Colorado Sales tax question for other CO SMBer's

Ben10281 · 02-06-2015, 04:54 PM

I know there are a few CO SMBers on here so I am just looking for some general information. I just got back from registering my "new to me" SMB. It had a CO Motorhome title from the PO. I have seen people asking on here whether vans for sale are titled as vans or RV and I always assumed it was a concern around insurance coverage. However, today it was $440 to register my 1995 Dodge Ram 3500 titled as a motorhome. The receipt showed a vehicle value of $17k for tax purposes. Is that inline with what others in CO see. Is it so high because it is a Motorhome ("MT") title?(The woman at the registry said I could re-title it as a van, but would have to come back to redo the VIN verification and have an in person inspection) It seems high to me, but not sure, I just moved here from MA back in July so I am new to things out here.

My insurance company, Progressive, said I didn't have to register it as an RV because I didn't have a permanent toilet or a stove so I covered it as a van and it was totally reasonable(unlike the CO sales tax). Do you think I would be better off going the RV route since it is titled as an RV to help coverage of all the RV stuff inside?

If my 1995 SMB has a value of $17k for tax purposes, I can only imagine what a $20kish 2wd early 2000's SMB is valued for tax purposes!

Is this normal or should I have tried to title it as a van?

****Mods, if this belongs in "Campfire" section feel free to move it****

mikracer · 02-06-2015, 05:34 PM

The sales tax you paid is based on the purchase price of the vehicle ($17K) and is a one time expense. That wasn't your registration fee, although it could have included it if the van was up for renewal. Your registration will not be that high annually.

In the county I live in, sales tax is 8%, so if I purchased a vehicle and stated the purchase price as $17k, I would have paid $1,360 plus registration fees.

GrumpyBadger · 02-06-2015, 06:26 PM

CO hoses you pretty bad. They get you sales tax on the purchase price, then the registration tax based on the current year value figured by some depreciation value formula. A brand new $100K+ rig is somewhere over $2K tax EACH YEAR to register until it depreciates off. Or at least that is how I understood it when I went to the DMV.

Your sales tax should be straight based on the sales price and the tax rate of the county you live in. Should be easy to find on the web. The registration tax and fees are more murky.

Ben10281 · 02-06-2015, 06:35 PM

I did not pay $17k for my 1995 Dodge RAM SMB. Not even close. My receipt has two values on it, purchase price and original taxable value. The original taxable value is the $17k and that is not my purchase price.

GrumpyBadger · 02-06-2015, 06:50 PM

The DMV person probably only looked at the bigger number, especially if it said "Taxable" next to it.

Not quite sure why you would have two values on the receipt - especially for something that seasoned.

Never confuse the DMV... it will hurt. My paperwork was messed up somehow from Sportsmobile (I had no idea until I presented the crap at the DMV) and they had 3 people and a manager scratching their heads over it for a half hour before they came back and pronounced death on my checkbook and a list of corrections to make on the paperwork to bring back another time. I was likely close to being lynched by the other folks waiting their turn. I was likely also close to being arrested for the unkind expletives I uttered about the CO DMV, CO government, and the state of the universe in general.

rnj · 02-06-2015, 09:16 PM

It sounds like most of your fee is sales tax. Take your purchase price & multiply by sales tax rate where you live - unincorporated area around 3%, cities 5%-8% and if in RTD area have that tax.

My 95 Ford SMB yearly registration is ~ $87 with ~$20K original taxable value (this was around the original cost of my van not including the conversion so your basically not being taxed on the conversion if your taxable value is $17K-actually I don't think this value matters when over 10 yrs). The $87 includes ~$50 for "new" road & bridge fee.

Greater than 10 years old used to be $25 for yearly registration until they added the road & bridge fee a few years ago. It's been awhile since I've had a car < 10 years old but I think the ownership tax is the one that is very high on new car but goes to minimum $3 at 10yrs. There is also prior OT (ownership tax) if car not registered for a bit and have to pay that. For example I wanted to move my registration from December to August so I didn't have to drive to emission station in the winter so didn't register for few months, had to pay pro-rated taxes for those months based on the $3 yearly.

Mine was registered as a motorhome, I asked if would be cheaper to register as van and he said it is old enough it didn't make a difference, mine is still registered as motorhome.

I would expect yours would be similar to mine in the future.

Ben10281 · 02-06-2015, 10:42 PM

rnj sounds like your math is a bit closer. This is a new purchase for me so, yes, I am talking about sales tax here, not just pure registration costs. I just got temp tags so the title and temp license fee are nominal(<$30) the bulk of the bill is sales tax. I live in Aurora and sales tax here is 8%.(learned that the hard way when we bought new couches) I have the following taxes on my receipt, RTD, County/District, City, and State so it seems feasible that, based on my purchase price and 4 different taxes(city and state being the lion's share) I could get to $440. Based on my $17k original taxable value, my yearly registration renewal will be around, if not a little less, than your $87 figure and that's fine with me. I just wanted to make sure I didn't miss something here.

Thanks,
Ben

PeteM · 02-07-2015, 11:28 AM

Ben, as you surmise the bulk of your initial registration cost was the one-time 8% sales tax. Since your vehicle is over 10 years old the owners tax on the $17k original purchase price will be $3 per year from now on (it's fully depreciated from the owners tax perspective, regardless of original purchase price). The annual license fee (which is not deductible from federal income tax) in future years will consist of $23 road fee, $18 bridge fee, plus license fee based on vehicle weight. RNJ's estimate of $87 total for annual owners tax and license fees sounds about right based on our older vehicles.

It took awhile to get our used SMB registered correctly at the County Clerk office because it's in the gray area between RV (which get a separate VIN number after conversion) and van conversion (which don't qualify for RV insurance or tax deductibility). But they were very friendly and finally got it figured out so we got the best of both.

PeteM · 02-07-2015, 11:38 AM

BTW - we insured as an RV to get coverage on the SMB upgrade value. Otherwise only the blue book base vehicle value would be covered. But the other advantage of RV insurance is we can put it in storage mode when not in use and pay only the comprehensive insurance rate during much of the year.