid but they weren't having any of it.
I don’t really have an issue with them charging a fee in lieu of a tax like other states, it’s have they determine the value. A car with a wrecked front end that would normally be worth 30k will be valued the same as a none wrecked car. Then they used nada which is a privately owned for profit company to value the cars. Even on the nada site on the page where they say the value is 150k they have links to shop for the car which goes to autotrader which shows a lot of cars under the 100k mark.
That is ridiculous! I haven't tried to register something as new as an F430 in GA, but their "calculator" valued my '95 355 at $31k and I paid tax based on that (about $2k), even though on the bill of sale it clearly stated that I paid a good bit more than $31k. For my '76 308, I had to go around and around with them for a while since it has a 5 digit serial number instead of an actual VIN, but they didn't have that car in their "calculator/system" so they just charged me 1% of the amount on the bill of sale. Hopefully this gets changed in the near future. It is a total rip off!
what really ticked me off was the attitude the clerk had. He told me it wouldn't be exactly 6045, but an estimate. Okay a few hundred here or there I get. But to be off by 75% is preposterous. Now that I wasn't asking but was there to actually pay they changed the amount and he denied and backpedaled. I wish there was a camera to record what is being said to avoid lies and hold the employees accountable.
This really isn’t a typical situation...now I say I got screwed because when I moved back to GA I took 4 cars with me and had to pay the 7% AGAIN after paying sales tax to another state.... but the alternative was paying WAY more for a similar house in TN so I just ponied up the cash. Only paid $2500 in tax when I got my 360 so I guess it all evened out. Every state except Montana will have sales or property tax when you buy a car.
Just a follow up, I registered the car to day and it was $6K, different clerk. He based it off the dealer's bill of sale. So the first two times I went in to check I brought in a price and VIN number and was told $6K. The third time I went to pay I was told by the same clerk who told me $6K the week before that it was $10.5K. I didn't pay it as I only brought $6K with me. I went back a few day later, got a different clerk and he told me $6K which I paid. The problem is the inconsistancy and lack of knowledge at the tax authority. The moral of the story is if they try to use the NADA guide that says the value is 150K when you actually paid a lot less, you can try going back multiple times to different clerks.
Glad it sort of worked out. $6k is still a lot of cash to register a used car that some other state already collected at least 6% of the original sales price on. Taxes are a weird thing, as the government is insatiable on income.
It is It sure is, but once they told me $6k and not $10.5K I couldn't pay them fast enough and run back out with my plate. At least there's not a usage tax every year.