Advise

My son is currently deployed until June, when he comes home the plan will be to buy an ecoboost from Koons ford in Md. He is stationed in Ca. now my question is when he purchases the car will he pay Md. tax as well as NJ tax since that is where he will be registering his car since this is his home state. Once he gets to Ca can he insure his car with a residence there since that is where he is currently stationed. His insurance quote came back roughly 900 dollars cheaper using his base address than his home address in NJ. Thanks for the advise in advance.

Not sure about the registration, I'll let someone more knowledgeable on that end answer.

The one thing I would watch for if he is taking it to California is make sure it shows "California Emissions System" on the sticker. Car would be the same, but that shows it is CARB certified and can be registered in Ca. Should show it on a sticker under the hood. Pretty sure this isn't on all of them. If not it should show under the hood that it's not California legal or something. Same car but they just didn't pay the fee to have it certified to be CARB compliant. Bunch of BS if you ask me but it is what it is.

If you buy the car in Maryland, you will pay MD sales tax at purchase time.
When you go to register it in NJ, you will only have to pay the difference in tax from NJ to MD.
Once he moves it to CA there is no sales tax, just a registration fee.
I'm sure others can chime in, but CA is pain in the ass when registering out of state cars.

why pay double the tax? just pay the tax for one state or does it not work like that for nj residents? I bought my car from koons in Baltimore and it had our standard $300 SC cars sales tax and not maryland(which is helllluva lot more)

Im a veteran, and wherever he is stationed can be used to register the car regardless of license. I bought my 2009 in WA state and had a texas drivers license. It had washington plates, and when i finally moved home to texas i think i actually got a rebate because thier tax was more than texas..dont quote me on that i got out in 2012 so its been a while lol

You will pay the full tax rate of the car in the state that you initially register it. You can buy it and not register it in 1 state.
You are not paying double. And again you only pay sales tax on the initial purchase. Not each time you register it.
For example, using arbitrary numbers:
Buy the car in MD, pay the 5% sales tax, get temporary plates and drive it home to NJ.
When registering it in NJ, let's say 7% state tax. You will only need to pay the remaining 2% when registering. If your registering state has a lower sales tax rate, you will get a rebate.
One shot deal.

Now if you buy it in one state and have it shipped without temp plates, you might be able to sidestep the state sales tax in the purchase state.

Ok good to know I knew I would get the answers here, he will keep NJ tags on the car while in CA. His drivers license is from NJ.

Hey Daddyo, I live in NJ and purchased from Koons Baltimore. I paid the sales tax to the dealership for NJ only when I purchased. Koons did the registration for me as well. Drove home w/ MD temp plates, and within a month my NJ plates arrived. Those guys sell a lot of cars to NJ and NY residents, so this is a fairly normal transaction for them.

Dsquared said:

Hey Daddyo, I live in NJ and purchased from Koons Baltimore. I paid the sales tax to the dealership for NJ only when I purchased. Koons did the registration for me as well. Drove home w/ MD temp plates, and within a month my NJ plates arrived. Those guys sell a lot of cars to NJ and NY residents, so this is a fairly normal transaction for them.

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Yep, this was the scenario with me as well when I bought mine at Hall Ford in Newport News, Va.

Awesome to know thanks for all of the input.

Purchase

I'm stationed in Washington state but am from Fairfax, VA.
I came home for leave and bought mine in Virginia. They gave me an option to pay taxes/ register with Virginia or Washington. Taxes were cheaper in va so I registered in va and later on registered in Washington state and didn't pay taxes, just a registration fee.