wildwestsydney

Holy cow I put my 1984 928 euro 5spd on the road today in Massachsetts and the RMV charged me kelly BB for the sales tax. They claim it is worth $10,200 this multiplied by 5% equals $500.00 bucks. I paid 1/3 of the $10,200. I asked what caould be done and they gave me an abatement form. Anyone from Mass go thru this?

aggravation

Sorry to hear that. Massachusetts must be one heck of a great place because from what I've seen you guys sure put up with a lot of government crap to live there! Are you sure the Tea Party was in Boston?

dr bob

Use the same tactic that the insurance guys use to 'value' your car after they declare it totalled for you. Get comps from autotrader, etc., to show the market. KBB has no clue about the market for specialty and low-volume low-turnover cars. Plus they project retail value based on wholesale numbers, and track sales by dealers.

Argue with your motor vehicles dept. You prove what you payed with the signed title and bill of sale. It should be pretty much up to them to prove you wrong. JMHO.

Skiviking

Well having moved up here to Vermont from Bedford Mass, I was happy to be out of taxachusetts...But move up here....They increased the tax to 6% then when I went to register my 83 928S I give them the Bill of sale for $1800 and they go to a old Magazine for antiques....look mine up and Bill me for 6% on 10 Grand value.....I tell them that I 've got a bit of work to make it worth that if I decide to go that far...They give me this form to take to a dealer for an appraisal....I go to 3 dealers...they all say the best they can do is value it @ $6300-6500. They don't want to bring any DMV people questioning their appaisals if they go to the value I paid for it......WHAT A RACKET!!! SO after days off to run around and get some appraisals I still end up at having to pay for the value of $6500...I showed canceled check for payment and NY owners receipt.....Didn't matter if I wanted to take More days off of work and lose even more money, I could try and appeal it......BS
I'm still working on the car and haven't driven it since almost the day I bought it and drove it home.
Gotta love how our states bring in the extra moola!!! Sorry I feel your PAIN Wild West Sidney!!

Stan.Shaw@Excell.Net

You haven't got to the best part. In MA they charge a property tax, know as an excise tax, it is based on the original value and only depreciates for 5 years, before it stays at the same value forever... Just for the honor of owning the vehicle in MA.

Excise tax is annual

jccw

Surprisingly enough, Massachusetts state tax collection is 6.67 percent of personal income (31st among the states), while South Carolina collects 6.41 percent (34th). But Vermont collects 11.36 percent, making them Number One! We promote the nickname "Taxachusetts" just to keep the riff-raff out.

For the particular problem at hand, dig out whatever evidence you have as to the actual price you paid for the car and go for the abatement. My experience has always been that my cars were valued at what I paid for them, with no more than a quizzical look from the collector.

dprantl

Yep... We moved far far away. And a year later they were still sending us property tax collection threats for our condo (for that year) that we sold before we left. When I called them up, they said I *MUST* pay or come in personally, can you believe that. They also tried to charge us vehicle excise tax a year later as well for all our cars that were no longer registered in MA. **** them.

Dan
'91 928GT S/C

Marine Blue

Agreed, I've lived in MA, ME, CA and NY. I would rank ME as the highest tax rate followed by NY, MA and then CA. Funny thing is that if you consider what you get, it works out exactly opposite of what you would expect. The state with the least amount of services had the highest taxes.

To the topic on hand, if you show what you paid for the car with a bill of sale or receipt they will tax you using that rate. If you don't have it they will tax you whatever KBB values it at. Did you get a bill of sale or is the value shown on the old title?

stealth

Yes. Charged tax on Kelly BB value for my 86.5 when I paid about 30% of that. You can apply for an abatement and send pics, etc, but life got too busy and I didn't get it done and they kept $300 or so to which they had no right. I do assume that showing pics of torn seats, cracked dashes, broken spoiler, etc. like mine had would've made a difference but I don't have actual results to relate since I never submitted it.

The good news is that we do not get tested for emissions after 10/1/08 because they will switch to OBD-II-only testing, no dynos or sniffers, and sharks don't have OBD-II

stealth

They tax you at the HIGHER of (a) kelly blue book or (b) bill of sale/price paid. If price paid is lower than Kelly, you pay on Kelly.

ROG100

The same rule applies here in Texas now.

Stan.Shaw@Excell.Net

Interesting, do you have a link to reference this? Does it mean just safety inspections after 10/1/8 for anything pre OBD-II?

wildwestsydney

To cover the side topic developing about mass inspections. 1996 and old NO MORE EMISSIONS! only 1996 and newer with OBD will get plugged into the computer. The Dyno test is gone. I got my sticker today just a safety inspection. It is effective now no waiting until October. Wooo Hooo.

stealth

I found scarce web info, but I found nothing saying it was patently false, only posts from people who were inspectors or who claimed to have responses from the state about it agreeing that it was so. Most of these were on Corvette, Mustang, etc. forums. Search for "massachusetts emissions OBD-II October", or something like that.

The rules call for all dynos to be removed by January 1 (I read that in the regulations/FAQ for inspection stations). It's not that we technically do not have to meet emissions standards, but that they will not perform tests on non-OBD-II vehicles. Non-OBD-II diesel vehicles will get an "opacity test".

Here is the registry link:
http://www.mass.gov/rmv/inspections/index.htm

And a link to what is at least posing as a transcription of a response from the registry to an individual asking (last post on the page):
http://www.srtforums.com/forums/f38/...exempt-437891/

stealth

No kidding? Too bad I got a ticket (from some a** who was on construction detail or something while I scooted by in traffic, sent it to me in the mail) about 6 weeks ago for emissions failure. My fault for not getting a "fresh" failure sticker with the right color sooner. $50 fine is nothing, but the draconian rules in this state make emissions failure a points offense...will cost me about $2k over 5 years due to owning 3 cars...unless I drop collision on the GT...