Currently living in GA with a lease expiring in a couple months. Moving to Texas shortly and debating about turning in the car now and starting a new lease before moving vs doing that after moving.
In GA, we’re back to only paying tax on monthly payments, whereas from my understanding in Texas you’re paying tax on the whole car regardless of it being a lease.
What I’m not sure of though is if I do start a new lease in GA then move and register in TX would they make me pay the balance of the tax amount?
Using made up numbers, if I lease a car here and my payments are $400/mo, that’s $28/mo tax x 36 for a total of $1k, MSRP bring $30k for conversations sake. Tax rate here is 7%.
7% on $30k would be $2100. So, ultimately would Texas make me pay the additional $1,100 to register?
There’s a rule for new residents where you can register cars for the first time in TX for a flat fee. I think it’s something like $59 per vehicle. Look it up on the state DMV website for Texas vehicle registration. I’d do the deal in GA before you move here imo.
New residents – $90 new resident tax due in lieu of use tax on a vehicle brought into Texas by a new resident, if the vehicle was previously registered in the new resident’s name in another state or foreign country.
A lot of times those extra tax balances are dependent upon how long you’ve owned the car out of state. I know it was this way in Washington State, and there was an interesting loophole for making a purchase in CA, then skirting around their taxes by mailing in the request form to have your tax refunded since you could remove it from the state in under 30 days and not owe the CAN tax.
I’m guessing there’s a statute of limitations for Texas too…
Edit I think I misread and it’s just the $90, INSTEAD of paying the tax balance. Not both.
from another site I found:
“As a new resident, you also will pay sales tax-related fees required by the state’s Comptroller of Public Accounts. Sales tax fees on a vehicle can be $90 or the difference between your previous state’s sales tax and the Texas sales tax.”
Yeah there’ not an explicit statement on how long since the purchase happen before to be able to qualify for the $90 or vice versa. The link I had is from the Comptroller’s official website but it doesn’t provide any description over there either. Probably need to consult with a tax professional or just call the comptroller just to make sure.
I leased a new car 1 month before moving. From memory, there is no minimum time limit, or it’s extremely short, like 30 days. Meaning you have 30 days AFTER you arrive to have it count. After that 30 days, you’re paying 6.25% like the rest of us.
Search Texas Comptroller Motor Vehicle Guide. I think it is page II-6 for the version from 2011.
We have tax credits as well, that can be used when you lease a new vehicle, usually depending on the bank that could be 1% or 1.25%. If you can do that, I think it would make much more sense just to lease it here once your other lease is up.
Appreciate the link, seems like the $90 is the way to go.
As far as what cars, well that’s the tough part. My current car is an automatic, and I really want to get back into a manual. More specifically some kind of sports car. Unfortunately, pickings are slim for those.
M2s don’t lease well, M4 inventory is fairly scarce, and Porsches don’t lease well. Which really only leaves the Camaro, Challenger, or Mustang, none of which really tug on the heart strings.
