Indiana Excise Tax

Edit: Decide to start a new thread instead of high jacking this one.

Jeffo is talking about excise not sales tax and BobGed's link to Indiana's Excise tax explains quite well how it's figured.

In any event Indiana RV annual taxes are substantially less than they were a few years ago when they were considered personal property with taxes collected by the county. The excise tax is now collected by the BMV and then forwarded it to each county (after the state hangs on to it for a while to earn them selves some extra interest).

Between the state's caps of 1% on home owner, 2% on landlord & farm) and 3% on business of assessed real estate value and the reduced RV tax all of our counties, cities, schools, etc. are having a real problem covering the cost of providing services to the tax payers.

Dave

Michigan charges for your annual plate based on MSRP and the rates are going up again for MHs, trucks, and autos. The way around it is to get an antique (over 25 years old) and get an antique license for it for $25.00. Sec. of State calls my Roadtrek a Dodge van and I didn't argue. In a couple more years it will get to be an antique also.

Why do you think so many RV's, especially high end motor homes, are registered in Montana, or North Dakota? Savings of thousands of dollars and it's legal although some states are touchy about residency requirements. We are about to take delivery on our 6th RV and because it's in California and we are not registering it in CA, it has to be delivered to us out of state. Inconvenient but worth the annoyance, IMHO.

Here's a link to the Indiana excise tax on RVs Indiana BMV Excise Rates Yes the bad news is it is calculated on the manufacturer's original retail price, but the good news is the tax goes down each year....by what looks to be approximately 15% to 17%.

jeffo wrote:
I guess my point is that I fill like the RV industry is purposely inflating the retail cost in order give us a warm and fuzzy feeling when we can get 30 percent off sticker and it cost us at the BMV. I think 1968mooney has the right idea, I just don't have that much will power LOL.

There are two reasons they do that. One is so that they can make you feel good by giving you 30% off, but the main reason they do it is so they have a cushion for getting you out of your trade if you're upside down in it.

1968mooney wrote:
Yes, in 2012 I nearly purchased a $250,000 MH. Walked away and saved $17,500 in sales tax. In 2013 I nearly purchased a $300,000 MH. Walked away again and saved $21,000. This year I nearly purchased a $400,000 MH. Again I walked away and saved $28,000. In 4 yrs I have saved $66,500 in tax. BOY I FEEL GOOD.

You must have taken the same math classes as my wife! She saves me a ton of money buying clothes at Macy's on sale. Only problem is I can never seem to find that money I saved!

dturm wrote:
I think Jeff is talking about excise tax, not sales tax. Several years ago the state started to collect excise tax when we get our plates/tags and it is collected by the DMV. Before that RV, boats etc were considered personal property and were supposed to be reported then taxed, but there was such a large number that slipped through without paying that they decided to change. Also the state instituted a property tax cap, so they were left with having to come up with other ways to find revenue :B

I was under the impression that they calculated the amount based on the fair market value. I know the tax on my rig has gone down every year since it was purchased, this year was a very nice surprise as the tax was about 1/2 of that last year.

On edit, I went to the BMV website and Jeff is correct that the class of vehicle is based on the Mfg Retail price, not the actual sales price. There is discounting every year to account for depreciation. I agree, that doesn't seem right, but that's the way they do it for cars also.

You mean this is a tax on your vehicles that you pay every year? That makes NY's setup even more inviting. We pay a one time sales tax calculated on the purchase price and that's it. A few counties do have a nominal local tax though, for mass transit districts, etc., that's collected along with the weight based registration fee.

I think Jeff is talking about excise tax, not sales tax. Several years ago the state started to collect excise tax when we get our plates/tags and it is collected by the DMV. Before that RV, boats etc were considered personal property and were supposed to be reported then taxed, but there was such a large number that slipped through without paying that they decided to change. Also the state instituted a property tax cap, so they were left with having to come up with other ways to find revenue :B

I was under the impression that they calculated the amount based on the fair market value. I know the tax on my rig has gone down every year since it was purchased, this year was a very nice surprise as the tax was about 1/2 of that last year.

On edit, I went to the BMV website and Jeff is correct that the class of vehicle is based on the Mfg Retail price, not the actual sales price. There is discounting every year to account for depreciation. I agree, that doesn't seem right, but that's the way they do it for cars also.

2oldman wrote:

PastorCharlie wrote:
There is a lot of room for cheating if taxes are charged on the actual sale price.

yep. By using MSRP they're making up for years of being cheated.

Let me see if I got this right. They are charging tax on dollars that were never spent and " they'er making up for being cheated?"