Hawaii tax questions about Military Program

[jcrabtree19]

Yeah i live in hawaii and im trying to buy a new m3 while deployed. The lady i am working with says that i might be eligible for a tax exemption in my state, i just need to call the DMV. I had my wife call the DMV and they said that they didnt know anything about it. Did any one from Hawaii Buy a car through the Overseas Military program and have it sent to honolulu? Where there any taxes that had to be paid on the Car?

[guardodoc]

New legislation regarding military and DMV fees in Hawaii has passed in the last few months. I'll search my military e-mail and forward if I can find it.
Doc

[jtmililani808]

I'm pretty sure that you qualify for an exemption. If you google Hawaii Use Tax, you'll be able to find a pdf file that explains the tax and who's exempt.

[C17MooseDriver]

I bought a car through the military car sales and just registered it a few days ago. I probably have the most current experience with it.

Google Hawaii Use Tax. Download the form for the exemption. I listed the exemption of using the car here for less than a year. I brought that, with the Certificate of Origin from BMWNA, Safety Inspection given to me by the dealer, a DF-1 form given to me by the dealer, and a non-resident military form to the satellite city hall. I also took the shipping document from the dealer, but don't remember if they looked at it or not. Total cost was $25.50. Actually it was pretty painless. In and out in 10 minutes with plates and registration.

BTW, you are not exempt just because you are in the military from paying the use tax of 4%. The Exemption lists the reasons you maybe exempt. When I marked off that the car would be here less than a year, they didn't require any proof to back it up FWIW.

FYI, total time from leaving the factory to picking up the car at the local dealer was about 6 weeks. Not as bad as I thought it would be. BMW of Honolulu treated me real well, just as if I purchased the car directly through them. Detailed and fueled up. It was sitting in their showroom when I arrived to pick it up. They sat with me in the car and ran through all the features and how to operate the new Idrive system.

Here's the exemption form

http://hawaii.gov/tax/current/g27.pdf

[jcrabtree19]

Thats great but what happens in a year if you dont move? Do you have to get re-registered? If not then ill prob do that too. Thanks...

[C17MooseDriver]

They don't document anywhere what exemption you have, they just put a stamp on your registration, saying taxes were not collected. It could have been cause you already registered it somewhere else, received it as a gift, etc., they won't know.

Of course I could be wrong but we'll see in a year I guess.

[jcrabtree19]

haha yeah right... Sounds good though ill give it a try myself. Enjoy your m3 while i wait for mines...

[C17MooseDriver]

It was a long wait, but worth it. I keep staring at it in my garage in disbelief. Hope to see you on the road here. PM if you have any further questions.