Curios if anyone else has experienced this or has any advice:
I was living in NY when I leased the car, but I was moving to FL. The car was never registered in NY, but they originally included NY tax in my deal (~$1100) because of my NY address. I gave them the FL proof of address / papers after 1 week of signing papers, prior to it being registered, and they registered it straight to Florida, and gave me a refund of my $1100 taxes. Now I’ve been thinking that I’ve been paying 325/mo + tax ~ 345 including tax. I am now trying to lease transfer, however, BMWFS says they are showing the car as having NY tax paid, since all the original papers have NY address. So somehow they rolled in my Florida taxes into my monthly payment, i guess? However, I noticed on my FL title it says “Exempt from tax” because “vehicle to primarily be used for rental”?
If I never registered the vehicle in NY, should I be paying / have paid NY tax, if I put down a NY address on the BMWFS papers/credit app etc., even though the car was never registered there?
Dealer said they updated the address prior to registering, and gave me a refund for the $1100, but now if I transfer, the next person will no doubt pay 345 + tax, because BMWFS lists my payment at 345 + 0 tax, instead of 325 (making it a ‘worse’ deal, and removing about $500 of value from the deal).
Does it make sense to pursue this any further, can they adjust things like this? BMWFS cust service reps have no idea what they’re talking about, they just want to process an address change for me, and I don’t need/want that right now. Does the dealer fix this, or does BMWFS fix this? I’m fairly certain that I was quoted $325 a month however hindsight like my MY is 2020 and I filled in blank papers letting the dealers fill in details later. My bad.
Separately, Dealer charged me $450 for NY registration fees, and said they’d refund me any difference - I assume Florida should be a lot less, so would they still owe me a refund for some of that?
1-If you gave them a NY address up front then of course they’re going to include NY taxes in the deal. If you gave them an updated FL address prior to registering, and they refunded you the $1100 NY tax, then it seems like things worked as they should. Not sure what your question is.
2&3-Do you not have a copy of your original lease agreement? Whatever the dealer gave you? Does it say $325 or $345 with tax paid up front? If you’re paying FL tax on the monthly it should be easy for BMWFS to see.
4-Things like this get infinitely more difficult to get refunded as more time passes; Up to you if you want spend hours/days on the phone with the dealer and NY DMV when success is far from guaranteed.
They refunded me the 1100 but somehow they must have rolled in Florida taxes. Trying to transfer the car and BMWFS say my monthly is 344 with 0% tax. How is that possible?
I am guessing that Florida, like most states, taxes the monthly payment. Is your Florida sales tax around 6%? If you move or transfer, BMW will change the tax based on the new location.
What may be confusing you is how it worked in NY. In NY tax is due upfront on the total of the lease payments. If you roll them in, the bank pays them for you then increases your lease payment to account for the tax payment they made on your behalf.
If BMWFS is only showing taxes paid in NY, and has no record of any FL taxes being paid, then I suppose it’s possible that wires got crossed between all the confusion.
If you and/or the dealer didn’t submit the proper tax forms to FL and BMWFS when the address was changed then BMWFS would not know to change anything from the original deal with regards to taxation. It honestly sounds like your mailing address was updated with BMWFS but nothing else.
If the contract was initially 344 a month with all taxes rolled in, and then the dealer gave you $1100 back to account for that, you are level. When the car gets transferred, if the state taxes the monthly payment (as Florida does), that will definitely be added on to the $344 currently showing on the contract. You are currently making out like a bandit as you are effectively paying no taxes. BMWFS assumes this is NY and the taxes were paid upfront, but you were refunded them so your “real” payment to your pocketbook is probably $344 - ($1100/36) or about $314.
Because you gave them a NY address initially, in the original deal the dealer just included a line item for the amount of NY tax that would be due had you registered the car in NY.
But because you changed to a FL address shortly thereafter, the dealer never registered the car in NY and thus didn’t have to pay that NY tax, and thus refunded you the $1100.
Contract was supposed to be 325 a month originally, 344 is what it would be with Florida taxes funny enough.
So I’m not really out ahead… I’m just wondering if this can be fixed or if BMWFS will just stick by whatever they’ve got in the system. I definitel do not want to pay tax on the $344
Can someone confirm - as a NY resident, if I never registered the car in NY I wouldn’t owe tax right? You just owe where you register?
You said you were refunded NY taxes.
325 + FL tax = 344.
Why do you think you are paying tax on top of the 344? Have you seen your first statement yet?
If I am following you it seems like you are all good.
Well…It sounds like your wallet received an unexpected deposit it just has to give back now if I am understanding everything correctly. There has been no tax paid yet to any state?
Well, unless I am misunderstanding…its not 0 tax…it was $344.16 a month, $1100 due at signing in tax based on NY. So…you got the $1100 back, and FL tax would be on top of the $344.16 which is your base payment.
