TAVT in Georgia

Most people bite the bullet and just pay the TAVT. If you trade cars a a dealer you only pay TAVT on the difference, so changing cars can be minimally expensive. If you do a private sale you pay TAVT on the states estimate of value, not what you actually paid. It is almost always well above market. Seems like a ripoff, I know I won't be buying any exotics as long as I am a resident of Georgia.

 

the TVAT was a payoff to dealers - plain and simple

if you swap cars you need to find a dealer as the dealer slippage is < TAVT costs

 

Someone should call Channel 2 to investigate that. Their morning commercial is how they "helped" GA get millions in tax revenue... "we were there when mansions were raided..." c'mon, really?

sjd

 

The only good aspect of this tax is that you only pay it once. Ever year thereafter you just pay a nominal yearly fee for the renewal sticker. It’s an absolute money grab.

 

thats correct. the guy that buys a car and drives it into the ground makes out.

did they ever adjust the TAVT for leasing ?

 

I just paid my dues, having bought my first exotic this month. Seeing as it was a 20-year-old 360, the GA valuation was about half what I paid for the car, so in one twisted sense I made out like a bandit. Now all I have to do is keep the car 10+ years to amortize that up front hit...

 

I thought that the tax was based on the purchase price. I guess that could work in reverse if the value has gone up.

 

That's what I thought, originally, as well. But it's based on a depreciation schedule maintained by the state. It's really arbitrary from a consumer standpoint - if they value the car more than what you paid, then you lose. If it's valued less, you win. They valued my car at something like $29k, so I won.

 

On special cars like ours Georgia uses the nada guide which is completely wrong. Georgia tried to charge me based on a value of 150k which is nearly double what I paid for the car. In the end I went multiple times and got a clerk that charged me based on the dealer sales contract and not the nada. One of times a clerk I got twice before told me two prices. The first time 6k then the second time 10.5k. The second time he just flat out lied to me.

 

Did you have the VIN at the time? I found with the online estimator, if you put in the VIN, it comes back with the correct amount, but if you just put in "1997 Ferrari 355" it bases it off the MSRP (at least I think it's MSRP).

 

Yes I did. If you look at NADA it says the avg f430 is 155K. Yet if you go and look for used ones you can easily find 30+ under 100K. I think NADA is averaging scuds and 16m's and gated cars which would skew the average up quite a bit. That is an error on their part as those are not the same as a f1 430

 

I will add that the clerk printed out a paper with the vin and the value that I just mentioned, but then hand wrote that it was $6k, not the 10.5K printed out on the sheet. He asked a supervisor then hand wrote the $6K amount as the amount I would pay which was what it would be for the real market price and price I actually paid on my sales contract. When I went back he said it was 10.5K and he remembered writing it down. He started backpedaling and told me the 6k was an approximate amount which I replied how can an amount be so far off? He started saying I brought in different paperwork which I did not. The he aske who els told me 6K before him and I didn't have the name, but I had the exact time ticket you get when you go in and I described the person, the time and date, the window she worked in. He said he can't find out who that is which I believe is a lie since they have cameras as well as tracking transactions and services each day.

 

Do you need to pay the amount at the DMV in order to receive the tag? Or do they send a bill in the mail?

 

Got to pay to play. No money, no tag.