[Sephx1]

I bought my 2021 2SS 1LE in Las Vegas, NV in March. It was exactly the car I was looking for, summit white with A10 trans and PDR. I had been looking for a while and this one wasn’t too far away from my home in Phoenix, Arizona. I did my research on sales tax and read that what I paid in Nevada would offset what I owed in Arizona. What wasn’t disclosed in the official summary on the MVD website is the nuances in the tax systems between states that can cost you.

I went to the Arizona MVD today and here’s how it went:

State tax was not too much of a problem, I paid more in Nevada than I would have in Arizona. No additional tax owed.

I paid $800 in county tax in Nevada, Arizona has no county tax so it didn’t offset anything there.

Nevada does not collect a city use tax, but most Arizona cities do. I owed an additional $1,051 in city use tax. Says the woman behind the glass holding the MSO for my car that the dealer insisted on mailing to the MVD location of my choice instead of mailing it to me.

All told I paid $5500 in tax on a taxable amount of $52,680. Rebates are taken off the taxable amount so that’s not what I paid for the car.

In hindsight I would have done the following:

1. Refused to buy from a dealer that would not allow me to pay all taxes in my state of residence,

2. Refused to buy from a dealer that would not mail the MSO directly to me. I paid in full for the car, I see no reason why I can’t have it.

3. Used the tax calculator on the MVD’s website. When I did this after the fact it showed the city use tax owed and I could have just as easily done this before I made the deal.

Hope this helps someone else from falling into the same trap. FWIW I am at least enjoying the car.

[GearheadSS]

Originally Posted by Sephx1

I bought my 2021 2SS 1LE in Las Vegas, NV in March. It was exactly the car I was looking for, summit white with A10 trans and PDR. I had been looking for a while and this one wasn’t too far away from my home in Phoenix, Arizona. I did my research on sales tax and read that what I paid in Nevada would offset what I owed in Arizona. What wasn’t disclosed in the official summary on the MVD website is the nuances in the tax systems between states that can cost you.

I went to the Arizona MVD today and here’s how it went:

State tax was not too much of a problem, I paid more in Nevada than I would have in Arizona. No additional tax owed.

I paid $800 in county tax in Nevada, Arizona has no county tax so it didn’t offset anything there.

Nevada does not collect a city use tax, but most Arizona cities do. I owed an additional $1,051 in city use tax. Says the woman behind the glass holding the MSO for my car that the dealer insisted on mailing to the MVD location of my choice instead of mailing it to me.

All told I paid $5500 in tax on a taxable amount of $52,680. Rebates are taken off the taxable amount so that’s not what I paid for the car.

In hindsight I would have done the following:

1. Refused to buy from a dealer that would not allow me to pay all taxes in my state of residence,

2. Refused to buy from a dealer that would not mail the MSO directly to me. I paid in full for the car, I see no reason why I can’t have it.

3. Used the tax calculator on the MVD’s website. When I did this after the fact it showed the city use tax owed and I could have just as easily done this before I made the deal.

Hope this helps someone else from falling into the same trap. FWIW I am at least enjoying the car.

I'm pretty sure the MSO never goes to the customer. That's how it is in Texas anyway. MSO goes to the tax/title office and to the state and then the state issues a title off of the MSO.

I would think that you should have been allowed to pay your taxes at your local office. It's odd that they made you pay Nevada taxes since you don't live there. Seems jicky to me.

[Future1LEa10]

Originally Posted by GearheadSS

I'm pretty sure the MSO never goes to the customer. That's how it is in Texas anyway. MSO goes to the tax/title office and to the state and then the state issues a title off of the MSO.

I would think that you should have been allowed to pay your taxes at your local office. It's odd that they made you pay Nevada taxes since you don't live there. Seems jicky to me.

Correct. The Certificate of origination goes to the state where the title is issued. Now if you were buying say a dirt bike and not going to title or register it, in some states you will get the MSO. Assuming you are paying cash and not financing it in any way.

[VQ35DE]

Not true for Tennessee. If you pay in full for the car / truck the dealer will mail the MSO to you.
Done it every time in my life.

[AZIROC]

I bought my '18 Zl1 32xx miles in TX (im in waddell) for 55,xxx back in early November. I did 99% of the "negotiations" via email and cell phone. When I talked with the finance guy he (and i) weren't sure how to figure the AZ tax because while phx had a sales tax of like 8.x%, waddell is something like 5.x%. we both called az mvd and both of us got no where with them. I ended up finding that calculator on the mvd site and we just went with it. *I wanna say it was around $34xx in taxes and I actually got around $150 back because I over paid.. thank you Waddell for still being a "town" and not a city yet.


As far as the MSO, thats where my issue was as well. I bought the car around Nov 9th. I didnt get my AZ temp plate until early Jan. The dealer actually had to send me a 2nd 30 day temp plate because no one could find the mso. Found out that the 3rd part company they use for out of state paperwork (mso)they literally sat on it for 45 days. When they finally sent it, the sent it to some random mvd here in AZ and mvd had to try and find out which actual one it went to.


At 1 point the dealer was going to send me the actual MSO because the 3rd party place said they didn't have it / never got it and by now I was about to lose my shit with the dealership. either way, the biggest thing I learned while doing my research was figuring out the "out of state' taxes for AZ. Past that, id have no problem buying out of state again.