Maricopa County (AZ) Sales Tax

When you purchase a car, the laws regarding the applicable sales tax are a bit more complicated. The first factor to consider is that there is a base 6% sales tax. Let’s say that your car costs 10k. You pay 6% on that, which is $600 on sales tax. On top of this cost, you also pay fees for vehicle registration and licenses. If you complete the transaction via a dealership, then all this paperwork and its cost are factored in on the sales agreement. If you buy the car via a private seller, then it is you, the buyer that needs to process all this paperwork via the local tax office and vehicle registration office. You would be responsible for paying registration fees and the title.

States allow for trade-in allowances, and this is a fantastic way to reduce your tax bill. Instead of selling your old vehicle, and then incurring sales taxes on that transaction, you can bring your old vehicle to the dealership and do a trade-in allowance for a new car. The value of the trade-in is reduced from the sticker price of the car that your intent to purchase. Then some dealerships offer rebates, which further reduces your total sales tax.

Let’s say that you will purchase the same car as in the above example that costs 10k. Instead, this time you have an old car to do a trade-in that is valued at 2k. The dealership offers you a 1k rebate offer. In that case, your sales tax will not be charged anymore on the original price of 10k, but it will be charged on the reduced price after the rebate and the trade-in. More specifically, we will reduce from 10k, the value of the rebate (1k) and the value of the trade-in (2k), hence a total of 3k of discount. We would end up paying out-of-pocket 7k. The applicable sales tax on a 7k car is $7000*6%= $420. We can see that we are paying a lower sales tax compared to the previous tax of $600. We are not paying any taxes on the old car that you brought for a rebate and not paying any sales taxes on that.

Sales taxes add up and increase your costs. Everybody would like to save on costs. There are legal ways that you can use to avoid paying sales taxes. The first detail to know is a court ruling of 1992. According to the supreme court, you are not liable for sales taxes when you buy out of state. This means that if you do some research and buy from sellers that are established out of state, you will be able to avoid sales taxes.

Another great way to avoid sales taxes is to shop at eBay or other eCommerce stores where items are sold by individual sellers. We need to remember that companies that sell on these platforms are liable to charge sales taxes. The same strategy can be used to find big companies or established merchants that have their eCommerce business separate from their brick-and-mortar shops. Such is the case of Barnes&Nobles and Borders. Also making small research on how the sales tax is handled by the seller is a great way to save money, as the merchant may have special agreements with the government.

Another great way to avoid sales taxes is to purchase from states that do not incur sales taxes. If you cannot eliminate the sales tax, then why not reduce it. Since sales taxes depend on location, then choosing the right place to buy the car, will affect your sales taxes, as each county and zip code have their own applicable sales tax rate. The type of car also affects your applicable sales tax rate. A good way to reduce your sales taxes is to choose the right permanent address.

Sales taxes are collected by the Department of Revenue. The taxes go to the General Fund, and it funds government expenses. Some parts of the sales tax fund state operations, such as K-12 education. The money can be used to fund other public services. The money collected from taxes is also used to pay the wages of jobs that are related to government agencies, such as police departments, libraries, museums, etc.

You need to know all the applicable sales taxes that you should collect. You collect these taxes on each transaction. When it comes time to file your business quarterly returns, you declare your sales taxes collected and you pay them to the Department OF Revenue. You pay these taxes on January 15, April 15, July 15, and October 15. The type of sales taxes collected, and the rate depends on the business incorporation location and the applicable laws of that location.

A sales tax certificate is a document that allows a business to make sales-tax-free purchases of goods and services that it intends to reuse for business and to later sell and collect sales tax on. Some states allow buyers and businesses that engage in frequent transactions to create a blanket certificate. This is a simplified version of the sale certificate, and it is valid for a specified amount of time.

Sellers that do not have a large volume of transactions do not even need a sale certificate. Such is the case of garage sales. Some states offer direct payment certificates, which allow for the purchasers to not pay any sales tax to their sellers, but they pay everything to the government directly. There are numerous intricate scenarios and for this, you need a good CPA or a sales law specialist to better guide you.