What determines sale location? (sales/use taxes)

"john smith" wrote in message
...
How does CT know you just bought the plane?
For all they know, you went back to OR to get it and brought it back.


I don't know "how they know"--but it would, for example, be fairly trivial
for them to trace a sale via the FAA database, no? Whether they do so or
not is a different question, but from what I'm reading, states' tax agencies
are getting ever more aggressive on this
(http://www.aero-news.net/index.cfm?c...4-cf789ea94039,
for example). I'd sure hate to get a surprise bill--tax, penalties, &
interest--some months or years down the road. Finally, at the end of the
day, I want to do this legally--avoiding all the taxes I can, to be sure,
but legally so.

That's the sale angle. Since you mention "bring it back," I think you may
mean to my current location (CO), not CT. That's the use tax angle. I know
that CO follows up on sales--note the reference to the FAA in this sample
letter: http://www.revenue.state.co.us/fairs...?incl=aircraft

What state are you going to register it in?

Well, all things being equal, I'd do so in OR (since that's where I do all
my legal stuff, and OR has no sales/use tax and a minimal ($50/yr)
registration fee). However, words I'm getting from the OR Aviation Dept is
that, my military status notwithstanding, if my plane is not based in OR, I
don't register it there. 180° out from the way it works with ground
vehicles....

Aas you are TDY, how can the aircraft be considered anything other than
a transient?

I'm not TDY to CO; I'm stationed here (PCS). My residence remains OR, per
the Servicemembers' Civil Relief Act (formerly the Soldiers' and Sailors'
Civil Relief Act of 1940). My layman's reading of the SCRA
(http://usmilitary.about.com/library/...scra/bl511.htm and associated
pages for relevant parts) makes it clear that my personal property is not
considered to be in Colorado for legal purposes (i.e., taxation)--but,
apparently the Supreme Court disagrees with me
(http://supreme.justia.com/us/395/169/case.html). Seems to me like they
went through an awfully tortured sophistry to come up with use tax not being
included in the SCRA (SSCRA of 1940 at the time of this case), but I guess
that's why lawyers will never be out of work....
--
Doug
"Where am I to go/Now that I've gone too far?" -- Golden Earring, "Twilight
Zone"
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