From: mikel@berlioz.nsc.com (Michael G. Lohmeyer)
Newsgroups: ca.driving
Subject: Re: Buying a used car -> sales tax
Date: 13 Aug 92 23:00:04 GMT
Organization: National Semiconductor Corporation

In article <1992Aug11.210938.13926@aero.org>, helfman@aero.org (Robert S. Helfman) writes:
|> In article <5477@transfer.stratus.com> leadfoot@bigbootay.sw.stratus.com (Mark Curtis) writes:
|> >I don't understand why they think people should have to pay sales
|> >tax on a used auto.  The original owner was already raped by them
|> >when it was first purchased.
|> 
|> Sales tax is a tax on sales - ANY sales. Every time something
|> is sold in the state, the tax applies, unless it's in one of the
|> specially exempt categories, like food.

     That is part of the problem with sales tax.  Imagine a situation
where you just bought a new car.  It cost you $10,000 to buy it and you 
end up paying over $800 in sales tax along with several hundred more to
register it and such.  Then, within a couple months after buying it, it
is stollen or totaled in some way.  Since you just bought it and it is
being financed, of course you have complete comprehensive coverage on it
so the insurance company will pay for it, right?  Wrong!!  Not completely.

     In the best case, the insurance company will cover your purchase 
price, minus the deductable ($50 to $100 on most insurance).  They won't
recover the $800 in sales tax and the extra fees on registration.  
So here you are, you need to buy another car.  The last one took all your
money and cost you just about $11000 to buy, and now the state of CA wants
another $800 plus registration fees on another new car you have to buy
because the old one is gone.  That's $1600 plus registration fees just to
get one car basically.  Hence, it costs you almost $12000 total for that
$10000 car.  

     Now, I know that this is not going to happen to all of us, but it does
happen.  Think of how you would feel if you had this happen to you.  I first
thought about this when I met a guy that got his brand new $6000 motorcycle
stollen out of his garage the same week that he got it.  When he went back
to the dealer and told the dealer, the dealer was perfectly willing to sell
him a new one for the same price.  And the guys insurance would buy him a
new one for that price, but he still had to pay sales tax and registration
fees all over again.  

     I don't mind paying the taxes so much because I know that the government
needs the money to operate.  I do believe that they could cut down on their
spending a great deal also.  The biggest thing that I hate about taxes,
though, is being nickle and dimed to death.  If they are going to tax me,
do it through a straight percentage of my salary and forget all this sales
tax, gas tax, etc.  As it is now, I have no idea exactly how much I pay
in taxes because I can't keep track of all the taxes that I have to 
pay.  If it was a straight percentage, then I would know.  As it is now, the
government has a lot of power to tax the hell out of us because no one knows
exactly how much they really are paying.  It all sounds like a pretty 
good scam to me.

Mike
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Mike Lohmeyer				mikel@berlioz.nsc.com
San Jose CA