Question on titles?
go the gift route. its 100% legal. when you buy the car just have the seller give it to you as a gift. then you can give him a cash gift in return or you can buy a nice set of floor mats from him for 9k or whatever the car was going to sell for before he decided to give it to you for free.
its the exact same thing as buying the car from him except you dont have to pay tax.
its the exact same thing as buying the car from him except you dont have to pay tax.
good question. I have not verified it but I would say no you do not have to pay taxes on it. you have allready paid them. you may have to pay the registration fee though.
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The state of Texas has changed the law on that. You can no longer get away with saying I only paid $1,000 for a car valued at 15k. It does not even matter what the seller says or signs. When I transferred mine last month. I put purchase price at $5k and the clerk said the value of the car was $9,640.00 and that is what I would have to pay taxes on. It is no longer a clerks decision. They enter all of you're vehicle info and it tells them what you are going to pay. If you paid more than what the value says of course you will pay more tax.
i say that is 
i just did mine last week and my dad did one 2 weeks ago... like i said it just depends what kind of clerk you get... my dad went the 1st time and they said no then he came back an hour later and went to a different clerk and they did the transfer in less then a min. 
dude dont worry like someone said the worst that can happens is they say no and you pay are you can go back and try again! 
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Joined: Feb 2003
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From: houston
??????? True, you can do that, but remember that if they check and your story does not match the seller's, its not a piddly misdemeanor, its a felony. You'd be better off lying about the price than claiming its a gift if you do not know the seller personally, that is dumb. You can find the presumptive value figure online through your tax assessor collector's web site, but remember not all counties have that though.
Vette
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Joined: Feb 2003
Posts: 336
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From: houston
??????? True, you can do that, but remember that if they check and your story does not match the seller's, its not a piddly misdemeanor, its a felony. You'd be better off lying about the price than claiming its a gift if you do not know the seller personally, that is dumb. You can find the presumptive value figure online through your tax assessor collector's web site, but remember not all counties have that though.
The new law allows the state to charge sales tax on up to 80% of a car's value -- not the purchase price, but 80% of what the state says the car is actually worth.
Harris County Tax Assessor Paul Bettencourt said, "There is a book value for your car and when you go to transfer the title, you have to pay your state tax based on the minimum value, even if you bought or sold the car below that."
Bettencourt says the law was changed to prevent fraud.
"There's been a lot of fraud," he explained. "We've had Lexus vehicles, extremely expensive, people have tried to transfer for $100."
He admits the change will also be a big money maker for the state at the expense of consumers.
"When they have to pay the sales tax, that means they are going to have to pay more," Bettencourt said.
So how does the state know what a used car is worth? The Texas Department of Transportation has a web site. Enter the vehicle identification number and the mileage and it calculates your used car's value.
But what if the car is actually worth less than that amount? You have to prove it. A dealership can give you a certified appraised value, or licensed insurance adjusters can do it too.
There are two options when it comes to disputing the state's presumed value of a used car:
Get a dealership to do it for and pay up to $300 for the service
Or find a licensed insurance adjuster who most often charges
I don't think you can lie about it anymore. They give you the price of the car. So do not tell them more than 80% of the value. You can also look it up on line with your vin number....To change their numbers you have to get it appraised by a dealer and take paper to them.
Vette
The new law allows the state to charge sales tax on up to 80% of a car's value -- not the purchase price, but 80% of what the state says the car is actually worth.
Harris County Tax Assessor Paul Bettencourt said, "There is a book value for your car and when you go to transfer the title, you have to pay your state tax based on the minimum value, even if you bought or sold the car below that."
Bettencourt says the law was changed to prevent fraud.
"There's been a lot of fraud," he explained. "We've had Lexus vehicles, extremely expensive, people have tried to transfer for $100."
He admits the change will also be a big money maker for the state at the expense of consumers.
"When they have to pay the sales tax, that means they are going to have to pay more," Bettencourt said.
So how does the state know what a used car is worth? The Texas Department of Transportation has a web site. Enter the vehicle identification number and the mileage and it calculates your used car's value.
But what if the car is actually worth less than that amount? You have to prove it. A dealership can give you a certified appraised value, or licensed insurance adjusters can do it too.
There are two options when it comes to disputing the state's presumed value of a used car:
Get a dealership to do it for and pay up to $300 for the service
Or find a licensed insurance adjuster who most often charges
I don't think you can lie about it anymore. They give you the price of the car. So do not tell them more than 80% of the value. You can also look it up on line with your vin number....To change their numbers you have to get it appraised by a dealer and take paper to them.
Vette
Harris County Tax Assessor Paul Bettencourt said, "There is a book value for your car and when you go to transfer the title, you have to pay your state tax based on the minimum value, even if you bought or sold the car below that."
Bettencourt says the law was changed to prevent fraud.
"There's been a lot of fraud," he explained. "We've had Lexus vehicles, extremely expensive, people have tried to transfer for $100."
He admits the change will also be a big money maker for the state at the expense of consumers.
"When they have to pay the sales tax, that means they are going to have to pay more," Bettencourt said.
So how does the state know what a used car is worth? The Texas Department of Transportation has a web site. Enter the vehicle identification number and the mileage and it calculates your used car's value.
But what if the car is actually worth less than that amount? You have to prove it. A dealership can give you a certified appraised value, or licensed insurance adjusters can do it too.
There are two options when it comes to disputing the state's presumed value of a used car:
Get a dealership to do it for and pay up to $300 for the service
Or find a licensed insurance adjuster who most often charges
I don't think you can lie about it anymore. They give you the price of the car. So do not tell them more than 80% of the value. You can also look it up on line with your vin number....To change their numbers you have to get it appraised by a dealer and take paper to them.
Vette
Harris county and Mr. Bettencourt is a whole other can of worms compared to the BFE counties I was living in east Texas, and probably the west Texas county that westtexasbuff is in. Your post is very true, but the tax fraud issues facing houston, dallas/ft.worth counties are not the same as those outside those major metropolitan areas. The thread creator is from amarillo, which is nowhere near Harris county.
