Man dream on. My real estate taxes are around $3500 and license on one car is $300 and $225 on the other (per year).
Taxes are generally pretty low here in OK on most things. Sales taxes can be a bit high at near 10%
Sales tax for me is 9.5%. Unless your’e buying a car. Then it’s 9.6%. I know some states like CA tax only parts, but not labor. Here we add sales tax to everything. If I want I can charge you 5% of your invoice for shop supplies and I have to add tax to that too. So I guess the shop supplies would be 5% + (5% X 9.5%). Gets complicated.
My little bit of suburbia costs me $5200/year in property tax. And no, I don’t have a water view or a sweeping vista from the top of the hillside.
I often remind people of the sales tax when they are contemplating a major repair to a car or whether to trade it in. Sure rebuilding this transmission may cost you $2400 but that amount won’t even cover the sales tax on a new car. Kind of puts things in perspective.
Property taxes vary all over; mine are $2600 per year for a 4 bedroom house with a double attached garage. However, a guy I golf with backs onto a small lake and for a house only slightly larger, he pays $12,000 per year. A big price to pay for having a dock in your back yard.
My yearly license fees are $84.45 for each car, that’s not too bad. In countries with a weight and horsepower graded tax, I would pay $1500 per year for a V8 powered car such as a Crown Victoria, while only paying $60 per year for a small 4 cylinder econo-box.
Property taxes vary all over; mine are $2600 per year for a 4 bedroom house with a double attached garage. However, a guy I golf with backs onto a small lake and for a house only slightly larger, he pays $12,000 per year.
A good portion of our property taxes goes to the school budget. Towns around Lake Winnipesaukee are mostly for summer places…many by the very rich. There isn’t much of a school budget for the small number of year round students. Homes in my area which are accessed at $300k pay about $7,000/yr on property taxes…homes that cost 2-3 MILLION around Lake Winnipesaukee have a property tax of $3,000.
On automobile purchases OK hits the buyers of new cars with a 3.25% excise tax on the purchase price. Used cars are 20 dollars on the first 1500 of value (not necessarily sale price) and 3.25% on the remainder.
Needless to say, many buyers of new or nearly new cars often suffer another form of sticker shock at the tag agency; and that tax does not include the registration and title fees, notary fee, insurance verification fee, etc.
What I have never understood, given that it is not difficult to ascertain what the tax rate and registration and such fees will be, why so few people calculate that into their budget for buying a car. I always also calculate any increase in car insurance and annual personal property tax. If I can’t afford all the taxes, fees, and insurance, I either need to buy less car or wait to buy until I have saved more money. A few phone calls and/or minutes on the internet can obtain all those costs within a very narrow range. Then add a bit more for fudge factor and you know fairly closely what all the after purchase costs will be and if you have enough available money to cover them.
Marnet, you’re correct that the info is easily obtainable over the phone in a few minutes but many people have the itch to sign the papers and motor off in the new ride.
I can’t speak for other states but here in OK it’s very common for dealers to “include title, taxes, and tag” when the car deal is done as an effort to soften the blow so to speak.
What many people don’t take the time to think out is the dealer is not providing that free in spite of the insinuation that they are. It’s being figured into the price of the vehicle and and if someone is financing over 5 years for example this means they’re not only paying for the title, taxes,and tag but also paying interest on it over 5 years.
They’re still paying for it the following year when the tag comes due again. OK uses a staggered fee system starting at 91 dollars (plate only) and by year 12 it’s still 61 dollars per year. It never hits the minimum of 21 dollars until the car is 17 years old.
Well that tag fee schedule pretty much guarantees few car owners owe the minimum. 
asemaster, 35.61 % of taxpayers itemize on their Federal Taxes. I would post a link for you but I have no idea how. Just google the question and you will find out.
I dunno, I guess I consider the taxes etc., but its not a deal breaker. You just know its there and compared to the cost of the car, not the biggest line item. I never actually go check what license tabs and insurance will be though, just wait for the bill. Its never caused me to not buy the car I wanted though. I tend to think a lot of people are better stewards of their money than we give them credit for. There is a certain percentage though that will be in trouble no matter what though.
Here’s your link @oldtimer_11
Scroll down for the table. The top line is USA, then individual states. There’s a lot of other stuff there too.
I think one reason my state started issuing 60 day permits (temporary paper tags) is so that folks who buy a car have a couple of months to save up for their personal property tax, which is based on the car’s value and county mil levy, and tags. 30 years ago it was 10 days, then 15, then 30. About five years ago they went to 60. The tags aren’t bad, but the annual personal prop will eat you up.
Here is a comparison by state. OK ranks right up there @ok4450.
Interesting. I see that only 37% of people in my state itemize, but 83% of those in my household income range do. I would attribute that to including all taxpayers in the info, and those folks who are working minimum wage part-time jobs would skew that number down, especially when referencing the topic here, which is donating a car for the tax benefit. Most minimum wage or part-timers wouldn’t have a car to donate.
I wonder how many of those people who don’t itemize really should but are intimidated by tax returns. One guy who works here has a mortgage, buys tools, has a wife who works, and yet doesn’t itemize. I know how much he makes, where he lives, I can imagine what his wife makes, and I’m certain he would be able to come out ahead if he itemized but he doesn’t. Says he doesn’t understand all that stuff and just takes the standard deduction. He can take apart an engine but is afraid of a 1040.
Another pet peeve is people who spend all year waiting for their $3000 tax refund to fix the car. That’s $250/month you could have had all last year…why wait for it?
@asemaster - Carolyn is going to shut this down soon but I would suggest to the guy that might be missing deductions to use TurboTax or something similar. I come out ahead with standard deduction but the free filing and ability to print out all the forms is worth the price.
I use Taxact myself, believe me If I could come close to the standard deduction I would,
I’ve used Turbo for about ten years now. It costs me about $80 for both the fed and state but cut my time down to four hours from two days. I don’t like not seeing what forms the info is getting put on until you’re all done but these days I just want it done and understanding why is not so important anymore.
Volvo called it. Could you please come back on topic? Thanks.