I have been talking with a ***le company about getting a bonded ***le for my 28 Ford pickup. Over the past month, the rules have changed in Texas. Where as before you could submit a private appraisal from say a car dealer as to its value, the state no longer accepts this. The state now uses their own list of values for all vehicles and there is no differentiating whether its a rusted out shell of a cab or a whole pristine restored vehicle. They tax you based on the value of a pristine vehicle. From what this gentleman told me, he had a client call in about a 29 Model A and due to the value the state has set for this particular vehicle, his taxes alone would be $2100! He said he looked into getting an out of state ***le, and through that channel you are talking $650 just for all the processing fees from the state but it requires a bunch of paper work, pictures, inspections, etc and he wasn't talking about a home-built ***le either. He said he has been in contact with fellow ***le companies and they are getting the same runaround. Has anyone else ran across this in the past month? (not prior, because that is irrelevant.) as for less than legal means, I am aware of those already.
Just ***led the '53 last month, biggest surprise was that now in Texas you can transfer a ***le without having the vehicle insured or registered. Had no problem at all with bill of sale - have heard stories of people getting hammered but that's mostly on newer vehicles. Apparently everything older than 1984 doesn't fall into the whole "book value" thing.
i thought i was gonna have the same kind of problems gettin my caddy ***led in la. and found it would be cheaper and easier to ***le/register the caddy than it was to register my motorcycle. the problem i was looking at was the caddy was NEVER ***led, it was an alabama car from the get go and alabama didn't start issueing ***les till, i think 1974, or some time around then. i have the most recent registration, and a notarized bill of sale from the previous owner and appearntly that's all i need along with the cash. see if you can get it taken care of in louisiana. it may be simpler and cheaper.
I'm going through the same process. I'm using Lawrence Auto ***les, looks like they go by the average Nada book value which puts mine at $14,500. Taxes will be close to $1000 plus the bond.
Supposedly if the vehicle doesn't appear on their list of cars, then they accept the bill-of-sale price to base taxes on. Perhaps that 53 isn't on the list? I wonder if the list is public. Its not NADA they use, but something else.
Well, I am sorry about your problem. I just used Google. So, the Texas DOT transferred a lot of vehicle stuff to the Texas DMV on 11/1/2009. You can now go to http://www.txdmv.gov/vehicles/***les/bonded.htm where they describe how to get a bonded ***le. In the middle of their posting it says: "If your do***ents are approved, the amount of the bond equal to 1½ times the value of the vehicle will be determined by the Regional Office using a national reference guide. If you disagree with the amount you may furnish an appraisal by a licensed motor vehicle dealer or insurance appraiser. Once the value of the vehicle is determined the VTR Regional Office will give you a letter within 24 hours showing the amount the bond needs to be purchased in" So, it's not really cut and dried, and, while some DMV folks everywhere seem to enjoy being difficult, there do seem to be some reasonable ways to point out that you have a project not a #1 restoration. Good luck.
I'm going to call BS on that, I just registered a 72 GMC truck and it was only like $200 with all the fees. I had a clear Texas ***le and told them what I paid for it. They didn't look up anything as far as value of the vehicle.
If you have the vin # you can go through a place like Broadway ***tle and you do not have to mess with the bonded ***le. I did it on my 24chevy and had no problems.
If there seems to be one consistent thing that DMV's have in common,it would be that office A is required never to interpret the rules in the same manner as office B within the same state. Sounds like the OP needs to go down to Austin.
I think there is a concerted effort by the State's DMV/Secretary of State/Dept of Revenue to rein in the ***ling of old cars/hot rods/antiques. It can't be a coincidence that so many States are suddenly changing long standing procedures in favor of now remarkably similar processes. These people have national ***ociations with newsletters, conventions and the like. It is time to lobby our elected State representatives, in a polite an orderly fashion, to bring some reason and consistency to the process. In Illinlois, as I just found to my dismay, EVERY vehicle ***le '48 and older now goes to a State Police Investigative Office for confirmation that the VIN matches the ***le. That's one thing for newly acquired vehicles, but think about it's implications for those who have vehicles already ***led and want to transfer ownership. Ther are hordes of cars, legally acquired, that do not have a visible number to match the ***le for a variety of reasons. Consider what that does to the value of your non-verifiable ***le/vin vehicle unless and until your get it corrected. It's gonna get rough out there! Ray
Thanks a bunch guys. I will discuss this with the ***le company I was talking with. He was doing more research and going to keep me posted. It has nothing to do with the VIN number, its the value and how they are calculating it. He seemed to think they would not let the value be challenged and said who he spoke with in Austin told him that a dealer appraisal was no longer acceptable. Then again, dealing with civil servants you might get 3 or 4 different answers. This is encouraging though.
First off the Value they use is NADA "good" condition for every car, no matter condition. Which for almost everything I have seen is a rediculous value. Second the predetermined tax value is not applicable to cars 24 years or older. It is in the rules. Third. I was there last week and you are still able to use an appraisal from a state licensed dealer or appraiser. At our tax office in town it doesn't just boil down to what office you use, it even boils down to what lady you get at the office. We have one lady who will send you packing if you forget to cross a T, and another that was trying everything she could to get me registration without insurance! I took in an ancient indiana ***le and within 15min was out with no h***els and a nice new ***le for my truck. It's a total ****shoot, but if you are patient you will find someone who is actually helpful. If you don't have any luck in meswuite come to Richardson and make sure you avoid the african lady with the bowl cut, most everyone else is nice.
$2100, given the average market of a restored stock A, that's 15% or higher tax, wonder where they get their values from? 15% is nuts.
I'm glad you guys cleared this up...I had my concerns too. I had a guy tell me about this problem with getting a bonded ***le about a month ago and he told me a rediculous price he was said to pay. It pays to do your research!
More good advice! In Va. a lot depends on which DMV you go to & who you talk to because more often then not,you will get 2 different answers.
I know exactly who your talking about, I called her the tax nazi and man did she get bent, I got back in line and got a nice ol' lady and had my ***le in a matter of minutes. like everyone has said, it just depends on who's at the counter.
In PA, it seems the best way to get your paperwork done at the state level is to have your state representative take it to the DMV in Harrisburg. This advice was given to me by some old time mechanics and it worked great-there were problems but the rep worked it out for me. (and, even though we are different political parties, I voted for him ever after since he was doing his job!) I don't know if you could do this elsewhere. I don't think DMV's are really set up for the more unusual tasks they are presented with-like street rods-so some of the civil servants just there for the job will make it as tough as they can-they just don't care. What we need to do is find out which DMV employees are into CARS and go to them. Be a short list though,I think.
This is so true, be sure not confuse them with all your details, the least you have to say the better, the paperwork speaks for itself... easy in easy out !
I'd love to find where this is written. I've been searching the Tex DMV site, but so far hadn't found where age of vehicle makes an exemption. If a person can just fill out the forms or get them filled out and submit them, then what would you need a ***le company for? Just asking as I have never dealt with it before. The company I talked with hasn't taken any money from me and did not want to until he could find out more of what was going on. I think there is some clerk, somewhere giving out wrong info. I forward to him what I learned in this thread and asked if he is dealing with a single office and individual telling him this.
The average Texas sales tax is .0825 which according to my calculator says that they set the value of that particular car at right close to 30K which is about half again the going price of nice but stone stock Model A Fords in this area. Two show quality stockers under 20K K in the local little Nickle that have been there for a while. But if you were to go to a half dozen different sources and add up "All" of the Model A's for sale and then get an average for that the 70,000 full tilt rods listed would probably raise the average quite a bit. I think a guy pretty well has his head stuck in the sand if he thinks he is going to get off placing a low value on a vintage rig these days without full do***entation on said value. Just about every state has it's get more tax money out of old cars deal going now and the honchos in the state tax collecting departments no doubt get their heads together and compare notes on how to drain more loot out of the people they are supposed to be serving.
I had to make three trips the the DMV when I was getting the bonded ***le on my '50 sedan delivery. Each person I talked to wanted one more piece of the puzzle. Non of them told me everthing that I needed. if I do it again hopefully I will have everything i need the first time.
can I just say...alot depends on the location/office you go to...had only a small issue with my 1964 Stude with a 1968 issued ***le last week - the clerk had never seen the 1968 Texas blue ***le....had a young b..tch in my early years that would always give me s..it...learned to steer away from her window...good luck...
I guess that's one blessing of being in New York. I bring them a reciept and that's what I pay tax on. Even, famously, when I gave them one that said I paid two cents for the car. I actually had to pay the tax on a full dollar on that one, that's the lowest amount that will register in their computer. (in actuality the car was free, but I had no way to get to the owner to get the signatures on the "this car is a gift" form, the guy who had it ****ed up the brake lines, decided it was a death trap and wanted nothing more to do with it, my buddy offered to get rid of it for him, and that was that). I have to wonder how long that will last given the money troubles up here, but they actually made it easier to register cars with no paperwork somewhere between 1990 and 2000 or so, when I tried to do it at 16 every time you went back it was something else to the point I gave up. Now I guess they figure they at least get your money on it and if you make up a story so what as long as the car's not stolen. You don't even need to get the form notarized now, just some signatures and a reason why the registration can't be found and you're good.
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