4 Answers

• Reputation: 2677 Q&A: 45 2 29 1206 139 18 Classifieds: 0 0 what's this? Follow Following 2

  10 0 You're asking two questions here: 1) Does the loophole still exist? YES, vehicles that are gifted are exempt from the use tax. http://www.dol.wa.gov/vehicleregistration/usetax.html 2) Is it still technically legal? HELL NO, and it NEVER WAS. If you lie to the state and say a vehicle you sold was a gift you are committing fraud and tax evasion. This is REALLY, REALLY ILLEGAL. Just pay the tax. soundslikepuget answered in Cars & Motorcycles 7 months ago | Report 5 comments by RacerX, asteria, and soundslikepuget… 0 4 yeah and I'm sure every time you have a yard sale you send in a portion to the state, too, right? - And all the lemonade stands in your neighborhood have health cards and restaurant inspections, too, right? sigh. I mean to say - sometimes people make their own rules, and not everyone agrees. a germaphobe thinks lemonade stands are disgusting. a taxophobe thinks of use taxes the same way? and Not my tax to pay, it's the buyers'. *I* already paid my tax bill when I bought the car outright new. I guess the followup question must be 'how does the state define "gift"'. And more legitimately- what about barters? I'd really like to trade my car for a boat, no money changing hands. Would you call it a legal gift then? RacerX commented 7 months ago | Report 4 0 People who have yard sales are exempt from collecting sales tax: http://apps.leg.wa.gov/rcw/default.aspx?cite=82.08.0251 You only need to collect sales tax if you are doing it as a business. But people who buy things from Craigslist or online and don't pay sales tax are supposed to pay the use tax: http://dor.wa.gov asteria commented 7 months ago | Report 0 0 RacerX NO. Just NO. Stop. Now. The State defines a "Gift" as a GIFT, no money or bartered object changing hands. If you trade it for a boat, the State will calculate the fair market value of the boat as the sale price of the car and tax accordingly. My dad once gave my cousin an old Chevy for Christmas. That was a GIFT and was exempt. That's what the rule is there for. The schemes you keep proposing are not gifts, they're tax evasion, and that is a crime C-R-I-M-E. Asteria - FOR. THE. WIN. soundslikepuget commented 7 months ago | Report 0 0 Haha ok, gift's duly defined. I still maintain it's still a losing proposition for the state to tax these casual/isolated sales. And more gov than I care for, even as a leftist. And is that correct about fair value estimates on barters? I can't seem to find anything on the DOL site about them. RacerX commented 7 months ago | Report 0 0 Anything you barter, including services, is assessed at fair market value. If you receive more in value than you gave, you owe tax on the difference. The difference could also be considered income for federal tax purposes if the barter is related to your business. See page 3 on this pdf: http://dor.wa.gov/docs/pubs/excisetax/retailsales_usetax/usetax.pdf Since you have to license a car or boat with the state, it doesn't cost them anything significant to collect the use tax. asteria commented 7 months ago | Report Enter your comment or ask a new question preview THIS IS A PREVIEW: Click "Post" to submit it or "Edit" to make changes. edit Please wait… This could take a minute if the tubes are clogged.

  Share this answer with a friend:

• Reputation: 6000 Q&A: 113 0 11 4226 721 3 Classifieds: 0 0 what's this? Follow Following 6

  7 1 If you do this, I hope you get busted. Fnarf answered in Cars & Motorcycles 7 months ago | Report 3 comments by RacerX, Matt from Denver, and RacerX… 0 2 dang, man. Just a question. Honestly, I thought this was ok behavior - of course I also thought everyone hated doubledip taxes and liked to drive fast and thinks sex is good shit, but wth do i know -- of course, this is what I get for growing up in a crime family. RacerX commented 7 months ago | Report 1 0 Do you feel like paying sales tax on a used book, CD, item of clothing at the thrift store, etc., is also double dipping? I've done this myself (with cars, here in Colorado), so I'm not coming at this with the same scolding tone as the others who have answered this question. But then again, that was within the family, where we really do gift cars to one another in a sense, by selling cars for significantly less than their value. I doubt I'd do this if I were dealing with some seller I'd found on Craigslist. Matt from Denver commented 7 months ago | Report 0 0 Well, it's not CL, but a friend of a friend. I think retailers selling items should charge sales tax, after all they are in the Business of Selling, and we as a people of a state have defined taxing sales as a revenue source for a number of legit balanced reasons. Whereas I think my once every 15 years private car 'sale' isn't going to be the cause of the state's budget woes, and in many ways is just a very expensive yard sale item. Heck, it's literally in my yard right now. Swap meets aren't taxed. Lemonade stands aren't taxed. There's plenty of things we each cherrypick as 'okay' bending of the law, but I guess I really hit a nerve with some folks here. Is it just the Seattle Car Hate -- or something else? The distinction that gas powered, complete cars are subject to use tax, and naturalgas powered or vanpool vehicles are not subject to it is also interesting to me. Legislators have even cherrypicked. And yeah, within-family car and boat sales were ALWAYS gifted in my family too - I hear that. RacerX commented 7 months ago | Report Enter your comment or ask a new question preview THIS IS A PREVIEW: Click "Post" to submit it or "Edit" to make changes. edit Please wait… This could take a minute if the tubes are clogged.

  Share this answer with a friend:

• Reputation: 1226 Q&A: 24 0 21 316 15 5 Classifieds: 0 0 what's this? Follow Following 0 rickibot

  5 0 Ditto soundslikepuget. As an aside, I bought a truck last year from a private seller, and while transferring the title at the DOL branch, their computer system had a problem with the amount I was paying for the vehicle. The guy sold me the truck for $4500 less than what the DOL's system thought the vehicle was worth. The sale was totally legit; the guy just wanted to get rid of an extra vehicle quickly. However, we had to invent all of these reasons on the form (with the help of the DOL branch manager) to get the system to accept the price in order for me to pay tax on the actual sale price. We ended up writing that the truck needed paint, new tires and some body work. It needed none of these things, but the manager pointed out that the DOL system will accept price reductions like that. I think it helped that we were obviously not trying to scam anyone (meaning I was still paying a goodly amount in taxes), and that the truck in question was parked outside the door of the DOL branch in full view of the manager who was helping us. I doubt he would have been so helpful had I been trying to buy that truck for $50. rickibot answered in Cars & Motorcycles 7 months ago | Report 1 comment by RacerX… 1 1 Sounds like good common sense at least attempted to prevail. good for that DOL employee. Also sounds like the system has changed now to flag "undervalue" sale prices like my 50 bucks example -- which it never did before. thumbs up for useful info RacerX commented 7 months ago | Report Enter your comment or ask a new question preview THIS IS A PREVIEW: Click "Post" to submit it or "Edit" to make changes. edit Please wait… This could take a minute if the tubes are clogged.

  Share this answer with a friend:

• Reputation: 1421 Q&A: 44 0 4 469 28 4 Classifieds: 0 0 what's this? Follow Following 0

  3 0 Obviously this was never legal, and you know it. You just wanted to see if you could get away with it or if the state had put safeguards in place to prevent this. If you're not paying the tax yourself - since the buyer will pay it - why do you care? Why are you so pissy when people give you the facts? Also: taxophobe? Bullshit. Nobody likes paying taxes but we sure complain when the roads don't get fixed. You can't have it both ways. asteria answered in Cars & Motorcycles 7 months ago | Report 2 comments by RacerX and asteria… 0 2 Ok, you ask me to be real but you gotta do it too -- My once every 15 years private car sale isn't keeping any roads from being re-paved -- Please. With the gas I pay extra for, I've more than covered my share of the few roads I use with a car. I care because I actually do think it should be legal-- again, so long as youre not a curbstoner. I think the intent of the 'casual and isolated sales' law, before it got muddled by a hundred umpteen exemptions, may have been that trying to impose tax on rare sales like these aren't profitable nor realistic for a government to supervise and enforce. See also my answer to Matt: I'm happy to pay sales tax at a place of business where the intent is to make sales daily. But person to person bartering? Really? Like the once a year 'coat swap' at my kids' schools? Should those should be taxed too? I guess everyone's got a different line drawn in the sand. Some people ignore speed limits on freeways, some people scoff at washing their hands at kitchen jobs, some people think not a dollar should go untaxed. I can accept the differences tho still be amazed. RacerX commented 7 months ago | Report 2 0 Cars do a lot of damage to roads - it's just inevitable. Gas taxes do not cover all the costs of maintaining roads, let alone pay for any major upgrades or new construction. http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/Finance/budget/BudgetPieCharts.htm The state relies on taxing private vehicle sales to help pay some of these expenses. If you really only want to pay "your share" of using the road system then maybe you should advocate for switching to a completely toll-based roadway, charged per tenth of a mile. I don't think you would like the result. Private car sales and coat swaps are totally different, and most people can see that. Nobody has suggested that you pay taxes for that, but if it makes you feel better to keep pushing false analogies, go ahead. asteria commented 7 months ago | Report Enter your comment or ask a new question preview THIS IS A PREVIEW: Click "Post" to submit it or "Edit" to make changes. edit Please wait… This could take a minute if the tubes are clogged.

  Share this answer with a friend: