It’s certainly considered a buyout, but it very well may not be considered a transaction occurring at lease termination. A lease typically has two separate early ending clauses, an “early buyout”, which is what you’d be doing, and an “early termination”, which you would not be. That suggests there is a distinct difference there.
With all that said, you very well may be correct that tax isn’t supposed to be due, so be sure you include in the cost of your Prius the legal fees of suing the state.
Thanks for that distinction. I would call Toyota Finance to do the immediate payoff so would presume they have proper workflows for dealing with taxes, unlike individuals or even many dealers.
Just for reference, here are some links where the immediate payoff has apparently worked out for people in similar circumstances:
https://www.reddit.com/r/rav4prime/comments/15w0imi/explain_leases_like_im_a_moron/
https://www.reddit.com/r/Ioniq5/comments/12nb20a/leasing_101_or_how_to_get_a_good_deal_on_an_ioniq/
https://www.reddit.com/r/rav4primesales/comments/159oj5v/6500_lease_incentive_and_buyout/
Every buyout gets the buyout with the tax info provided by the bank. There are no “individuals” processing them. Even in the cases where a dealer does it, they’re still getting all the info from the bank.
Your first link looks like someone in WA. Are there specific examples in there of Texas deals? I’m not going search through all the comments for anecdotes.
Yes, not all the examples are from Texas but some are.
So the bank in your example is Toyota Finance right? Are you concerned that TFS doesn’t have correct info? Just trying to understand your concerns.
You have to pay sales tax twice so don’t do that.
My suggestion is rent a car and find another deal. Try for MSRP. Look for a neighboring state broker as well.
OP, beware of target fixation. I think you’re getting good advice here to slow down and check the details. I like the advice of renting a car for a week. My bet is that by the end of that week you’ll have found a better deal if you’re willing to widen your search. There may even be some here that can assist if you ask for help bettering this deal.
Talk to @Ryan_S before making this mistake.
Leased the Prius Prime SE and drove it home.
I figured out what the $500 discrepancy was in the numbers that I posted above: missing dashcam. The deal was made when the car was supposed to include a port installed dashcam for $499, but for some reason the port didn’t install it and nobody noticed until I asked where is the dashcam. So I got it for $38.5k instead of $39k.
Also, the finance guys agreed to lower the money factor to the amount that TFS was offering: 0.00325. Shouldn’t make a difference with immediate payoff, but it’s one less thing to worry about.
I am happy with the deal, $5k over MSRP: $1k port option pkg + $2k dealer package + $2k dealer markup. It seems that most cars in my Gulf State area have a $1k+ port package, and most dealers here have mandatory $2k packages. Maybe I could have avoided some or all of that by shipping from another region for $1k but I never found that deal. I have been looking for a month with deposits at 5 dealers, and this was the first one I found. There are only 10 or so unaccounted Prius Primes in all of Texas at any given moment.
Also, ratefindr showed the $4500 lease incentive expiring around the end of this month for gulf states. Toyota will probably renew it, and other regions show it not ending until December, but a $4500 bird in hand has value.
awesome deal, enjoy your car!
Your salesperson appreciates you making their mortgage and car payments this month. 
Enjoy.
Btw how did you negotiate down the moneyfactor? Looking into leasing the same car.
I showed the dealer a printout from ratefindr with the TFS money factor, and that was enough for them. I had texted the salesman the night before saying that there were some lease details that needed to be worked out.
Appreciate the reply! and congrats on the Prius!
Yikes. I have not been following pricing on these, but you got charged a $1k port option?
At this point, that’s all that matters. Enjoy your new car.
I’m just curious in general because it seems like these cars always go for over MSRP. Why don’t people buy something else? It cannot be economical to be paying over MSRP.
Did not work for me - I tried this with BMW Financial, Ally, TFS in the past - You owe taxes again if you need to purchase your vehicle anytime during your lease at a “Fair market value” (i.e lets say you leased this Prius today and decide to buy out your lease tomorrow - you owe taxes on the “Payoff” value indicated by TFS or whatever financial institution you use - Only after that do they release the title to your DMV
because you GREATLY underestimate how brand loyal customers are for Toyotas. Every week I talk with multiple customers who would rather pay a markup for a toyota versus taking a massive giveaway for a different brand
Really nothing comparable at that price point for a PHEV, unless you want a crossover.
But with more shopping around or using a broker here you’d certainly pay less.
MSRP is just what it says it is. A Prius prime with a 34k sticker one can argue is leaving a few grand on the table for what should be charged. Same for a model like the Ford Maverick. By the same token most CDJR products should be 10k less once you option them up vs. the MSRP, and usually are after all the incentives and discounts.
There is nothing in economics about paying over or under an arbitrary number, which is what MSRP is.
What most people don’t realize is that even when the market value of a mass market vehicle is well above MSRP, it’s often possible to pay way less than market value by ordering or putting a deposit on a VIN in transit.