Car purchase Non US Resident

You can buy a car here, but if you are a resident you would need to register the car in your name and pay sales tax on it (unless you have a California car dealer's license). If you buy from a dealer, they do all of this for you. If buying from a private seller, you typically need to take care of the paperwork with the Department of Motor Vehicles.

 

Not 100% sure with California. I know three states. I have cars in Washington State, my parents have had cars in Nevada and Arizona. But we have addresses in those places. Believe all you need is a address to register them in the state.

Most countries are signors of a road treaty (forget its name), this allows you to use a foreign drivers license for up to a year in the U.S. So most DMV's wont make you get a state license to register a car.

 

If you buy from a private party then the car will be registered until the tags expire, which would be up to a year. Registration in say Oregon is 4 years on a new vehicle.

 

California would consider that tax evasion and you can get into trouble for that. Even more so if he also has a foreign drivers license. Could be a huge mess driving on someone else's registration.

 

you can also bring your car from Europe and use it here as well. I'm not sure for how long. At any rate, the cars are cheaper in the USA anyway and now they are the same as the Euro cars.

 

Tax evasion? The car would be currently registered and the previous owner would send in a release of liability getting their name off. The car would need to be retitled within 30 days or you would pay a late penalty, if you plan to keep it here and set up residency. If the tags are up to date the risk you would run is getting pulled over for some other reason and the cops sniffing around on ownership. They'd probably impound the car until things were sorted out forcing you to pay up or prove that you are a foreign national and plan to export the car or sell it out of State etc.

 

And this is Winter for us!

 

Also applies if you buy from a dealer.

If the OP has an address in California, he should just register the car here.

 

A dealer is going to collect sales tax at time of purchase, a private party it's up to you to go to the DMV change title and pay sales tax.

 

Yes, but you were talking about registration. If the registration doesn't expire for another, say, 8 months, it's not due. The dealer won't collect it and you don't have to pay the DMV.

Sales tax... yes, dealer will collect it at the time of sale. Private transaction, you go to the DMV and pay.

 

God bless that place.

 

The private seller has 5days to report the sale of the vehicle. The buyer must transfer to their name within 10 days. If the seller reports the sale and you are found driving the car, you'll pay penalties for not registering it.

A treaty exists for international traffic. A non-resident can import a car for personnel use, it can only stay for one year. It doesn't need to conform to U.S safety or emission requirements. No EPA or DOT required. Just needs to leave when the year is up. So you can't sell it in the U.S.

 

You've got 30 days to report it without penalty. Mr. DMV here wants you to think it's only 5.