"minimum value" on a car sale in california?

[jfresh]

i'm buying a car from a private party, and we are going to put a low sale price on the transfer of title, which is how the DMV determines the tax. i've heard that some states will ignore that price and take the Kelley blue book price and tax that instead. anyone know if they do that in CA, or if they get suspicious or ask questions if the price is too low?

[FastPlaySlow]

If they say the price is too low (even though I doubt they will) you can always say you sold it to a friend, regardless of who that person is. Is it against the law to hook up a friend?

[JJSCOTT2]

[ QUOTE ]
If they say the price is too low (even though I doubt they will) you can always say you sold it to a friend, regardless of who that person is. Is it against the law to hook up a friend?

[/ QUOTE ]

I don't know if it's 'against the law' per se, but yeah usually if you use too low a number they will use blue book to compute the value. I've gotten around this in the past by signing a document saying that it was a "gift" and then you can make the value whatever you want, there are legal implications to this though, and I don't live in California so I would make sure you do your research before attempting something like that.

[AngusThermopyle]

Go to Edmunds. Get the trade-in and 'private party' figures for the vehicle in poor condition and use that as a guide. If DVM says something, say it needed tires and a brake job etc (not motor, how did it pass smog?), so the price was reduced. But don't put $500 when it books for $6000.

They (CA DMV) didn't question me last time. It was "low", but not totally unreasonable. (half of Edmunds dealer price).

[Butcho22]

google+10 seconds=answer

[IggyWH]

[ QUOTE ]
Go to Edmunds. Get the trade-in and 'private party' figures for the vehicle in poor condition and use that as a guide. If DVM says something, say it needed tires and a brake job etc (not motor, how did it pass smog?), so the price was reduced. But don't put $500 when it books for $6000.

They (CA DMV) didn't question me last time. It was "low", but not totally unreasonable. (half of Edmunds dealer price).

[/ QUOTE ]

I just got done the other day at the DMV getting my CA license and registration. I was there for 3 hours so I heard a lot when I was there. Several people tried BSing a couple different tellers about why a car was sold for $1. Not one of them got off the hook.

I even had a hard time with them over my car being given to me as a gift from my parents. I would have been pissed had I had to pay sales tax because I bought the car originally, it was just put in my fathers name because I was still on his insurance policy.

[DosXX]

Same situation as poster above, I was just in the CA DMV (Actually AAA) to register and title my car in California. It was bought by my father, titled in another state, now I'm registering it in Cali in my name.

Absolutley no problems, said it was a gift, no grief. Just had to put a value for registration purposes. No tax. YMMV.

[jfresh]

thanks for a responses. i had looked into the gift idea, but i thought that was only between relatives and stuff.

has anyone done this between friends? and is there any tax implications for the seller? it seems a bit simple, there is just a box to check on a separate form.

[XXXNoahXXX]

you do realize that people try this like 20 times a day there right?

they might be inefficient, but they're not that dumb.

[jfresh]

well yeah, but even if they know, what can they do if the forms are filled out, is my question.