Ruthless Robbie

the reason why its like that is because people screwed the system so the system had to get guide lines to pay for their services...... their money has to come from somewhere

i used to work at a county court house where the rule was a vehicle had to be taxed off a minimum purchase price of $1....... the price was held so low because people would want to title an old junk car and restore it or an old car was a gift from a family member......


guess what happened?!?!


EVERYONE was buying their cars for $1

people would be there to get a title in their name for a 2 yr old corvette and say they only bought it for $1 and only have to pay tax on that $1


so they changed it to a minimum $500 AND a copy of the receipt or purchase agreement between the buyer and seller


guess what happened?!?!


EVERYONE was coming up there with $500 receipts so they would only have to pay tax on $500...... and you should have heard all the people complaining about the change to $500 from $1...... i was thinking everybody is trying to title a $20,000 car and they are bitching about paying an extra 20 bucks in tax, they are getting hooked up because they are lying and now they are bitching about not getting hooked up enough...... people get real spoilt real quick


now when every car purchase was mysteriously $500 no matter the true value this told the higher ups that because EVERYONE would be dishonest and try to cheat the system to save money they had to go to book valueand tax off that


so now when people came in the lady would take their title, punch in n.a.d.a. what year, make & model and they would come up with the price to be taxed off of

NO EXCEPTIONS


for about a solid year everyone would come in saying "i have my receipt for $500" or "it was a gift for free"....... and these are people with cars valued at $20,000 or more they are trying to title






.

FastB

iTrader: (11)

Chuck, I thought about it and yes I am going to have to pass at this time. My yard just isn't big enough to justify a riding lawn mower.

Big Chuk

iTrader: (11)

KBB on the mower 25k so you could flip for a profit.

Texfinn

iTrader: (39)

Good luck with that. There aren't too many ways around that anymore, no matter how much you complain.

If you can get it appraised for under 200 bucks, then you'll come ahead.

I don't like that either, but since the change was done a few years ago due to the issues Ruthless Robbie already mentioned, I can see where the State is coming from with that.

FastB

iTrader: (11)

what really gets me is how many times can the gov't tax items? I mean really, the car was taxed when it was bought new, now they tax it when someone else buys it. I don't mind screwing the gov't when it comes to this kind of crap. Death by taxation.

Big Chuk

iTrader: (11)

I would bet by the time an avg. car hits the scrap yard the gov. has gotten as much in taxes as it originally sold for.

HTX

iTrader: (1)

The government has to track the ownership, miles, and claims history on your car. Not to mention pay for the roads you drive on.

FastB

iTrader: (11)

That's not the point. Just add it to the list of taxes that we already pay. What is the tax on gasoline for? I pay to drive on the toll rodes too. I pay school taxes and don't have any kids.... etc. etc. etc. The gov't already takes 60% of my paycheck before I pay taxes on things I purchase. In for a fair tax system.

1slow01Z71

iTrader: (36)

Oh I understand why its done this way but its not very accurate IMO because it doesnt take into account market fluctuation as acutely as it should. The 40mpg beaters with these gas prices have held their value, trucks have gone WAY down. I ended up getting them to take it down to 9100, still 1100 over what I honestly paid for it.
The ONLY way to get around if you buy private party is get it appraised by a licensed insurance adjuster or dealer. An adjuster isnt going to take into account the market for a given vehicle like what I bought. Besides the fact that they would have to knock off thousands of dollars to make up for their fee.
Dont forget they tax you on the money youre using to buy it, they taxed the dealers who sold the car, they taxed the original owner, then they tag you one last time.
I doubt its that bad but it damn sure seems like it
Government doesnt track anything but the title, and the roads are paid for by gas taxes and vehicle registeration(the sticker). Very little of that sales tax that you pay the county tax office goes towards roads. Most of the road money comes from government subsidization and money set aside for TXDOT from the state. Atleast here in Austin its painfully obvious that money is going somewhere else, the roads here are horrible.

Since Im in construction inspection Ive got a bit different view on things and its truly appauling how TXDOT operates, they do little patch crap here and there that in the end, ends up costing them more money if they wouldve actually done it right.

HTX

iTrader: (1)

Tax spending is topic for a different discussion. I didn't mean to side track the thread.

But back on topic...

One thing i don't understand is why the hell Retail price is higher than private party.
Dealers do some really shady stuff with their cars. patching them together, hiding flaws, not maintaining the cars properly, and not doing any sort of real mechanical inspection. Hell, most dealers just detail the car and put it on the lot, or use it for company transportation (beating the **** out of it). especially if the car you are buying is an old LEASE car. You know people dont maintain **** on a lease car. Why would they pay for oil changes if they are only gonna put 50K on it before they send it back to the dealer? You'll never know the nature that the previous owner cared for the car and that bothers the hell outa me.
On the other hand when you buy private party (from my experience) an individual will most likely be much more honest than a dealer. They can tell you maintenance history, problem history, and you can get a feel of how well that person took care of the car.

I dont know... what do yall think?

1slow01Z71

iTrader: (36)

I think the ONLY way to protect yourself is to know the particular vehicle youre interested in, inside and out. One of the many reasons I stick with GM, its not that I dont think other vehicles are nice, its just that Ive been through damn near every LS powered vehicle GM makes. I can look them over well and hook up my EFILive software to check out things so I can make a very informed decision. The only reason I bought my wife an 09 civic si is because it came with an unlimited mileage powertrain warranty and it only had 40K on it. Otherwise I probably wouldve bought her another GM vehicle.

Consumer knowledge is the only thing that can protect you. Carfax is damn near a waste of time, people are shady whether theyre working for a dealer or selling for themselves. My dad was going to buy an 02 TA a couple years back and it was a VERY clean car. I went and checked it out for him since he lives out of state and almost gave him teh go-ahead until I noticed the head casting on teh motor was 862, as in 5.3 heads, then I noticed the iron block