writes:

I suspect Washington State is typical in how they handle sales tax on
big-ticket items like cars and airplanes. If you buy in-state from a
licensed dealer (or broker), the dealer collects sales tax and pays it to
the state. If you buy in-state from an individual or a corporation that is
not a dealer, you (the buyer) are responsible for paying sales tax to the
state.

As another data point, the great state of Virginia requires that sales
tax be paid by the purchaser of an aircraft, either through the in-state
dealer (if purchased from such an entity) or directly to the state by
the purchaser if purchased from a different seller. Additionally, if
the aircraft is purchased out-of-state by a nonresident and then brought
into Virginia the owner is expected to pony up the difference between
any sales tax paid elsewhere and what would have been paid had the purchase
been made by a Virginia resident.

I've been audited (twice!) by the Virginia Department of Revenue on this
point; my '78 182RG was purchased in Tennessee when I lived there, and I
paid Tennessee sales tax on it. The first time I was audited (~1996)
I had to dig up the 18-year-old paperwork to prove that the tax was
paid; the second time (last year) all that it took was a telephone
call to the state auditor who apologized for the duplication, blaming
it on the state's records that had transposed the bird's vintage to
make it look like an '87 model.

The auditor also told me that the DOR will ask the Legislature to sunset
any attempts to collect sales tax on aircraft purchased more than 10
years previously, regardless of the amount (if any) of tax paid to
other jurisdictions.

Joe Morris