10 years ago, my wife and I purchased a second home in Mooresville, NC…just north of Charlotte. I typically keep 1 car down there and will be picking up a Volvo S90 next week in NC.
Highway use tax (NC’s sales tax on cars) is 3%. Not as good as being in one of the “no sales tax” states but a lot better than my home state of NJ. Plus registration and insurance are considerably cheaper than most states.
You will have to pay Personal Property Tax (PPT) which is paid and based on the book value of the car at its annual registration renewal date. The PPT rates will vary by county. Our town (Mooresville) is in Iredell county which is among the least expensive counties to register a car. Ten minutes south of us is Mecklenburg County (Charlotte) with some of the highest rates in the state.
I used the NC online tax calculator (see https://edmv.ncdot.gov/TaxEstimator ) and plugged in a 2017 Audi S8 (a car on my “bucket list”). The tax came back at $226.27 for the current year. Plugged in the VIN for a 2017 A8 (considerably cheaper car) and the PPT was exactly the same despite the $20-35k price difference. The tax on my 2018 Volvo shows to be $200 for the first year.
I pay $58 a year to register my cars. Doesn’t matter if they’re brand new or 10 years old, doesn’t matter if they are worth $100 or $100,000. $58/year.
I leased a Tesla starting Dec 2022. It was registered in SC.
I just moved to NC and want to title the car here. I went to the DMV and was charged 3% tax on the purchase price ($66,000), plus other fees, so around $2500 total.
Is this correct? I did not think I would have to pay that much since I did not purchase the vehicle outright. Should the 3% be just on the lease payment?
I also saw a provision that for cars purchased > 6 months ago in another state, the maximum amount paid is $250.
Hey there! Seems like you’ve done a lot of homework on this. NC definitely has its quirks when it comes to car taxes and fees. By the way, since you mentioned you’re picking up the car in NC, if you ever want to do a quick vet on the previous owner or dealer (if it’s used), I’ve personally found https://northcarolina.recordspage.org quite handy. It’s always good to know a bit more, especially when it comes to such a big purchase. Safe driving with that Volvo S90!
Bringing car into NC under 90 days:
3% highway use tax is due but you can receive credit for out of state purchases with receipt
Bringing car into NC over 90 days:
3% highway use tax that is capped at $250
Either case:
Property tax is due within 60 days of getting a new plate in NC. After that with every renewal you will pay property tax, and NC automatically depreciates your vehicle.
I believe leased cars charge property tax to the manufacturer who almost certainly will bill your account for that tax.
Two things:
If you are going to buy a new car, try to time it so you can renew your plates on the old car and you skip property tax on the new car until the next renewal.
If you have two cars and one is really expensive and one is not, and you don’t care about the plates, you can swap the cheaper car to the expensive car and return the expensive car’s plate and get a refund on property tax.
Also NC charges $140.25 for EV’s at annual renewal to offset loss of gas taxes.
In NC for a leased vehicle the highway use (sales tax) is 3% of your monthly payment. You should not have paid 3% highway use tax on the selling price.
But in order for the state to not require the highway use tax paid upfront when you register the vehicle you need to submit the form MVR-608. This basically says that the bank is going to pay the highway use tax directly to the state as a portion of your payment.
Below is the NC DMV page on leased vehicles including links to all the forms.
That is for sure the case when you lease the car new in NC.
However when you lease it in another state then move to NC some time later, as is the case here, the original out of state dealer of course did not have any NC tax or DMV forms included in the original paperwork.
OP needs to contact Tesla to start the proceedings, they should be able to complete any required forms to properly get the car registered in NC.
Tell them you are moving to a different state and the new state has a different tax rate that is now levied on the lease monthly payment amount. As part of registering your car in the new state a form is required that shows that the bank/lessor is paying the tax directly to the state.
If at all possible speak to someone on the phone at Tesla Finance, once you get the right person it should be relatively straightforward, as you’re not the first person to move states with a Tesla lease.
Did you ever get this sorted with Tesla Finance? I’m having the same issue moving from FL to NC. Went to the DMV and they told me I’m missing a form MVR-608, which was not included in the packet that Tesla sent me.
