This is a new thing I don't quite understand. Quick question; if I buy/trade a car and I get a paper title(wa has paper titles right? Not electronic) with the car. Would I have to pay use tax? How exactly does this work?

 

I'd look it up on the Washington State Department of Revenue website. Google is also your friend. But to my knowledge you pay sales tax on the car, the gas you put in it, the insurance you cover it with, and the **** you install on it.

There is such a thing as a luxury tax here, but don't think these cars qualify.

 

WA you just pay registration and sales tax

and yes, we have paper titles

 

You pay sales tax on a private party deal?

I googled and the wa state website isn't terribly discriptive about stuff like this.

Thanks for the replies though!

 

Yeah you have to pay tax, even on used private party. WA state pulls in tons of revenue by taxing the car's value each time it changes hands. However most private sellers I've seen cheat the system and put in false sales information.

I just looked into this for buying a new DD, looks like there's no (legal) way around the damn use tax.

 

correct. the only way you could avoid something is writing a lesser value on the bill of sale. this is entirely up to the seller, as if they are currently going through something like buying a house where they have people checking their estates and such, they will wonder where a random, undocumented $8k came from (say you knock $8k off the price of a $30k car on the bill of sale)

they won't let you pay the lower tax on the car if the bill of sale is a ridiculous value for the car (like a $1k evo), it has to be something provable by kbb / edmunds valuations

 

WA Use Tax

 

Man that sucks! Makes buying a car that much more expensive.

Works exactly as I thought it did just wanted to make sure. Simple of course but wasnt sure if there was a loop hole for private party sales.

 

It says they use a use tax but when i titled my car they just went by what the sale price of the car is. I expect they do this 99% of the time unless the sale price is rediculously low.