andykeck said:
According to the Washington Department of Licensing web page, you may pay sales tax at the out of state dealer and then apply that as a credit against the Washington sales tax.
I've heard two different stories on this.
1) If you buy a car in one state, you pay tax to the state in which you buy. Then when it comes time to register at home, you show a receipt demonstrating tax paid and pay the difference between the purchasing state and the state where you reside.
2) You only pay sales / use tax when it comes time to register the car. In other words, if I buy a car in Atlanta and do not register it until I arrive in Virginia, I pay the Virginia sales / use tax rate (3% I believe) and not the Georgia rate (6.5% I believe).
I've also heard that if I were to move into the District of Columbia within two years of buying my car, then I would have to prove that I already paid some amount and then pay the remaining difference.
Furthermore, if I live in this part of Virginia, I'll be paying roughly $1000 a year for personal property tax on the car. Before the tax relief act hit (which exempts 70% of the bottom $20k of a car's value from taxation), this would have been probably close to $2000 for an Elise.
