Tax free/discounted vehicles overseas

[Login Name]

So my time has come to an end over in England unfortunately and I head back to the states in a couple weeks...hopefully the BAA has figured out wtf is up with their airport security...and I've got a question for you guys that were stationed over in USAFE in the past.

I bought a "tax-free" car over here and will be taking it back with me. Is it a huge ass pain to register/title your car? I have a feeling I'm going to get stuck paying tax on it. Texas, where I'm a resident, wants 6.25% and Missouri where I'm going has all sorts of stipulations. People keep mentioning the 3-way split, wtf is that all about?

Thanks.

EDIT: I'm too lazy to do a search for this topic.

[ 20. August 2006, 06:09: Message edited by: Toro ]

[trailmix]

it better be one hell of a fancy custom-made, one of a kind car that does more than get you from A to B to bring it back from Europe! I'd say sell it, buy another one here and use the shipping money you are saving for the sales tax on the new vehicle.

So, what kind of car is it?

[Login Name]

considering i had gone through 3 used cars while i was here. car one got into an accident. car two was a mini that i sold to an amn who wanted it for parts b/c it was a lemon, car three blew up on the highway just outside of cambridge. said f-it, i need a new car.

went for a volvo. laugh all you want. great car that will last me forever and i saved about 6k buying it here.

you can't sell a tax-free car in england, part of the stipulation of buying it.

[trailmix]

So you can't sell it? you have to keep it forever? Wait... wait... so you have to keep that car for the rest of your life, and then will it to your children? You have to drive it until it is a pile of dust in your driveway? WTF they expect you to do with the car? Eventually you're going to get rid of it! How much is it to ship to the USA? Thats gotta be way more than the tax on the car!

[trailmix]

OK, here's what I got.

Average price of Volvo: $30,000

Tax in USA (avg 6.5%): $1950

Cost of Tax in UK: $6000

Cost of Shipping Vehicle (South Hampton to NY, NY): $3000

With these assumptions, you should ship your car to the USA, suck it up and pay the 6.5% tax in MO or wherever and come out $1000 ahead. OR you can pay the UK taxes, sell the car, move here and buy a new car same value and take a $1000 hit, but save the trouble of shipping your car.

[ 18. August 2006, 09:26: Message edited by: trailmix ]

[Herk Driver]

Originally posted by Login Name:

So my time has come to an end over in England unfortunately and I head back to the states in a couple weeks...hopefully the BAA has figured out wtf is up with their airport security...and I've got a question for you guys that were stationed over in USAFE in the past.

I bought a "tax-free" car over here and will be taking it back with me. Is it a huge ass pain to register/title your car? I have a feeling I'm going to get stuck paying tax on it. Texas, where I'm a resident, wants 6.25% and Missouri where I'm going has all sorts of stipulations. People keep mentioning the 3-way split, wtf is that all about?

Thanks.

EDIT: I'm too lazy to do a search for this topic.

OK. I did this from Ramstein so it should be similar. Don't sell the car like someone said above. You probably know this but you can ship for free through DoD or my car got shipped back by Volvo for free since it was only a year old. Check with the folks you bought it from about shipping options and costs. It should be less than $500 or at least that was the case in ETAR.

I tried to register in FL, but they wanted the sales tax since the car was less than a year old and a buddy of mine went to TX and the same story. How old is your car? If more than a year, I think you can get around the tax thing in FL, not sure about TX or MO. Call the DMV where you are going and ask what the costs are? Don't offer up the fact that you've never paid tax, just ask them about fees and what are the required documents. You'll need to let them know they you will need a title. If they tell you they want an original bill of sale, then they probably are going to try to nail you with sales tax. If both of them tell you this then go with the cheapest one. The bottom line is that you got a nice ride for a hell of a deal. The longer you've had the car the less likely they are to make you pay tax. (not because they don't want it but they won't think about it on a 2 or 3 year old car)

I'm not sure about the 3-way split. Who mentioned it? Have them explain it. I'd be curious since I'm back over here and looking to get another new car before I leave.

[trailmix]

Originally posted by Herk Driver:

You probably know this but you can ship for free through DoD or my car got shipped back by Volvo for free since it was only a year old. Check with the folks you bought it from about shipping options and costs. It should be less than $500 or at least that was the case in ETAR.

That's incredible. I certainly wouldn't expect the DoD to move my friggen CAR across the world for me, why not move my house too? Just take it apart and put it in a C-5 for me...

The quote I got was from UK to NY,NY for an average, running volvo, non-convertible, like-new.

www.shipmyvehicle.com

[Mike Honcho]

Just happened to a buddy of mine, PCS'ed from Mildenhall after buying a car through AAFES.

They titled it here in FL and had to pay about 1k in taxes. So they were out that money, but the car was shipped as part of the PCS, so don't think it was a big deal.

Also 2 on the advice to check with Volvo, I've been told the manufacturers wil ship it over for you within a certain perioud of time.

[Guest cbire880]

Why wouldn't they pay for you to ship the car back? They pay for you to drive it across the US when you PCS.

[trailmix]

Just because of the cost associated... but hey, this is the government we're talking about... I stand corrected.

[EvilEagle]

The cost associated isn't that much for the gov. It's a VERY normal thing, most of the guys in my old squadron at LN bought new cars over there because it's cheaper and they ship them back for you for free. If you do ship it back, make sure your insurance covers you -- the gov only insures them to $20k or something.

It depends on the state and how long you've had the car as far as the tax issue goes.

[Herk Driver]

Trailmix,

Just like shipping HHGs. They ship your stuff over and they ship it back. Am I supposed to walk to work everyday? Of course, they only ship one car and it doesn't have to be the same one you shipped over. The Pacific is a different story. Some places don't let you ship cars, it depends on the locale. Europe is not one of those. But, Volvo at Ramstein, does cover the costs of shipping it back up to a certain point. And EvilEagle is right about the Gov't and the coverage they have for damage. Talk to USAA and if you have the int'l policy still, they cover for most everything as far as damage goes.

[Guest Shady]

I was in the same situation a few years ago. Bought a car in Germany, PCS to Mississippi, and a Texas resident. I wanted to register it in Texas, but they wanted the sales tax on it. I told them I bought the car over a year prior and they said that doesn't matter how long you owned the car, if you have not yet paid the sales tax on it yet, they wanted it. So I ended up paying $35 to register it in Mississippi for a year, then went and got a Texas registration for $90, the "new resident" fee. They just assumed that I had "obviously" already paid the sales tax.

[Login Name]

thanks for the info. i've always planned on having volvo ship it since they'll probably take better care of it and send it directly to a volvo dealership whereas the govt will ship it to a port and i have to go pick it up. shipping it was never a concern, it's the damn tax.

the car is a '05, i picked it up in december so it'll be just shy of a year. i'll let you all know how it goes and the goat rope i experienced in a few weeks. i'll be shipping it out this week.

[M2]

My experience has been the same as shady's...you have to show some proof that you paid tax on it to register it in most states. Florida used to have a loophole that would let you get around that, but when I recently tried to register my new motorcycle there I was told it wasn't possible. As such, I bit the bullet and registered it here in Texas (and ended up paying tax on it). My father-in-law got hosed as he got a great deal on a Saab in the UK, but when he brought it back to Maryland they taxed him on the value of the car and not what he paid for it! Needless to say, he was

I think the "tax free" pitch is a fraud, you may not pay taxes on it when you buy it; but most likely you will pay taxes on it when you first register it in the States.

Also, if Volvo or Uncle Sam don't pay to ship it, look into TransCar. They took one of our Passats to Belgium for around $900 back in 2002. They are the main auto shippers for the US government.

Cheers! M2

[Guest JL]

You could always changed you residency to Oregon and register it there. We don't have sales tax.

[Guest Lia]

You should check around. We bought a car through AAFES while stationed at Ramstein. Some states have a military clause. I believe my husband registered it in Ohio and we didn't have to pay taxes. Let us know what happens.

[zrooster99]

As far as Texas is concerned, it depends on where you go. I tried to register my car in the DFW area when I got it back from England and I got the same story everyone else did (they wanted the full 6.25%), then I tried in San Antonio...same result. Finally I tried down here in beautiful Del Rio and they let me register without paying the tax. I'm not sure how they made it work, I was up-front with all my information.

[Guest crescent06]

Hey fellas, heard from a guy at work today that there is the opportunity to purchase new vehicles while overseas from the USO at a substantial discount, maybe even tax free (??). He didn't have a lot of info and a google search didn't really return any results. Was wondering if anyone here has some info. I'm checking out the USO website but first hand experience would be great if anyone has used this or knows someone who has.

Also, google did lead me to Military OneSource, don't know how legit this program is either.

https://www.militaryautosource.com/program.aspx?id=36

[bfargin]

Hey fellas, heard from a guy at work today that there is the opportunity to purchase new vehicles while overseas from the USO at a substantial discount, maybe even tax free (??).

I don't think the USO does anything with auto sales. AAFES has some buying services and many of the European car makers (Audi, Volvo, BMW, MB, etc) offer military sales programs (sometimes at good discounts). Shop around and price them. I know BMW and Mercedes european delivery gives a 5 to 8% discount on cars. You pick it up in Germany drive it around for a few days and then drop it off at the airport on your way back to the USA.

https://www.mein-mercedes-benz.de/content/germany/retailer-6/niederlassung_frankfurt/de/home/passenger_cars/home/new_cars/our_services/rep_military_sales/rep_military_sales_faq.html

https://www.bavarianmotorcars.com/bmw/?gclid=CJXIwL32-aQCFYrt7QodCVn3gQ

For American cars search for military sales and you'll find some websites that cater to US manufacturers cars.

[HiFlyer]

There is an overseas sales progran through AAFES. Its been a while, but over my career I bought five cars (three Corvettes, a Thunderbird, and a Mercury. The deals vary, but were generally about 8% below dealer cost. For example, I paid $10,200 for my 1980 Corvette, which had a MSRP sticker price of $14,800. What the "deals" are now I don't know, but the program still exists. The catch...you have to be overseas on orders to use the service. No quick trips to Europe on vacation or a quick TDY on a C-17 and stop by the BX. In those days the BX offer was only on American cars (although, as mentioned, some of the foreign types had a different deal). The BX deals were buy overseas, pick up at a dealer when you got back to the U.S. The foreign deals were generally buy a U.S. spec car there, then have it shipped back when you returned to CONUS.

Edit: By "stationed overseas" the definition in those days was PCS or an extended TDY that provided you with a USAFE or PACAF BX privilege card, whatever the rules allowed then in terms of length of TDY. A 60-day TDY was sufficient in our case, but I'm not sure what the minimum was. I know the C-141 crews passing thru did not qualify, because they did not have an intheater mailing address. The degree to which the car company sales people (not BX employees) would "work with you" to get a sale, I'm not sure.

Edited October 30, 2010 by HiFlyer

[zrooster99]

For example, I paid $10,200 for my 1980 Corvette

Couldn't resist...I paid a (discounted) $48,000 for a 2002 vette...how times have changed. Anyway, I bought a car and a Harley through AAFES,and my wife bought a BMW (before we were married), all at a pretty good discount. Add Porsche to the list of makers that offer a discuount to US Military overseas, though they are hard to track down. As a note, the AFFES offer also applies to those deployed and most AF deployed locations have places you can go to work out the details.

[capt4fans]

Anyone know if you can use this discount if you're headed overseas on orders to have a car ready when you get there? I've got orders to Ramstein, and i"d like to try and get the car ordered, and maybe ready to pickup there when I get in, but still get the discount.

[Toro]

Anyone know if you can use this discount if you're headed overseas on orders to have a car ready when you get there?

I don't know the answer, but here's contact info for AAFES New Car Sales and Auto Exchange in the Ramstein area. There's an email for the AAFES site and a link to the Auto Exchange main page, which has a contact section. If you have trouble getting in touch with either of them, PM me and I can call them for you.

[Flare]

Don't forget about Pentagon Car Sales, who is the BMW dealer.

https://www.pentagoncarsales.com/