Washington State Penalizes Thrifty LEAF Buyers

[electromotive]

Distilling this as best I can: I have had discussions with the Washington State DMV and Department of Revenue. As best I can gather from them a Washington State resident may have to pay additional fees to Washington State if/when a new LEAF (for example) is brought in to Washington from another state. The scenario presented to them was a resident purchases a vehicle and shows the sales documents upon return to Washington to title, license and register the LEAF. Washington said the state would determine the "fair market value" and may impose additional taxes if Washington found that the sale was for less than "fair market value".
Needless to say, this possibly messes up the idea of traveling out of Washington to save a chunk of money on a new LEAF.
So- The answer is -LEASE! Or is it?
Thank you.

 

[FairwoodRed]

Did you discuss with them the EV Sales tax exemption and if it also applies to Use tax? Certainly the Use tax applies to run of the mill cars that also have to pay a Sales tax. You might have to specifically ask about the tax exemption to get them to look at it. The link below sure seems to say that you would be exempt from Use tax.

http://www.dol.wa.gov/vehicleregistration/altfuelexemptions.html

 

[Firetruck41]

Distilling this as best I can: I have had discussions with the Washington State DMV and Department of Revenue. As best I can gather from them a Washington State resident may have to pay additional fees to Washington State if/when a new LEAF (for example) is brought in to Washington from another state. The scenario presented to them was a resident purchases a vehicle and shows the sales documents upon return to Washington to title, license and register the LEAF. Washington said the state would determine the "fair market value" and may impose additional taxes if Washington found that the sale was for less than "fair market value".
Needless to say, this possibly messes up the idea of traveling out of Washington to save a chunk of money on a new LEAF.
So- The answer is -LEASE! Or is it?
Thank you.

I've done this many times with used vehicles bought in Oregon and brought to Washington. It has nothing to do with the Leaf in particular, just vehicle value. You simply have to budget an extra trip to the local WA revenue office when you license the car, take some printouts of comparable listings from autotrader, craigslist, Cars.com. Be prepared to point out the many flaws of your car (dents/dings/worn out tires, broken windshield, etc... When you go, you have to fill out/sign a form, and they make a determination on the value. They have always adjusted the tax value to my purchase price.

 

[Firetruck41]

Did you discuss with them the EV Sales tax exemption and if it also applies to Use tax? Certainly the Use tax applies to run of the mill cars that also have to pay a Sales tax. You might have to specifically ask about the tax exemption to get them to look at it. The link below sure seems to say that you would be exempt from Use tax.

http://www.dol.wa.gov/vehicleregistration/altfuelexemptions.html

There is no sales tax exemption anymore, for used BEVs.

 

[DaveinOlyWA]

if the car is used, you pay a fee based on assessed value no matter what kind of car it is. this law has remained unchanged for decades.

If the car is new and never registered in any other state, it would be have the first 32,500 would have sales tax waived. This law covers the first 7500 qualifying alternative fuel vehicles registered since Summer 2015. It will likely be exhausted by Summer 2017 so if moving, do it quickly

 

[DaveinOlyWA]

Did you discuss with them the EV Sales tax exemption and if it also applies to Use tax? Certainly the Use tax applies to run of the mill cars that also have to pay a Sales tax. You might have to specifically ask about the tax exemption to get them to look at it. The link below sure seems to say that you would be exempt from Use tax.

http://www.dol.wa.gov/vehicleregistration/altfuelexemptions.html

There is no sales tax exemption anymore, for used BEVs.

not technically true. if an EV was leased in WA and later purchased, it still qualifies for the sales tax exemption

 

[Firetruck41]

That may be the case, I know the exemption for traditional purchase of a used BEV ran out a month or two before i bought mine. Doh!