Thanks to this forum, I learned about the double sales tax that applies when buying out a lease in Texas, and that dealers can offer lease credits to lower the sales tax on the initial lease to 1.2 or 1.3% (instead of 6.25%).
Does anyone know if a trade in or a large-ish down payment will also help to reduce the sales tax that would apply when buying out the lease? Almost seems like cheating if I made a trade-in or down payment of $15K towards the lease, only paid sales tax of 1.2%, and then bought out the car almost immediately at a lower price. Thanks!