Value reporting of recently purchased cars - WA state

[kenikh]

In Washington State, you have to pay sales and usage taxes when registering a just purchased car. I am wondering if anyone has a ballpark value for what a value is that won't raise eyebrows. Considering the massive fluctuations in value, it's pretty hard to gauge. Lower valuation is obviously better. To be clear, this is a *theoretical* question. The thoertical car is '69S.

[fryardds]

Heck that old thing couldn't have cost more than $5 or 6K at the most.

[kenikh]

That's my thought. The WA DOL website has an excise tax valuator, which kicked out a number around $5500, but I figured it had to be wrong: too low of actual value, too high for the tax payable. Damned site is really ambiguous. Perhaps it is the acceptable value; we know how slow the gov't is...

[sithot]

I do not like the DMV. They cannot keep ownership nor jurisdiction records straight and it creates more problems with local taxing agencies as they want their pound of flesh too. I just received a bill from the locals wanting money for a car I have not owned in 2 years that IS registered in the State of Virginia to a new owner. I suppose that a high-tech computer system would never figure that out by cross-referencing VIN numbers.
Virginia has gone to a "book" for values. I was the recipient of a DMV-Nazis wrath on a motorcycle purchase a few years ago by a very beligerent attendant. Actually, beligerent is putting it nicely. She attemted to it up in a "book" (the bike is 40 years old!). Somebody working along side her noted that the "book" didn't go back that far. During all of this I finally advised here as nicely as I could, considering all the courtesy she had extended me, that it was not a BMW car!
The look in her eyes was full of contempt and the stare that could kill was truly pleasant as well. She completed the transaction but not without a few more snide remarks.
And, fwiw, I was not throwing a curve on the value. It was a basket-roller case that I had not paid a lot for. In fact you get to pay a minimum no matter how little it cost.

Tom

[Soterik]

If you go in with a low number... the DMV substation office you go to will "tell" you a number that they have as the lowest number they are "allowed" to use.

The only way to get a lower number to use for your bill of sale is to get the bill of sale notarized by the seller.

E

[john rice]

In California they have been known to call up sellers well after the sale to ask what the exact sale price was. I once got such a call and went to my records and advised what I had indicted. The seller had asked for no ,,,, errrr... considerations, so I gave the only information I could. That phone call cost the buyer dearly.

Ever since I have been very careful when buying/selling to make sure that both of us are on the same page and usually insure it is in writing.

Also, I have been told that they sometimes keep their rookie DMV Investigators busy checking around to keep you honest.

My real fear is that they will someday cross reference insurance and DMV records. At present this is not done. I was able to verify this in a carefully worded clarification with my specialty insurance carrier. But don't think someone isn't working on it!

[NeunElf]

There's one other thing to think about. If something goes wrong with the sale, do you want your paperwork to say you paid, say, $10k less than you really paid?

If you have to settle a dispute with the seller the American Way (lawyers at 20 paces) you're sure not going to collect more than you declared.

[kenikh]

Ah, but sooo many improvements were made by me in my own garage after the purchase of the ratty car, that it is now worth $20K more than I paid...

[Turbo Dave]

Kenik, I had Erik's experience- I said lowwww, they said 'prove it', and made me pay their book value (which was still pretty low)

[john_cramer]

Kenikh, how about this for a number: the one you paid the seller?

Nobody likes paying sales tax. But suppose someone were to (hypothetically, of course) report a value that was different than what was paid? If the regulators/law enforcement types then had an issue with that disclosure, I submit that the penalties and hassle associated with trying to explain everything would far outweigh any difference in sales tax owing.