Outrageous Massachusetts Sales TAX! HELP!!

[RandallM]

Home is where you make it. I have not yet visited the Northwest US. I feel a road trip coming on.

[JeffM]

I grew up in Bend OR, and loved it. It has changed tremendously in the intervening 20 years, but I'd go back in a heartbeat if I could work there and my GF didn't like bigger cities.

[Donny]

Peter,

I live in Andover, MA and was curious about your post so I went out to my car and got found the original registration. My 78 Spider was also non-running and in very tough shape when I bought it in 2005. I paid $500 and that is what is written on the bill of sale. My Reg from 2005 reads:
Registration: $34.50
Title: $50.00
Special Plates: $0
Sales Tax: $25.00
Total: $109.50

The current NADA "low retail" is $9400, "high retail" is $15,800. Now both of those numbers are completely crazy. I don't want to make you feel any worse, but it looks like the not-so-friendly clerk at the Lawrence, MA RMV took 5% of my purchase price of $500 and that is what I paid for sales tax.

-Donny

[user459]

Sorry, I can offer you no help, only my deepest sympathies. I, too, am a resident of "Ted Kennedy Land" and have run into the exact situation you describe in restoring a 77 Spider, 74 GTV, 79 Spider, etc. Seems that in the past too many dishonest folks were presenting the Registry with phonied-up sales slips for ridiculously low amounts to avoid paying sales tax. In typical Mass-hole fashion, these idiots would rather tax the living sh*t out of you than take into account legitimate proof of the actual selling price of the vehicle. They would rather paint us all with the same brush.

Forget the advice of the dreamers from outside our state's borders; they just can't understand what we experience on a daily basis. There is no appealing to a supervisor or suing the government or applying any sort of logic or common sense. Might as well slam your d*ck in the door!

The only solace I have is that I'm leaving here for good in two years! As soon as my wife retires I'm out of here!

Thanks for adding to the state's coffers.....

[johnei]

Did you already cover this? If you bought a new Aston in MA, because it isn't valued in whatever book the state was using, it was only assessed at a basic car value. The state isn't going to go back and collect the $300 mln it missed because it would be too much work.

Class warfare: Exotic car owners in MA got massive tax break - Autoblog

Quote:

Owning a high-end car? Fun. Paying the hefty vehicle tax on it? Not so much -- that is, unless you live in the state of Massachusetts. From the late 1990s to 2007, the state's Registry of Motor Vehicles missed collecting $32 million a year in annual taxes because it used the NADA database to calculate them for some 131,000 exotics or otherwise premium vehicles. Unfortunately for the RMV, NADA's database excludes high-end luxury vehicles, so there was no proper way to tax those cars in the state. If, for instance, you purchased a Bugatti Veyron, instead of paying many thousands of dollars, you could have wound up paying no more than the owner of a Ford Focus. This is going to suck for owners of affected cars, as the taxman comes to collect what he missed the first time around, right? Wrong. Folks who purchased an affected vehicle through 2007 are completely off the hook. The commonwealth has decided that trying to collect the over $300 million it missed over all those years would be an administrative and legal nightmare. That's a win-win situation for premium car owners in Mass. that's sure to torque off the regular guy, whom the government had no trouble finding and collecting from, as usual. What's scandalous is that no one at the RMV figured this out until now. Bay Staters, that's you're local government (and those tax dollars it collects) at work.

[Pat Braden]

Quote:

Originally Posted by johnei Did you already cover this? If you bought a new Aston in MA, because it isn't valued in whatever book the state was using, it was only assessed at a basic car value. The state isn't going to go back and collect the $300 mln it missed because it would be too much work. Class warfare: Exotic car owners in MA got massive tax break - Autoblog

[GreenSpider]

North Carolina is getting just as bad. I had a 12 year old Jap pick-up that I had when I moved here from New England. I registered and titled it here and the registration certificate clearly said (at that time) "good through Dec. 1997". My insurance policy was in force until January 10th. I planned on letting the registration and insurance expire and let the truck sit for about six months, which I did.

The following July when I tried to renew the tag, the not-so-friendly clerk tried to charge me a $50 dollar penalty for letting my insurance lapse on a "live" tag. I told her that the policy was good until 1/10/98 and the tag expired BEFORE the insurance. The sticker on the tag was "12" for the month AND the certificate said good "through Dec". She indeed had the correct expiration date for the policy (1/10) but asked me in a rather degrading way "How long have you lived here anyway...you should know that NC has a two week grace period and your TAG was legal until 1/14. When I showed her that nowhere did it say that on the reg. certificate, she just wanted the $50.00 and wouldn't renew it without the penalty. I did NOT pay it. It was the principle. As long as we choose to go along with injustice from bureaucracy, we have no one to blame but ourselves.

The clerk had their own 800 number so THEY can reach Raleigh, but wouldn't give it to me to seek justice. I did call the toll number she gave me when I got home. They kept putting me on hold and switching me around to different people. After running my phone bill up for thirty minutes and still getting no where except on hold again, I hung up and drove the truck for five years on an out of state tag...until I sold it.

[italcarnut]

This is what happens when you vote in tax and spend democrats to your state. All they know is to tax the heck out of people. Elections do matter. Do you know anyone in another state that you can use there address and register it there? Here in Pa if the car is 25 years or older you can get antique plates that are permanent. Heck, you can use my address if you want.

Ruben Velez

[GreenSpider]

I'm not convinced the democrats or worse than the greedy liars that republicans have proven to be. At least the democrats won't send your sons and daughters off to be killed and injured so the rich can get richer.

[user459]

Boy, this thread has deteriorated! I have to agree with Italcarnut.

GreenSpider, better brush up on your history regarding which administrations started and perpetuated wars. It was the Democrats that started the war that got me sent to Viet Nam!

[Pat Braden]

Quote:

Originally Posted by user459 Boy, this thread has deteriorated! I have to agree with Italcarnut. GreenSpider, better brush up on your history regarding which administrations started and perpetuated wars. It was the Democrats that started the war that got me sent to Viet Nam!

[GreenSpider]

Like I said...as long as you CHOOSE to go along with the bureaucats decisions to control your life and and not take a stand for what you know is truth and justice, they will get sheep to march to their tune. Take a course in psychology and human behavior. As for this thread deteriorating, if you think what we're talking about is not more important than car talk, maybe your world view needs to go in for a tune-up.

To get back on track, this was originally about the cost associated with getting our Alfa's titled, registered, etc. NC has a ridiculous policy of charging people property taxes every year on motor vehicles, even if it's not registered and sitting in your yard. Luckily they don't value my spider any more than any other older car, so it's under $20 per year. I'm just about as thrilled with that as being happy that gas is now only $3.75 instead of $4.00....Whoopee!!!

[Pat Braden]

Quote:

Originally Posted by GreenSpider ...To get back on track, this was originally about the cost associated with getting our Alfa's titled, registered, etc. NC has a ridiculous policy of charging people property taxes every year on motor vehicles, even if it's not registered and sitting in your yard. Luckily they don't value my spider any more than any other older car, so it's under $20 per year. I'm just about as thrilled with that as being happy that gas is now only $3.75 instead of $4.00....Whoopee!!!

[italcarnut]

I didn't want to turn this into a political thing but I am talking about the frustrations of living with a burocracy that tells us what to do with no regard to our basic rights as Americans. An example is here in Pittsburgh they are closing many schools because of lack of funding regardless of the fact that our taxes are obcene. The suburbs in neighboring counties are building schools left and right and the taxes are much lower. The transit system runs out of money by mid year so yet another tax is imposed to save it in spite of the fact that they are building a multi million dollar tunnel for another train. The Steelers had a nice stadium called Three Rivers. In spite of the fact that it wasnt payed for they knocked it down and built two. One for the Pirates ( that suck ) and one for the Steelers. The story can go on for hours! And guess who runs this state as well as Mass. Michigan, Ohio, etc. Enough already! Drop taxes and encurage industry to flurish. Keep government out of my business, life and car!

I am happy to see some Vietnam vets here. Thank you so much and welcome home!

Ruben Velez
Potholesburgh, Pa

[RandallM]