WA state / Seattle area owners: 11.8% sales tax look right?

[sevengroove]

Hi friends, I am so excited I'm in the 8-step process for my R1S. I'm going through my order summary page and seeing that the total taxes applied amount to about 11.87% of my vehicle subtotal. Does this sound right? I thought it would be closer to 10%. Also found a discrepancy in the row where it says "6.50% tax applied" but the amount is 6.62% of the vehicle subtotal. What am I missing? Should I be including destination fee, title & reg etc. in the total before calculating the percentages?

Item	Cost	% of vehicle Subtotal
Vehicle subtotal	$79,450.00
Vehicle Taxes
Vehicle sales tax 6.50% tax applied for WA 981xx	$5,261.75	6.62%
Sales Tax - MV Surcharge	$242.85	0.31%
Sales Tax - Local	$3,035.63	3.82%	Total
Sales Tax - RTA	$890.45	1.12%	11.87%

Edit: is the expected 10.xx% rate without the RTA tax? Maybe that's what it is ...

Edit 2: tracked down the discrepancy. The taxes seem to be applied to the vehicle subtotal PLUS destination ($1,500). So the updated table looks like this:

Item	Cost
Vehicle subtotal	$79,450.00
Vehicle + destination	$80,950.00
Vehicle Taxes
Vehicle sales tax 6.50% tax applied for WA 981xx	$5,261.75	6.50%
Sales Tax - MV Surcharge	$242.85	0.30%
Sales Tax - Local	$3,035.63	3.75%	Total
Sales Tax - RTA	$890.45	1.10%	11.65%

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[PNWRIV]

Hi friends, I am so excited I'm in the 8-step process for my R1S. I'm going through my order summary page and seeing that the total taxes applied amount to about 11.87% of my vehicle subtotal. Does this sound right? I thought it would be closer to 10%. Also found a discrepancy in the row where it says "6.50% tax applied" but the amount is 6.62% of the vehicle subtotal. What am I missing? Should I be including destination fee, title & reg etc. in the total before calculating the percentages?

Item	Cost	% of vehicle Subtotal
Vehicle subtotal	$79,450.00
Vehicle Taxes
Vehicle sales tax 6.50% tax applied for WA 981xx	$5,261.75	6.62%
Sales Tax - MV Surcharge	$242.85	0.31%
Sales Tax - Local	$3,035.63	3.82%	Total
Sales Tax - RTA	$890.45	1.12%	11.87%

Edit: is the expected 10.xx% rate without the RTA tax? Maybe that's what it is ...

Here is my breakdown. It seems like I was charged 9.53% total tax before the doc and destination fees. Granted that is partly because the truck is registered on Bainbridge Island so there isn't the huge RTA tax. Not quite sure how they calculate all that in with the Destination Fee and such. Also, my fees on my registration were listed at $261 instead of the $140 they charged me.

Seems like a crap shoot haha

 

[sevengroove]

Here is my breakdown. It seems like I was charged 9.53% total tax before the doc and destination fees. Granted that is partly because the truck is registered on Bainbridge Island so there isn't the huge RTA tax. Not quite sure how they calculate all that in with the Destination Fee and such. Also, my fees on my registration were listed at $261 instead of the $140 they charged me.

Seems like a crap shoot haha

Thanks, yea I think your taxes are all lower because of the trade-in. If we run your percentages based on the net cost after trade-in ($43k?) they seem to line up, except your local sales tax might be lower for Bainbridge.

Plus the lack of RTA of course. So yea, overall I think my numbers pass the sniff test

 

[PNWRIV]

That RTA is BRUTAL! Yeah my net taxable cost was $44,545 after the trade in.

 

[sevengroove]

Yea it's an unpleasant surprise for sure - I knew about it but I thought it was included the 10.x% figure that most people quote for the Seattle area. Oh well. It makes Rivian's trade-in quote 1.12% more attractive

 

[sevengroove]

There is additional tax on the sale of a new motor vehicle in addition to the sales tax.

Yup, that’s accounted for in the list. I think they got it all, I was just thrown off at first because the percentages based on the vehicle price looked off. They are instead basing taxes on vehicle price + destination fee.

 

[SANZC02]

Yup, that’s accounted for in the list. I think they got it all, I was just thrown off at first because the percentages based on the vehicle price looked off. They are instead basing taxes on vehicle price + destination fee.

All of the cars I have purchased over the years and never noticed destination fee as taxable. I did a quick google search and found out it is.

 

[HeresRonnie]

Here is my breakdown. It seems like I was charged 9.53% total tax before the doc and destination fees. Granted that is partly because the truck is registered on Bainbridge Island so there isn't the huge RTA tax. Not quite sure how they calculate all that in with the Destination Fee and such. Also, my fees on my registration were listed at $261 instead of the $140 they charged me.

Seems like a crap shoot haha

Interesting, I thought passenger trucks over 6000lbs weren't subject to RTA? I have to look back at my order but I don't think I paid it and I live in a RTA area.

 

[sevengroove]

You're right: https://www.dol.wa.gov/vehicleregistration/rta.html

An R1T at least would qualify as a "medium electric truck" or "passenger truck" over 6,000 lbs and would therefore not have to pay the RTA.

I don't know where they would place the R1S though. I've seen many people refer to SUVs as trucks but I wonder if that same classification applies here. I certainly don't think it's a "passenger car", so perhaps truck is closer?

 

[SeaGeo]

I don't believe the R1S would qualify as a truck, iirc they have an SUV description in the tax table.

 

[sevengroove]

I don't believe the R1S would qualify as a truck, iirc they have an SUV description in the tax table.

Surprisingly they don't - the closest match to SUV in the passenger car section is ... well, passenger vehicle. They have "medium" and "neighborhood" electric cars, whatever those mean. All of the above are subject to the RTA tax regardless of weight.

The passenger truck table also has an "offroad vehicle" category which is exempt.

Passenger cars

Vehicle type	Is RTA charged? (Vehicle scale weight 6,000 lbs or less)	Is RTA charged? (Vehicle scale weight 6,001 lbs or more)
Antique car	Yes	Yes
Cargo van	Yes	No
Commercial vehicles	Yes	No
Exempt (state, county, local, tribal)	No	No
Farm exempt	No	No
Farm use	No	No
For hire	Yes	No
Government (Federal)	No	No
Medium electric car	Yes	Yes
Neighborhood electric car	Yes	Yes
Passenger vehicle	Yes	Yes
Private school	No	No
Stage	Yes	No
Taxi cab	Yes	Yes

Passenger trucks

Vehicle type	Is RTA charged? (Vehicle scale weight 6,000 lbs or less)	Is RTA charged? (Vehicle scale weight 6,001 lbs or more)
Antique truck	Yes	No
Cargo van	Yes	No
Combination (farm use)	No	No
Combination (non-farm use)	Yes	No
Commercial	Yes	No
Exempt (state/county/local/tribal)	No	No
Farm exempt	No	No
Farm use	No	No
Fixed load	Yes	No
For hire	Yes	No
Government (federal)	No	No
Logging	Yes	No
Medium electric truck	Yes	No
Neighborhood electric truck	Yes	No
Off road vehicle (ORV)	No	No
Passenger truck	Yes	No
Private school truck	No	No
Stage	Yes	No
Tow truck	Yes	No

 

[sevengroove]

FYI for those following this, I just spoke to WA DOL and they said that the R1S would fall under the catch-all "passenger vehicle" category. It does not qualify as a truck despite my best efforts to convince the agent that it shares 80% of its parts with the R1T .

 

[hotsoup]

Reviving an old thread here, but wanted to see if others were getting billed an RTA tax rate of 1.827%? All the other tax line items check out, but this one seems higher than expected but it doesn't align with official documentation stating a tax rate of 1.1%.

NVM: seems like RTA tax isn't calculated like other taxes on (sale price - trade-in value), but instead on MSRP + destination

 

[dleewla]

that looks right. i avoided the RTA tax as i have the R1T but the real killer to me was the local tax.

 

[Robotpedlr]

Reviving an old thread here, but wanted to see if others were getting billed an RTA tax rate of 1.827%? All the other tax line items check out, but this one seems higher than expected but it doesn't align with official documentation stating a tax rate of 1.1%.

NVM: seems like RTA tax isn't calculated like other taxes on (sale price - trade-in value), but instead on MSRP + destination

That is correct.. RTA is not like a sales tax (based on Net value after trade), it is based on the full MSRP of the car with a ridiculous amount of annual appreciation, as they charge it annually. If our cars only depreciated by 11% through the 3rd year, we would all be very happy, instead it is just the state that is happy.

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