Wow what a mistake. We had our eyes on an RV made by Thor as our next purchase and trading in our old RV.On a whim we found a unit in Panama City Florida. We stopped and worked out an acceptable deal.In the end the dealer wrote of the paperwork using retail prices. The new RV was listed at MSRP and our trade was grossed up well beyond book value. This all seemed innocent enough as the bottom line came to the negotiated price.30 days latter in our home state of VA it was time to take care of registering the motor home at the state and county level. Turns out DMV uses the bill of sale and bases its taxes on the sale price of the new home and the county uses the same number DMV uses. This resulted in an overpayment of taxes in excess of 12k in the first year.When purchasing a new motor home be careful in how the dealer draws up paper work. If they start at MSRP as the "sale price" and work down through various deductions such as promotions, inflated down payments etc. you could be in for a surprise when and if you have taxes based on the "sale price".We contacted the dealer and explained our issue and how they way their paperwork exposed us to the unexpected taxes and sought a affidavit of the legitimate sales price. They would not produce the documents.So a very expensive lesson learned. With 100k plus RVs pay attention to the sales price listed on your documents. No monkey business on the paperwork!

Normally a dealer will mention that to the buyer and only write on the contract what you paid. I always ask before they start writing. MSRP is way over inflated on RVs. It is only worth what you pay and starts depreciating rapidly from there.

Is this property tax or sales tax? I would expect the property tax to be on the value of the thing in question, or the top line number, while the sales tax should be on the net number, the difference between the price and the trade that you actually paid out of pocket.Brian

Usually you pay sales tax on the price you paid less the trade value. It's only the difference that counts. In NH I believe the tax you pay when you register the vehicle is on MSRP. It then declines as the vehicle ages.

VintageRacer wrote:Is this property tax or sales tax? I would expect the property tax to be on the value of the thing in question, or the top line number, while the sales tax should be on the net number, the difference between the price and the trade that you actually paid out of pocket.BrianThey are speaking of tag registration fees :30 days latter in our home state of VA it was time to take care of registering the motor home at the state and county level. Turns out DMV uses the bill of sale and bases its taxes on the sale price of the new home and the county uses the same number DMV uses. This resulted in an overpayment of taxes in excess of 12k in the first year.DMV -Dept of Motor VehiclesHappened the same here in GA with a friend of mine who purchased a fiver toyhauler, becuase of a trade in, it was shown at the very inflated MSRP, with the trade in valued extra high, his tag taxes where not good.GA recently, did away with advalorim (Spelling?) taxes on driveables, so my recent purchase of a Class C, did not have additonal taxes when registrating for a tag, just tag fees ($25).:BSeems to be common way they do the trade-in sales. Would there be a benefit to the dealer's accounting - (taxes on their end, taking a loss on the trades)????Markiemark:C

It helps on the financing as it appears you have a big down payment / trade in

Purchasing an RV and taxes | Good Sam Community

20 Replies

Oaklevel
Explorer
Mar 03, 2015
hlloyd59 wrote:
Wow what a mistake. We had our eyes on an RV made by Thor as our next purchase and trading in our old RV.

On a whim we found a unit in Panama City Florida. We stopped and worked out an acceptable deal.

In the end the dealer wrote of the paperwork using retail prices. The new RV was listed at MSRP and our trade was grossed up well beyond book value. This all seemed innocent enough as the bottom line came to the negotiated price.

30 days latter in our home state of VA it was time to take care of registering the motor home at the state and county level. Turns out DMV uses the bill of sale and bases its taxes on the sale price of the new home and the county uses the same number DMV uses. This resulted in an overpayment of taxes in excess of 12k in the first year.

When purchasing a new motor home be careful in how the dealer draws up paper work. If they start at MSRP as the "sale price" and work down through various deductions such as promotions, inflated down payments etc. you could be in for a surprise when and if you have taxes based on the "sale price".

We contacted the dealer and explained our issue and how they way their paperwork exposed us to the unexpected taxes and sought a affidavit of the legitimate sales price. They would not produce the documents.

So a very expensive lesson learned. With 100k plus RVs pay attention to the sales price listed on your documents. No monkey business on the paperwork!

Wow yea you should have only had to pay the 4.05% Virginia vehicle tax on the negotiated price of the Motorhome not including any trade or down payment.... Your county/ city must have a very high tax rate too. For a 100K motor home in our VA county would have been around $1100 or less a year. And yes many VA counties still use the Jan 1 as ownership date. Nice here I don't pay Personal property tax on my utility trailers. Every county in Virginia is different so I can not imagine how different each state is..... :)
mobeewan
Explorer
Mar 01, 2015
hlloyd59 wrote:
'en Plain Air' wrote:
If we buy a used RV from a private party, out of state, and never bring it home to our state, how do we get tags? Are tags based on the residency state, irrespective of where he vehicle 'lives'?

If you have a place to store the RV in a state that has lower personal property taxes then license it in that state. A friend licensed his in VA but stores it in Florida. No personal property.

There are two issues. Number one is the purchase, where you pay all the sales/title tax. Number two is the annual personal property tax. Based on where the unit is stored county, city of any state you are exposed to those tax rates.

In the county I live in it used to be annualized. They have computerized their systems and now collect based on the month(s) its in their county. Used to be where it was on Jan. 1 is where you paid the taxes.

I find it frustrating the taxes you pay on something like this purchase. From DMV to personal property over the next five years we will pay in excess of 25k in taxes.

To avoid the personal property tax if your RV is not stored at home, you might want to check into registering and storing in a neighboring county or independent city with no property tax on RV's.

Hampton, Va, dropped the boat property tax to get people from other localities docking and storing at our marinas and bring dollars that way to our city. RV / TT owners made an issue out of it and those taxes were dropped as well. I have 2 TT's and a pop up and the tax rate is listed at .0000001 cents per hundred dollars of value. I still pay about $20 each for registration fees (the old city sticker fee). I only pay Hampton property taxes on my truck an open top utility trailer since it is not an RV.
4x4van
Explorer III
Feb 28, 2015
DSDP Don wrote:
Each state is different and you need to know the repercussions. I know some states do their taxing on the price of the new coach, minus the trade in, since you already paid the tax on the trade. In California, they don't care. If you buy an RV for $100K on Monday, you pay 8% tax ($8K). If you trade that coach in on Wednesday for a $150K coach, you'll pay another 8% on that purchase ($12K).

That is "sales tax". The OP is talking about the DMV tax/fees. The sales tax (or "used tax" on used vehicles) is a one time hit. The DMV fees are yearly, and in CA include the "registration" fees and the "License" fees, as well as a few more small added fees. Both the Registration and the License fees are based on the vehicle's value, although I'm not sure know how that value is determined. The "License" fee is the fee that is actually considered a "tax" (and is therefore tax deductible).
tatest
Explorer II
Feb 28, 2015
'en Plain Air' wrote:
If we buy a used RV from a private party, out of state, and never bring it home to our state, how do we get tags? Are tags based on the residency state, irrespective of where he vehicle 'lives'?

Tags can be where the vehicle stays, and is used, but you have to be able satisfy whatever residency requirements are imposed for tagging. These vary quite a bit, state to state.

My brother maintained residences in Michigan and Florida, kept his domicile in Michigan, registered his Michigan cars there. He registered his Florida car in Florida, which they let him do with a Michigan ID/Drivers License. But Florida is one of the easier states on this, they are used to accommodating a population of snowbirds. In other states you might be jumping through hoops, forming local legal entities for purposes of ownership and registration.

Even so, he didn't get it all right, because in handling his estate I've got Florida property caught up in differences between Michigan and Florida probate law. That would be another factor people usually don't want to think about.
hlloyd59
Explorer
Feb 27, 2015
'en Plain Air' wrote:
If we buy a used RV from a private party, out of state, and never bring it home to our state, how do we get tags? Are tags based on the residency state, irrespective of where he vehicle 'lives'?

If you have a place to store the RV in a state that has lower personal property taxes then license it in that state. A friend licensed his in VA but stores it in Florida. No personal property.

There are two issues. Number one is the purchase, where you pay all the sales/title tax. Number two is the annual personal property tax. Based on where the unit is stored county, city of any state you are exposed to those tax rates.

In the county I live in it used to be annualized. They have computerized their systems and now collect based on the month(s) its in their county. Used to be where it was on Jan. 1 is where you paid the taxes.

I find it frustrating the taxes you pay on something like this purchase. From DMV to personal property over the next five years we will pay in excess of 25k in taxes.
hlloyd59
Explorer
Feb 27, 2015
In some cases yes the financing is enhanced when they perform the calculations this way. We were prepared to make a sizable down payment but when we arrived they had worked it out with no down payment.

My main point is that in decision making you need to be aware that in some states the top line sales price that is listed is what you will pay various taxes on.

More importantly the dealer did not make us aware of these issues and offer an option. It was not their responsibility to do so, it was ours.

My post was to help any other folks purchasing a large ticket item and taxes. Be aware of the monkey business on the paperwork. The swing for us is almost 60k from MSRP. So we paid taxes on that 60k also.
mgirardo
Explorer
Feb 27, 2015
wildtoad wrote:

Is this different from / in addition to a sales tax

No, there is just the 1 tax and in the state of GA it is deductible.

-Michael
_en_Plain_Air_
Explorer
Feb 27, 2015
If we buy a used RV from a private party, out of state, and never bring it home to our state, how do we get tags? Are tags based on the residency state, irrespective of where he vehicle 'lives'?
wbwood
Explorer
Feb 26, 2015
One thing you need to know is that the state you live in will want what is theirs...or that they think is theirs.
wildtoad
Explorer II
Feb 26, 2015
Markiemark32 wrote:
mgirardo wrote:
Markiemark32 wrote:

GA recently, did away with advalorim (Spelling?) taxes on driveables, so my recent purchase of a Class C, did not have additonal taxes when registrating for a tag, just tag fees ($25).:B

Markiemark:C

That's not entirely accurate. GA did away with the yearly Ad Valorem tax. Now it is paid up front at the time of purchase. So yes, now we only pay the yearly tag fee, but we still pay the Ad Valorem at the time of purchase. It should be a line item on your bill of sale.

However, the kicker here is that we pay the Ad Valorem whether it is a new or used vehicle. In the past, we did not have to pay sales tax when buying a used vehicle. Now we pay the Ad Valorem when transferring the title. Then it's the tag fee, which in Glynn County is only $20.

-Michael

Correct --Thanks for clearing up.

MArkiemark:C

Is this different from / in addition to a sales tax

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