I think this is a potentially simple (ie. dumb) question but I haven’t been able to find a definitive answer and I figured someone may be able to point me in the right direction. I am moving from NY/CT area to Michigan and have the ability to lease the car from either of the 3 locations.
Is there a material difference in leasing costs between NYC and Michigan? I believe the tax upfront is the main impediment but would it be a bad choice to lease in NY? Are their other considerations that go into the cost differentials (either positive or negative) or should I expect roughly the same cost / MSRP / discounts?
It appears as though inventory is a bit tough to come by (an understatement).
No, you shouldn’t expect anywhere near the difference in discount in MI vs tri state area, especially currently.
The taxes are irrelevant. You are taxed based on your garaging address. You only have one drivers license so that is the address, until you officially change your residency and notify BMWFS. At that point your taxes will change according to the locality. You can’t just pay tax in whatever state you want to pay tax in (unless you have an LLC etc…).
Michigan may take into account the up front NY taxes paid and not charge additional sales tax. They did it on my VA lease transfer. Or not and you may pay another 6% on top of what you already pay…you will have to contact SOS to find out.
Best bet overall is to just not lease an X7 until the market normalizes. That cost savings will be far greater than the taxes.
Thank you. And agree with you on the conclusion but I may be forced into it. Curious what the discount differential is driven off of? Is it just as simple as more supply in the area?
Which makes the taxes quite relevant, doesn’t it? Depending on the payment, we are talking about potentially ~$4,000 in NY tax paid (more if it’s capitalized) … with no benefit to paying it if MI charges the OP again.
I’d look into waiting to lease it until you’re an MI resident for tax purposes. That way you are sure of being taxed only once.
Pick a dealer in NY/NJ/PA or IN/OH/Chicago if necessary but do it as a MI resident.
My point was that he cannot choose which tax to pay like he implied in the OP…and either way the tax will pale in comparison to the cost of leasing now versus when supply catches up.
But if he is ‘forced’ into leasing an X7 it’ll just be another thread we are piling onto later on.
Michigan does not have the amount of BMW dealers that the NY/CT area has. There are probably 10 to 12 BMW dealers in the entire state and several of them are part of the same dealer family (ie. Erhard BMW). Michigan, particularly the Detroit area, does not have a lot of import dealers and because of how few of them there you are less likely to get a decent price. They don’t carry as large of inventories either.
I got my Infiniti from CT because the Michigan dealers would not even come close to the price i got. I tried hacking a xc90 in Michigan and dealers were saying the same thing because there are like 5 Volvo dealers in the state.
One thing to add - I was able to get VPP because Infiniti offers it to all MI resident in order to compete with all the big 3 employees who get employee pricing. Not sure if BMW does the same thing in MI or not.
Hi OP did you figure out the tax implications? If you lease the car in a state which requires the tax upfront but then you move to a different state, will you be double taxed?
Thanks for the response. One more question, if I takeover a lease from NJ that already has the upfront tax paid, does that mean I won’t be double taxed? This is because the previous owner had paid all the sales tax for the whole terms and the monthly payment should not include any tax. In that case, when I takeover the lease, I only need to pay the tax based on the monthly payment. Thus I will be taxed once, not twice. Is that correct? Thanks.
I’m a NJ resident for now. But I’m about to move from NJ to MI and I’m about to lease a car at the same time. I have done some research on this but unfortunately I did not find out a decisive answer.
It looks like I have three options:
Lease a car in NJ. The Downside is I may get double taxation(not sure if I can do one pay to avoid the tax on later payments). The Benefits are I should be able to get a better discount(more dealers & brokers) and I should be able get the car sooner since after moving to MI I have to transfer my out of state driver license first before leasing a car, which should at least take 45 days.
Lease a car in MI. The downside is due to less dealers & brokers, it’s more difficult to find a fair deal. The benefits are I don’t have to worry about tax.
Takeover a lease in NJ and hopefully the tax has been paid upfront and monthly payment does not include any NJ tax. In that case I only need to pay tax once on the monthly payment when I move to MI
