Purchasing car out of state and registering in DC

[Anonymous]

The DC DMV site does not answer my question at all, so hoping one of you fine folks may be able to help! My husband and I are in the market for a new car, and are trying to figure out if it's better/worse to buy a car outside of DC versus in DC. Backstory is that we are currently quarantining in Indiana, so could purchase a car here and drive it back to DC when we return. My biggest question is the excise tax: If we buy in Indiana and pay whatever taxes here, will we then also have to pay the DC excise tax when we go to register our car there? I've been through something similar once - I bought my parents old car from them in Indiana but had to actually transfer the title in DC, which ended up being much more expensive than expected, so trying to avoid that here if possible. I know it's not exactly the same situation, as we'd already hold title with this new purchase, but I truly cannot figure out how excise tax would apply if we were to purchase out of state. Thanks in advance for any insight/experience into this!

[Anonymous]

You will pay the taxes and fees for your home state. The dealer will take care of most of the paperwork for you.

[Anonymous]

You pay the DC excise tax either at time of purchase (most likely) or time of registration. If the dealer charges you the wrong state tax I believe DC will collect the difference then go after it from the dealer or other state directly.

https://dmv.dc.gov/service/buying-vehicle

[Anonymous]

When I bought a car in CO years ago right before moving to the DC area, I told the CO dealership that I would be living in VA. So, I got out paying the taxes in CO but I did have to provide the dealership with a VA address.

[Anonymous]

I once brought a car up from Florida to Illinois and I believe law was that it depended on how long I had owned the car. If it was recently purchased there was going to be a tax charged. I had bought it about six months earlier so there was no problem.

[Anonymous]

There is some legal way to save on taxes. I don't remember ins and outs but there was something like you had to buy a car in your name.. then before crossing the state line make it a gift to your wife or something.. You may google it.

[Anonymous]

This was a few years ago, but DC did not make me pay taxes on a new car that I had bought out of state because the dealer had already registered it in that state. When I went to register it and transfer my plates, DC treated it like a used car and made me take it in for inspection. (I think that generally when you buy in the DMV the VA and MD dealers will register it directly in DC for you and then it’s treated like a new car by DC.)

[Anonymous]

You owe DC sales/excise tax if you're a DC resident and register the car in DC. If you move to DC after purchasing a car and have registered it elsewhere first (including paying any applicable state tax) then you don't have to pay DC tax to register it in DC.

Sounds like you won't meet the residency criterion, so you'll be obligated to pay tax in DC, though I'm sure there's some way you could register the car in Indiana and pretend to "move" to DC (of course, IN tax may be higher).

Otherwise, just get temporary plates from the IN dealer and register the car when you return.

[Anonymous]

I did this earlier this year. I was in NY for an week - and they has the car I wanted in stock.

The car dealership that I worked with used some type of service for when they had this situation. There was no additional charge or anything.

A few items to check:
1 - If you are trading in your car do you have the title with you?
2 - We did not have our checkbook with us for our HELOC - this would have been our preferred financing tool. If you are going to use this, see if you can get a check.
3 - If the dealership is offering free oil-changes

[Anonymous]

..... hit reply to soon.

oil changes - negotiate for either a lower price OR "coupons" that you can give to a family member.