Buying out of state, Oregon to Washington

[porkhelmet]

I recently purchased a SEL in Oregon and I live in Washington so I thought I would share my experience. Other posts have discussed the issues of buying out of state, here are the steps I followed.

Step 1 – Find a dealer
I called a number of Oregonian dealers and a few wouldn’t sell to Washingtonians. I finally found Herzog Meier in Beaverton and worked with Nic Perez whom I highly recommend.

Step 2 – Set the price to under $35K avoid sales tax
WAC 458-20-279 establishes a sales tax exemption for electric cars. A recent update in July (no updated WAC available yet) caps the selling price for an exempt car at $35K so you’ll need to make sure the bottom line selling price for the vehicle is under $35K in order to avoid paying Use Tax (9.5% + .3%) when you register in Washington. Oregon doesn’t have sales tax so you won’t have to worry about the Oregon side of the transaction.

Step 3 – Buy the car and travel back to Washington
The paper trip permit issued in Oregon is not valid in Washington so your first stop should be the Vancouver Department of Licensing (DoL) office to pick up a $30, 3 day trip permit. If you are going to Seattle (like me) you should plan 2-hour long charging stops in Longview, Centralia, and Tacoma on your way home. Use the Plugshare app for your smartphone to find charging stations. Note the e-Golf comes with a ChargePoint RFID card in the manual which you can activate immediately. You’ll have to setup other charging accounts separately, ahead of your purchase.

Step 4 – Get a use tax waiver from the Department of Revenue
The DoL will ask you to pay sales tax when you register the car. To avoid this go to the Department of Revenue first and get a Use Tax waiver. See step 2. I recommend bringing a copy of the exemption notice and $35K cap with you when you request the waiver.

Step 5 – Register your new e-Golf!
The Oregon dealership will send the title information to the Washington DoL on your behalf. The DoL actually called me when they received the documentation if you can believe it. Once the DoL has your info, go to the office with the Use Tax waiver (and your checkbook unless you want to pay a debit/credit fee) in hand. The DoL will keep the waiver for their files and will issue you tags and plates on the spot without asking for sales tax.

Note – Maintenance
I called every VW dealer in the Seattle area and only Puyallup VW said they could perform maintenance on an e-Golf. I haven’t hit 10K miles yet so haven’t put this to the test, but at least there is the possibility of finding a certified mechanic without heading back to Oregon.

 

[PMC2015]

Thanks for the note about Puyallup VW doing e-Golf maintenance. We're moving to Seattle in January and are glad to hear there's a dealer that'll work on it!

 

[user 485]

Thanks for this detailed description of the process. I am also in WA and intend to buy in Portland.

I have researched the WA sales tax exemption and read the documents you linked to. It appears that the exemption expired July 1, 2015.

Am I reading it wrong?

 

[porkhelmet]

The original WA sales tax exemption did expire on June 30th, 2015. However, it was extended from July 15th, 2015 to June 30th, 2019 but with a price cap of $35,000. Common opinion is that this was done to limit tax benefits for luxury vehicles (i.e. Tesla purchases). Unfortunately much of the documentation has not yet been updated to reflect this change but the Department of Revenue has some information on their website here. Click "Clean Alternative Fuel and Plug-In Hybrid Vehicles – Sales/Use Tax Exemptions" to see a description of the updated exemption.

 

[PMC2015]

It looks like it expired, but then was renewed the following day with a $35k cap on the selling price:

http://www.opb.org/news/article/npr-tesla-bmw-culled-from-washington-state-electric-car-sales-tax-break/