Transfer Tax in NY

Ask the Hackrs
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64

The best thing do is try and get a lease under 20 months so you can pay less taxes at dmv for remainder of the lease. I usually go for incentives on SAL and ask the current lease owner if they can pay for the transfer fees as I have to give uncle sam some money to clear the lease transfer. You want to ensure that you are spending the least amount of money prior to going to the DMV and less than going to the dealership where they totally try to fee the crap out of you. Lease transfers can be beneficial if you play the game right however taxes at DMV cant be avoided.

65

I am in similar situation and the online DMV asks you if there are less than 12 months remaining on the lease and if so, it encourages you to fill out and file a tax exemption form. I haven’t gone through the process yet so I don’t know what that means, but take a look into that if you are also taking over with less than 12 months remaining.

66

Does anyone have a link to the process to register a vehicle in NYS as part of a lease transfer? I got approved to take over a lease but cannot for the life of me find information on how to approach registering and getting plates. All of the online information is for conventional leases (ie dealer is involved) or purchases.

67

Ask the lessor. Some of them are quite knowledgeable about this stuff.

68

Make an appointment in your County of residence DMV if you get a letter from financial company saying that taxes were paid up front then fill a DTF-803 form.

69

Hi all - newcomer here and thanks for all the excellent info in the thread so far.

I’m taking over a VW lease currently in NJ and transferring it into NYS (23 months remaining). Specifically wondering: does anyone know if the NYS sales tax will be paid by the leasing company, or if I need to make the payment directly to the DMV?

Here’s my understanding of the process (please let me know if any of these are incorrect):

  • NJ charged sales tax upfront on the original lease and this was capitalized into the monthly payments
  • NYS will charge sales tax on the remaining payments of the lease (incl. the NJ capitalized tax, oh well)
  • I may be able to apply for a refund of the unused tax from NJ

My question is - does anyone have experience with taking over a VW lease in NY? Do I:

  1. Use form DTF-802 (sales tax form) and pay the tax on the balance of payments (and then apply for NJ refund) -or-
  2. Use form DTF-803 (sales tax exemption) saying that the sales tax will be paid by the lessor, and let VW bill me for the tax owed to NYS

I think the answer is (1) but wondering if anyone has previous experience here.

Thanks so much!

1 Like
70

The difference between (1) and (2) depends on if VW will bill you or not, but you cannot apply for an NJ tax refund because you weren’t a resident of NJ and you were not the original lessee who “paid” the tax. The transferor can ask for the refund and you would have to agree for him to give that money to you.

1 Like
71

Thanks @AP919! Very helpful. We were able to register the car yesterday at the NYS DMV in person and just paid the tax right there. Good point about the transferor asking for the tax refund - will contact him to sort that out. Thanks again.

1 Like
72

Wouldn’t get my hopes up. Not sure why you feel you’re entitled to the refund but even if you had an agreement with the prior lessee to remit that to you, another thread reports that all refund applications in NJ have been summarily denied.