I'm not at all surprised a the lunacy of the California car tax
proposal. This is the sort of stuff that legislatures get up to all the time.
What I find amusing is that in an attempt to collect more money, they will
actually collect less from those who can most afford it, the collectors of
expensive vintage vehicles! Perfect revenge....
Similar craziness applies in most states with regards to sales taxes
on road cars, (usually a flat % of the transfer price), which in most states
legally applies to transactions involving vintage racing cars (e.g. Indycars
and F-1 cars)!
I am interested in open wheel Lotuses, and once bought one from a
gentleman in Massachusetts, and spent some time talking to lawyers about this.
It is necessary to go through a variety of machinations (e.g. making sure that
the car is not in the state of residence of either of you at the time of the
transfer) to make sure that you are not legally on the hook for the sales tax.
They normally wouldn't catch you if you don't pay unless you try to title the
vehicle, which you wouldn't normally do if you didn't want to put it on the
road, but strictly speaking, you are liable, and they might find you via
things like lien records (if you have a loan on the vehicle).
What drives me batty is that they want to tax the darn things like
they were street cars, but just try licensing one to drive on the street! I
can see it now, you roll up to the inspection station in your single seat,
open wheel, 500 HP, 1300 pound F-1 car.... I swore to God that if I couldn't
avoid the sales tax, I was gonna try.
Noel
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