I am having a PPI done on this car Friday. A have a question assuming everything checks out and I want to go ahead with the purchase.
Is there any financial advice when making such a large purchase? I am not sure if there are any tax tricks or something of the sort when it comes to buying a $400,000 car. Is it as simple as write a big check and pay state taxes?
Thanks!
You don't say what state you live in so I'll relate how things have worked where I've been...
When I bought my Cobra and GT I lived in Colorado. Colorado's rules are you pay sales tax on the purchase price less any trade in. When I bought the Cobra I paid sales tax on the purchase price at Barrett Jackson given the bill of sale I got from them. Colorado included the 10% buyer's premium as part of the purchase price so I got a pretty hefty sales tax bill. One time.
The good news is that Colorado considered the car as a 1965 model year, and registration fees are based on that. They depreciate the vehicle 15% every year until it reaches a minimum amount and then the registration stays the same after that. I think the Cobra license fee including an added fee for a vanity plate was $65 for a 5 year tag plus $30/year x 5 for the vanity plate fee. Somewhere around 200 for a 5 year tag.
When I bought the GT I was friends with a dealer who graciously ran the Cobra sale and GT purchase as a trade in event. So in Colorado on the GT purchase I only paid sales tax on the difference. IOn Colorado the GT was 5 years into its depreciation cycle and was very close to minimum. No matter what the tags were under 300/year and went down ever year until we moved to Nevada...
Nevada's sales tax rules are the same as Colorado. You pay sales tax on the purchase less trade (if any). Nevada's registration fees also are calculated on a depreciation schedule and reach a floor. The GT registration including vanity plates was again a fairly low 300-400...
Now, some states don't depreciate and levy a personal property tax based on fair market value. A guy in Connecticut is battling his Cobra taxes to the state but so far the revenue is town based and they are blocking adoption of similar rules to other states which is endorsed by SEMA...
As far as Montana registrations go many states are clamping down and firmly delcare it to be tax evasion. The counties in the Denver Metro area did a sweep of Montana registrations on RVs and Boats just before I bought my GT (and I momentarily considered it after discussion with some people that use it) but gave up as I considered the risks of fines and penalties that were multiple times the one time sales tax not worth it. But that was for an 06 whose annual tags had already gone way below that of a new truck. However, I see a fair number of NGTs with Montana plates and consider that the sales tax on that purchase plus the registration fees for new and the sliding scale before it depreciates could be a sizeable number and the analysis becomes risk vs reward...
Whatever you decide enjoy the car. It's a hoot to drive.
