I see lots of positive posts about dealership "X's" service and price, punctuated with the phrase, "and since it was an out of state purchase, I didn't have to pay tax." How does that work out? Is it as simple as buying the bike out of state, or is it a more complex ordering issue?

 

I’m pretty sure your state will get their sales tax from the purchase when you register the vehicle. Here in Minnesota even if you buy something used from a private party when you go to register that vehicle in your name they ask how much you paid for it and they want the tax owed. Now if your buying something that doesn’t need to be registered or doesn’t require licensing they will never know you have it.

 

That was more or less what I was thinking, so what's this deal with people posting about not paying sales tax?

Or

Is there maybe a 3% total value (or some such token percentage) tax for liscense/registering in your state,

AND

IF you buy the cycle in your state you also have to shell out for SALES tax(?)

 

On parts and accessories, there is no sales tax when buying out-of-state. Nice savings (even when taking in the shipping cost).

 

i've bought my bikes out of state. some dealers will require you to pay them sales tax and then they will cut you a check. and some dealers won't even mess with taxes for an out of state customer. which means that when you tag and title it in your home state, you'll be writing a nice size check at the DMV. i prefer this so that way the tax on purchase is paid and not rolled into the financed amount which means a lower payment.

hope this helps.

 

I bought a bike "in state", but out of my town. A month later, I got a bill form my town for 1/2% of the sale price, since where I bought it charged less than my town does. BTW, new bikes get a 1% discount off of the 7 3/4% tax.
It's all stupid garbage to me.
Picture this for stoopid! Our dear Gov. cut funding to state colleges and universities, caused them to raise tuition. Now, he's sponsoring a bill to give people up to a $2000 tax credit to help offset the cost of college. WTF???
This same dear (and hopefully soon departed) Gov. raided the MSF funds. In our state (IL), we pay an extra dollar on our MC endorsement for safety education. They had built up quite a surplus, so he decided to take it to help fund the general budget.
The only good thing to come out of that is that the MSF people decided to spend quite a bit of it so there would be less for him to rob, so we got a lot of new bikes for the MSF classes. All 250cc's, but different heights which helps a lot. Art

 

Art, didn't ABATE or someone sue the governor to put that money back? I could have sworn I heard someone took it to court.

 

I'm a resident of the State of Alaska and in the military stationed in Louisiana. Alaska does not have a sales tax so when I purchased my bike in Louisiana, I told the dealer that I was going to register/title the bike in Alaska thus avoiding the Louisiana sales tax.

It cost me around $130.00 to title and register for 2 years in Alaska with no sales tax.

 

I've done several different ways of registering to avoid excessive taxation, much as twoseas has. Depends on which state charges the higher tax, be it sales or "road use" as in the case of NC vs. TN. NC is 3% road use whereas TN is 6% sales plus whatever local wheel tax may be.

For military residents of TN assigned outside of TN (for example, working on Fort Campbell, which is technically in KY), a purchase from a TN dealer is tax-exempt (which amounts to savings up to $1600 per vehicle @ 6%); however, a better deal can be had in KY by dealers who know the TN law and will drop their price to compensate.

As far as sales tax, LEGALLY you are required to pay sales tax on every item you purchase in the US, regardless of who the vendor is (internet, mail order.) There is legislation proposed now to force internet companies to levy sales tax, and many already do this in anticipation of the law being passed. The unpaid tax is supposed to be addressed in your local income tax return (I believe.) I'm sure there's a tax lawyer in this forum somewhere.