As some of you know, I'm in the process of selling my 360 and have received several offers of trade + cash for a P-car. My question is, do I have any tax implications if I trade my car for a less expensive car with another private party? I've bought and sold many cars in my past, but have never done a private party trade.

Thanks in advance!

 

WA state will use blue book, so if you buy a car for $100 & it's worth $10,000, then you pay tax on $10,000. When you sell, you don't have declare the money to be taxed.

 

I know that's the case if I'm buying a car, but what about a trade for a car of lesser value?

 

when you title the car unless you go thru an actual dealer you will have to pay sales tax on that vehicle no matter what.

if you know a used car guy he might be able to run the transaction through his dealership and you would have to reimburse him with the B and O tax. I'm not 100% sure on this but maybe it would work. b and o is fairly inexpensive if this does work

Roy Cats or someone like that might pull it off.

 

Thanks for the response, Mark. It seems strange that I would have to pay sales tax for trading a car private party. That definitely changes things

 

I am pretty sure if you are trading for a car of lesser value, you will end up paying tax on the difference in value. It is not so much a "sales tax" in WA on vehicles, they call it a USE TAX (that's why we pay it everytime we buy a car, regardless if used or not) You are paying them the tax rate for USING the vehicle on state roads.

 

simon,

are you saying you'd like to go ahead and trade for my boxster? whooopieee! hehe! j/k..j/k.

best of luck with your sale. i'll miss seeing "her".

 

If you trade "down" there should be no tax and Mark is correct that you'd likely run it through a dealership to get the paperwork done, if you don't want trouble from DOL who may not understand what you're doing. Consider calling the CPA that does the books for your business. They will get you straight. When trading "up" you pay the tax on the spread. When you trade "down" it may be that there is zero tax implications, which would make sense, since it's "negative spread" but since when did taxes make sense?

 

Just letting you know there is a form you can fill out, not sure of the name, but it is a statement of the condition of the car and you pay the taxes on whatever the bill of sale says. Just letting you know its out there . PM me if you have questions.

 

Just got off the phone with a WA state licensing rep. I was told that even in a private party trade, tax is only paid on the spread, not on the full value of the less expensive vehicle. That seems fair to me.

Good to know for anyone else planning on swapping cars with your neighbor

 

What are you trading for?

 

996TT to be enjoyed daily If the deal goes through I'll be selling my current DD, an E46 M3 vert on 6speed as well.

 

Good choice. I drive my 996TT dialy this summer as well.

 

So you still pay sales tax? If car A (you own) is $100k and car B (you are trading for) is $50k are you saying that the WA rep is telling you that you pay the sales tax on the $50k? Or does WA State get sales tax from the guy you are swapping with and you don't pay a thing.

This is new to me I've never traded a car. I just know every car I've gone in and changed the title on after purchase they request what you paid. Then they pull out their little book and charge me sale price on it. Works in your favor sometimes and against others. They only allow receipts on older rods and stuff.

If you walked in with the neighbor and he paid the 50k sales tax burden I could imagine they just might let you off with no sales tax. I'm now confused and need to go back to sleep on my desk.

 

I think Simon is saying he pays nothing and the other person pays tax on the spread (pos spread for him neg spread for Simon).