The OP refers to an out of state vehicle purchase, not a lease. If that is the situation then the California use tax is due on the full purchase price. Which could be a sizable amount.
If it’s a lease then yes, the tax will be due only on the monthly payment
As I said, Masterblaster is right, OP says ‘Purchased’ not leased.
When OP gets that new car registered here, they will ask for the Sales Tax right there.
Leasing is definitely the better way to avoid tax. Hmm…get my next car up in Oregon and drive it down?
sorry. it is a lease. I have already given up on doing it this way though.
I just assumed since we’re on a leasing forum, that we were talking about a lease.
However, per CDTFA, if you purchased out of state and paid tax to that state, you only pay the delta between the CA tax and the tax paid.
After doing it once myself, I’m more comfortable with out of state leases. There was a bit of a learning curve in the beginning, but if the deal is strong… we can put up with a lot lol
I don’t know why, it’s pretty easy
For you as the lessee, for the Dealer they have additional paperwork. Which most don’t like that.
They’re rolling your car on just temp tags, to do the tag and title paperwork yourself at the dmv. If they can’t do the paperwork or don’t want the sale because of it, they will say-so.
As other brokers here could share, they (broker and dealer) could do MORE paperwork, and all you would need is smog and vin scan (no dmv registration), and not have to wait in 2-3 more lines, but that’s very uncommon.
There are also services you can hire to do all this for you.
I second this advice. Use AAA in California.
I’ve done this for a couple of cars for friends. One was purchased in Nevada and the other is South Carolina. What I did was first was negotiate the deal from dealerships first while verifying the cars meets CA emission standards and explaining that I will be responsible for carrier/shipping. Next I had dealership send me a few more pics of areas of my concern from earlier photos. Then my first friend drove to Nevada and CAL border and the dealership completed transaction there since my friend would break NV laws for driving a car without NV taxes and registration. He before hand called his insurance company and insured the car and drove it straight home. The second car from NC, I had it shipped to friends house (800 bucks from NC to SOCAL covered). Prior to that he had already registered his car via CA DMV and paid applicable taxes so that when arrived is placed plates on car and he was ready to go. Both deals where thousands less than CA prices and color combinations that where not avail too. I did give both dealerships a couple of hundred dollars (out of car price) for helping car get loaded and shipped safety and without any damages to cars. The other out of state cars I had helped get shipped were used (older/specialty) and registration was performed after delivery. Depending on state, the easiest is to get shipped to your door (pre-registered or not). But all people who got their cars/bike delivered where still anxious about damage on the back of a truck. In all cases the shipping company took real good car of the cars during the transport process.
How can he register the vehicle when it wasn’t even in CA yet for the verification (REG 31)?
VIN, bill of sale/proof of sale and other docs dealership sends you. Go to DMV and fill out the new car sales form and they will take your money (and pre covid) provide your plates the first day.
Pretty sure that’s wrong. The vehicle needs to be smogged and VIN verified (which needs to be performed in CA) before it can be registered.
The deal wasn’t good enough (for me). Keep in mind that it loses the $1500 clean fuel rebate, so it already has to be 3% better (discount from MSRP) to break even. Then I have to figure out how to get a car that is 300 miles away home (or pay for it). And deal with both smog and DMV. The broker was great – but this kind of deal requires that the person leasing the car be prepared to do the extra legwork. After thinking about it, I decided against it. But it could be $25 to $75 per month less to do it this way depending on your local deal, so it could make sense for a lot of people.
That is a used car. I was talking about new. And yes if the car is used three years or older has to be smogged by the seller before it can be registered in CA. Some older classic cars are CA exempted for smog but research is required.
Even new cars from out of CA need to be VIN verified and smogged. Only gas-powered pre-1976 and diesel-powered pre-1998 vehicles don’t need to be smogged.
Interesting! New to me.
Yup, registered new out-of-state car in Jan. Needed VIN verification and smogged. Learnt a few things… like how all BMW’s are 50-state compliant, not all smog stations do VIN verification, and how the DMV isn’t a pain sometimes. Got a 60-day temporary operating permit and the plates came soon after.
None that I found do. Typically the car is smogged before it ever reaches the dealer, but it wouldn’t make sense to perform a CA smog test on cars sold outside CA.
DMV registration requires the vin physically scanned, which requires a record the car was smog tested (or exempt, as outlined). You can make an appointment at dmv for both in the same visit. CHP offices can do the VIN scan before DMV finishes their part. Some AAA offices can do both. And some licensed third parties can come perform the scan where you are.
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