Re: New tax scam?
First, I'm not surprised that this is happening in NJ. I lived there in the 80s and had a somewhat different, but equally stupid experience.
I bought a 1958 Whirlwind, ........
The whole thiing was resolved after I called the main NJ DMV office in Trenton. After being passed around to various officials who kept trying to tell me the same thing, I pushed to speak to one of the top managers. That did happen, and when he heard my story, the guy actually laughed and said, "they told you what?" He then chuckled again and said, "you know, sounds to me like you have a home made trailer. don't you think?" I laughed along with him and replied something along the lines of," yup, I think that's exactly what it is."
Within a few days, I went to another local DMV, told them I wanted to register a home made trailer, paid the money (if I remember correctly, they based the tax on the weight of the trailer), received a title and registration, and went on my merry way.
Moral to the story: Raise hell!
BTW, One argument I would make if I had documentation of the sale value, is that retailers do sales on merchandise all the time. Sometimes they even sell below wholesale to clear inventory. When you buy such items as a retail consumer, you don't pay taxes on the original price. In any state that I have lived in, that bit of reality includes new cars. So, if some dealer decides to unload a $40,000 gas hog for $32,000 just to move it, and you don't have to pay sales tax on MSRP, how does any DMV get the stones to make you pay an arbitrary price for a used car?
I've lived in NJ nearly my whole life, when it comes to trailers, I've found that they are all 'Homemade". There are no titles for trailers to this day unless over a certain weight limit. They won't even issue you one. The way it works is that when the new trailer is bought and registered, the owner surrenders the Certificate of Origin and receives a vehicle registration card, that card then is the only record of ownership. If a trailer goes dormant and isn't registered, it's lifeline dies and like you mentioned, if it's not registered annually, there is no way to register it. By calling it homemade, the trail starts anew with a freshly issued number.
The problem I have with this whole deal is that in our sales tax laws, it clearly states what is and isn't taxable and at what rate. Motor vehicles are taxed on the amount of the PURCHASE PRICE, not the value. The letter came from the Div. of Taxation, Common Sales department. I have a lot of experience in sales tax laws and have been down the road of fighting misinterpretations before. They were on a kick a few years ago trying to charge yard sale owners and buyers retroactive sales tax. They also went through all the local flea markets and hit everyone up for sale tax and tried to require everyone that rented a table for a day at the flea market have a state tax ID number.
They were hassling little old ladies selling off garage items, they were estimating the amount sold by some crazy formula which amounted to well over what anyone probably ever made at a flea market.
That was tossed out in court since only 'new' items and weekly vendors of such items actually fell into that set of laws. I'm sure the few that forked over their days earnings plus some to stay out of jail that day never got reimbursed.
The last time the came around, the deal is that no one admits to being the one that rented the table, so they can never find the seller to hassle. I think its pretty pathetic to harass someone just trying to sell a few items to get ahead of just to clean out the garage.
My case last year had to do with selling my old car, I bought a newer car, didn't trade in the old one since they wouldn't give me squat for it, so I ran and add and sold it for $6500. They came after me for selling used cars, both the city and state filed charges for illegally selling an automobile from a residential property and the state charged that I didn't collect the proper sales tax. I am not a dealer so I could not and haven't the right to collect any sales tax. The city claimed that since I had advertised the car in the paper and sold it from my house I was acting as an illegal used car dealer even though it was the only car or vehicle I've sold in about 20 years, (kept that one that long). I couple of calls to a lawyer buddy and they dropped the charges with an apology. The state persisted in their charges of failure to collect sales tax. The state was going on the cities charge of acting as a dealer, therefore if I was acting as a dealer, I failed to also collect tax.
It was the biggest bunch of bull I had ever heard. When I asked the idiot whom I first talked to, they told me that it was illegal to display or sell a vehicle at a residential address. When I asked what I was supposed to do with a car I didn't want, they told me that it had to be traded in. What if I hadn't bought my other car from a dealer? Am I supposed to just take a loss and let the dealer give what ever they wish for the trade in? They had only offered me $200 for it. They then proceeded to complain about me owning more than one vehicle, saying that there was an ordinance stating that there can only be two registered vehicles per address. I have two pickups, a van and two cars, three boats and a motorcycle. None of that held up in court, and it all got dropped once I really started to push back.
My feelings were that if they didn't want you to have more than one vehicle, they shouldn't have sold me the tags and registration in the first place. What it amounted to was that a state law and to an extent the US constitution backed that up. If they were to enforce it here, they'd have to do it ever where and a municipality cannot override the state.
My argument was what about a house with a husband and wife and two kids that drove. The two vehicle limit would be broken by everyone that registered a truck and owned a boat and trailer, which would make three in all, you could have the trailer but not the boat, or a boat and not the trailer by the way it was worded.
Its amazing how often though the persons enforcing the laws change their meaning or ignore the whole law just to write a summons.
The way the law is really written, if it's registered, they can't touch it, no matter what.
I sent off a nasty letter with new copies of the bill of sale signed by the seller, if they care to hunt him down, they will find he has the same copy.
I am sorry but there's no way I will or can track down the original owner, if he's even still alive, he was 96 or older back when I bought the car, I can't even say if he's even still alive and I know that they sold his house as it was the reason why the car had to go.
The trucks were bought from a dealer in the next town, that closed up last fall. Good luck finding that seller. I have the sales contract for those trucks, there is one contract for the pair of trucks. (It was my original intention to make one good truck out of the two, but both ended up having the same problem and I fixed both). Since I worked in and around dealers my whole life, I am quite familiar with the way the tax process should work, what gets me is that they are trying to collect retroactive tax on an amount that never changed hands. A judge once explained to me that the tax is on the transaction, not the money or the item, the amount of the tax is directly proportionate to the sale price determined by that areas sales tax rate where the sale took place. Our current sales tax is 7%, I should never have to pay more than 7% of the amount of any transaction.
Its also not my responsibility to prove to them the amount of the sale, they have a signed bill of sale from the seller and no reason to doubt it. When I buy something at a discount for what ever reason, I assume it's condition by it's price. Do you mean to tell me they question every vehicle that's sold below book value? I would venture to guess that every full size car or SUV has been heavily discounted lately, the local dealer called me with some pretty amazing prices on a new Town Car. I was actually thinking of buying one till they started this, they're liable to try and tax me for the full $50K, not the severely discounted selling price. I can't wait till they come across the 2007 Ranger I bought last week for $1000. I have no idea why it was so cheap, the owner died, his wife sold put the truck on Craigslist cheap, when I showed up and said I didn't want it since it was a short bed, the price just kept dropping, until I finally asked what was wrong with it and did they have a clear title. When I saw an unencumbered title, I forked over the cash and took it home. 2.3L, black, 2007 Ranger short bed with 21K on the odometer NADA is about $8k, I suppose they'll come up with a crazy figure making a bare bones no option pickup into some sort of high dollar vehicle. I have a signed bill of sale, there's nothing wrong with the truck other than it's a short bed. The only options are ac and a radio. I didn't need it but for that price, how could I not take it? My other trucks are nearing 100K and are over 10 years old now, I just started fresh for $1000. It's not my fault the seller let it go cheap, if I wasn't there, someone else would have been. The same goes for my car and other trucks. Right place, right time and lots of deal searching online. If the newer truck will do the job of my older ones, it will stay, if not, I'll run it a while and sell it or put it away till I do need it. At that price, I can afford to sit on it till it's needed. I am always looking for the next vehicle or next deal, if a better deal come along, there's no law saying I can't change trucks or cars at will. I am not buying them with resell in mind but if the chance to make a buck comes about, how can they tell me it's illegal? I certainly won't sell it as cheap as I got it but will drive it a while to make sure it's OK. If someone offers me the right price, it's gone, just as anything else I own would be.
