Thanks for the feedback. I amended my form MV-1 to put the "sale date" as May 7, 2019 which is today. I realized that the Escape people had pre-dated the document (I received it yesterday, the 6th) but then remembered that Vancouver is over the International date line, and when you convert metric to English, it works out to the 7th.
Yea, Pennsylvania. I grew up in Central New York, and we thought registering and inspecting a car was a PITA, but we always said, "Well, at least we aren't in PA!" because if you had any rust on your car they would not let it pass (so we were told).
I was told to get my boat trailer inspected in NY and I drove to five places locally and none of them inspected trailers, so I gave up. New York is an odd place. We had "Liberal Republicans" (yes, they existed, so did the dinosaurs) such as Nelson Rockefeller, who felt that big government was the answer - efficiently managed, of course, using computers an punch cards. We also had a lot of organized crime.
Back then, your driver's license was a piece of cardboard printed on a line printer - no photo, not waterproof. When you got a speeding ticket, the judge wrote down the offense on the back of the license. As a kid I got so may tickets, mine said, "offenses continued on next license" Just kidding.
Those were the days before Real ID - I didn't even have a birth certificate, but a "Notice of Birth" they handed my Mother that said, "unnamed male Bell" on it - My parents were so thrilled to have another child. They tossed me in the trunk of the Galaxy and drove home, smoking cigarettes and drinking martinis on the way (and while breast feeding). Those were heady days.
You can travel with an expired passport to Canada, I found out, the hard way. I let it expire and when we got to the border, the Canadian border guard said, "You know your passport is expired, eh?" and I said, "what does that mean?"
And he replied, "Well, you have to stay in Canada from now on!" We readily agreed and he quickly backtracked, realizing that he maybe opened a wormhole in the space-time continuum, and if Americans figured this out, the country would be flooded with them. I asked about getting back to the States and he said, "Oh, they
have to take you back!" which they did.
I want to get one of those border express passes, but you have to appear in person, at a border patrol station, which is hard to do in Georgia. Maybe we'll try when we are in Seattle.
Anyway, I was sort of shocked moving to the South where we have no inspection and no emissions inspection, either. It is amazing to see what kind of jalopies go down the road, often with no tags or a piece of cardboard in the window saying, "Tag applied for!" In New York it was beaten into our heads that a car became an immovable brick once license plates were removed from it. Down here, well, things are a little more casual.
When I went to register my boat, they give you a two part form. You fill out both halves in pen and send in the upper half with your check. You keep the lower half that you filled out as your temporary registration, and leave your old registration numbers on the boat (from florida, no less) until they send you a new registration
in six months.
Totally different attitude about government, it seems. And so far, there haven't been legions of rogue unregistered boats terrorizing the populace. But then again, we only have 100 miles of coastline (damn you, South Carolina! Oh, wait, you got the hurricane part). Nor have legions of un-inspected cars caused mayhem and destruction.
Of course, things are different in Alana (pronounced without the "t"'s around here). They even have emissions inspection up there. But locals tell me that's not really part of Georgia.
Well, off to the DMV, or more precisely the Glynn County Tax office (vehicles are registed with the tax authorities, driver's licenses by the DMV or MVD as they call it).
I looked up the official MVD assessment manual, by the way, which is used to calculate the "Fair Market Value" used for the 7% sales tax. It is kind of unfair. I sold my hail-damaged Nissan pickup to a friend for $11,000 and he had to pay taxes on the "Fair market value" of about $15,000.
On the other hand, the "fair market value" of the King Ranch was listed at $25,000, or the average price of a used F150. Never mind that it actually cost twice that. They don't tax the leather seats and retractable running boards.
Anyway, here is the manual:
https://dor.georgia.gov/sites/dor.ge...ent_Manual.pdf
And you are correct, there is no listing for trailers in it. Maybe because it is too hard to figure out FMV on a trailer. If so, then I have to pay the "ad valorum" tax (personal property tax) every year - probably about $1500 or so, declining with time.
Personal property taxes are one thing that is insane about the South - and it is going away. In the old days in Viringia, they taxed all your personal property. So every year, you had to pay tax on your sofa and your coffee table and presumably your shoes and socks. You could actually itemize your possessions and pay the tax, or you could elect to pay a flat fee based on a percentage of the assessed value of your home.
When I lived there, they had the tax only on cars, which was unfair, as people in Alexandria who worked in DC would register their cars there (a nightmare, because, well, DC government) while poorer folks couldn't do that.
The tax enforcers would cruise the parking lots of the apartment complexes, looking for new residents from out-of-state whose cars were not taxed, and then issue citations and even tow cars away. Pretty dumb way to collect taxes!
Anyway, they started to phase out the personal property tax as I was leaving. Looks like it still survives in Georgia, at least for trailers.
More on the Ad Valorem tax:
https://georgia.gov/popular-topic/ve...xes-ad-valorem
Ad Valorem tax calculator:
https://onlinemvd.dor.ga.gov/TAP/Welcome.aspx
Thank you. Your estimate is shown below:
Estimated Title Ad Valorem Tax: $2228.67
Estimated Title Ad Valorem Tax Penalties: $0.00
Estimated Total Title Ad Valorem Tax As of Date: $2228.67
OUCH!
This may be in addition to sales tax on the trailer.
Any time a trailer that requires a title is purchased from a business or dealer outside of Georgia, sales tax is due. The Georgia Department of Revenue (DOR) has determined 6% as the sales tax for Gwinnett residents. In such cases, the sales tax must be paid before you can title the trailer and receive a tag.
Sales Tax on Vehicles Purchased Out-of-State
https://gwinnetttaxcommissioner.publ...SalesTaxonVehi...
I guess I'll find out soon enough!