Back in late May I bought a (used) car in FL from a dealer. As part of that transaction, I paid the 6% FL sales tax, and also signed their DR-123 affidavit saying I'd be titling it somewhere other than FL.
Brought it home to MD, did a bunch of repairs myself that I knew would be needed to pass inspection, then passed inspection, and went to get it registered earlier today.
Much to my dismay, the DMV charged me a 6% "excise" tax as part of registering it. DMV says FL dealer shouldn't have charged tax and they should refund me. FL paperwork is pretty clear that they are suppose to charge me tax, but most states have a reciprocal agreement and won't double-tax. But additional digging shows a FL Dept of Revenue doc that says, relative to MD, "No credit is allowed by Maryland for tax paid in Florida." Of course, I've yet to find similar language anywhere coming from a MD gov site/doc.
Anyone experienced this? Any suggestions? Purchase price was ~$16k, so 6% tax is nearly $1k. Which I'd rather not pay twice. Am I out $1k? I've bought cars in VA before and don't remember any issues, but those were more like $2k purchase price.
Florida Dealer messed up by charging you the Tax, it's on them. I have purchased vehilce in a few States (Florida being one) and Florida should not have charged tax on a vehicle going out of State. VA will actually collect the tax and send it to MD
Nope. I've purchased 4 cars out of state NJ, FL, TX, IN.......only paid tax here in OK when I registered it.
Bought 3 ex-FHF Mustang's back in the day. The dealer should (good luck) refund you your $s.
GL
You mention DR-123 affidavit so a quick hit to the google machine returns this document: https://floridarevenue.com/forms_library/current/dr123.pdf
Note in the second grayed box of the document that you have 45 days to register the vehicle in your home state. You bought in Late May or about 3 times as long ago. Could that be the real problem? Or, even if you do solve the original problem could this then be the secondary problem?
Or the dealer should have written the agreement to say MD tax paid and forwarded it on MD.
How does the dealer charge tax if you aren't titling or registering it in that state?
Perhaps I am naive thanks to how simple and painless Ohio is, but the sales tax IS the titling fee. No title = no tax.
When I bought my '16 GTI in Illinois (I was living in Wisconsin at the time) this happened to me and I ended up getting a refund from the dealer for the tax I paid them. They were honorable and their own error was caught somehow by their accounting people. But it probably helps that I did all the paperwork and squared up with the state the day after I bought it...
John Welsh said:
You mention DR-123 affidavit so a quick hit to the google machine returns this document: https://floridarevenue.com/forms_library/current/dr123.pdf
Note in the second grayed box of the document that you have 45 days to register the vehicle in your home state. You bought in Late May or about 3 times as long ago. Could that be the real problem? Or, even if you do solve the original problem could this then be the secondary problem?
Yeah, that's the doc, and I suppose theoretically that could be the issue. But the MD DMV had put the tax on there (it was also shown on the bill of sale) before I even showed them that document. And when I showed them that ... no change obviously. The part that concerns me is the 1st bullet point - "if the acredit for sales tax paid to the state of Florida is not allowed".
Additional sleuthing on my part brought up this document: FL Motor Vehicle Tax guidance
If you scroll down to the section for Maryland, it says "no credit is allowed by Maryland for tax paid in Florida." Just looking at that FL document, it seems like every state is different so YMMV if it's not MD-FL.
Ranger50 said:
Or the dealer should have written the agreement to say MD tax paid and forwarded it on MD.
That's the confusing part - the DR-123 agreement is a state of Florida document, not dealer specific. As much as I wish it was, it's not obvious to me that the dealer did anything wrong.
And to the dealer's credit, I texted him yesterday when this came up - 3 months since I bought the car - and he got back to me within an hour indicating the DR-123 agreement is what other states usually look for.
Will probably try calling the DMV and speaking to a supervisor next week but right now I'm not real hopeful.
You do not get a credit from MD if you paid the tax to Florida. The issue is Florida should not have charged you the tax, they should have charged you for a drive away plate and that's it.
I have done at least 5 purchases in Florida and I live in Maryland. I have never paid Florida tax.
Steve, thanks for the 1st-hand knowledge. I'll see what the dealer has to say, but I have a feeling this will be a (pricey) lesson learned 
There are 2 ways Florida to Maryland works. If you're going to register it and drive it home, the Florida dealer collects 6% tax, and the tag fees for MD. You drive home on a Florida paper tag. They do all of the paperwork, send it to MD, and your tags come in the mail (you need to have it inspected before they will send the tags). The 6% they collected gets sent to MD.
if you're not registering it right away (trailering it or shipping it) the Florida dealer does not collect tax, you pay it to MD when you register it.
Hmm. In your description above, scenario 1 - drive it home - is what I did. I had a paper tag, but got nothing in the mail. Unfortunately it took longer than the 45-day limit mentioned in the DR-123 to get it inspected. So maybe that's what happened.
