WA EV sales tax exemption for out-of-state vehicle took 6 months!

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It took 6 months, but I finally got WA state to cough up my $1500 EV sales tax rebate for an out-of-state vehicle. I bought a Prius Prime for just under the $45k limit back in March 2024, but I bought it out-of-state because I couldn’t find the model or price I was looking for in WA. WA exempts $15k from EV sales tax. It was really hard to get info from the dealer or WA about whether I would qualify for the exemption or how to get it. First the dealer quoted me without sales tax which sounded great but then backed out of the deal saying they made a mistake. I ended up paying all the sales tax and found out I could submit a rebate form to the State (https://dor.wa.gov/sites/default/files/2022-02/41-0122.pdf). After paying off the lease I obtained a bill of sale documenting the sales tax. But a month later the state objected because the bill of sale didn’t document which state it had gone to. Then it took 4 attempts with Toyota to get that corrected, each taking about 2 weeks turnaround. It turns out Toyota separates sales tax for the sale and the payoff differently and the two sides weren’t talking to each other. Then a month later the state again objected saying they needed a lease history, which I fortunately had. Finally a month later I received a check. The lesson is think hard if you are trying to get the WA EV sales tax exemption with an out-of-state purchase, and if you do so make sure you get Toyota to include both the purchase and payoff sales tax.

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Great dp. Congrats and thanks for sharing