Posted on 07/12/2012 9:54:29 AM PDT by jazusamo
General Motors has announced a 60 day money back guarantee policy for all new Chevy models, including the Chevy Volt. The move sets up a scenario where purchasers can buy a Volt, claim the $7,500 federal tax credit (and most likely state credits) and return the vehicle for a refund within 60 days. Did GM really not consider this glitch, or is this just another way for Government Motors to prop up politically important Volt sales leading up to November elections?
IRS tax form 8936 , for plug-in motor vehicle credit, does not have any minimum time requirement for buyers to own their qualified vehicles. The vehicle only has to be new and purchased during the tax year being claimed. Buyers of Volts will have documentation and VIN numbers for qualifying vehicles. The 60 day return policy lays the groundwork for a very easy way to scam the IRS out of $7,500. Buyers will most likely have to eat registration fees and sales tax paid that will be deducted from refund. So, in an effort to save taxpayers millions of dollars on the potential scam and save GM and its shareholders from losing more millions of dollars on the Volt, I suggest the Volt be exempted from the return program.
Of course, there is the possibility that Government Motors is aware of the situation. Volt sales should pick up, millions of dollars in tax credits will be claimed and GM can tout improved sales. GM will then have returned Volts to sell that will no longer qualify for the tax credits; the vehicles will be sold as used for thousands of dollars less. GM will have to reimburse dealerships for some portion of the losses. And unless the IRS has a database of VIN numbers for qualified vehicles, buyers of used Volts with low mileage may be tempted to claim the tax credit again, upping the federal subsidy to $15,000 per vehicle. Hopefully the IRS has safeguards to prevent double claiming of EV credits. In the past, the IRS did not seem too concerned as there was not even a field on prior year forms for VIN numbers, something that changed after my criticism of GM dealerships taking tax credits.
So, for the sake of taxpayers, let's hope that GM tries to rely on GE to purchase a bunch of Volts to prop up sales instead of costing taxpayers lost revenue on an easy scam by purchasers of Volts. I'll be in contact with GM to share my suggestion and update article as appropriate. The IRS should also consider a minimum term of ownership for buyers of plug-in vehicles to qualify for tax credits. Better yet, repeal the costly EV tax credits that do little to help with foreign oil dependence and only further enrich already wealthy electric car buyers.
Mark Modica is an NLPC Associate Fellow.
Better yet, repeal the costly EV tax credits that do little to help with foreign oil dependence and only further enrich already wealthy electric car buyers.
Amen to that.
Heck, I say we all go out and get a Volt, take the $7500 credit, return it, and scam the IRS.
God knows they've been scamming us for decades!
FUBOlastic happenings everywhere!...Everything turns to crap thanks to Obango!
Don’t buy health insurance, get taxed.
Do buy a Volt, get a tax credit.
What’s the difference?
I wonder what happens to the next purchaser with the same VIN number who tries to also claim the tax credit.
If IRS is actually checking VINs now on the tax credits which I don't believe is a given, I would guess the second claimant would be denied because it was a used vehicle but that's only a guess.
GM can pad the numbers for Chevy Volts sold without actually building more cars
Obama can claim he's weaning the US off of fossil fuels and building the ailing auto industry
IRS gets to hire even more agents to administer the tax breaks for buying Volts. Jobs, Jobs, Jobs!
So the IRS asks for a VIN number.
What prevents a person from using the VIN number of their golf cart or Suburban?
Well that would be if GM provided to the IRS a list of all Volt VIN numbers.
Then what prevent a person from just walking through the car lot grabbing a VIN number from a VOLT and using it?
I understand that once a car has been sold and the car is registered with the state, it can never be resold as "new", even if has only a few miles on it. It is then a used car, and the tax credit doesn't apply to used cars.
But I wouldn't put it past the typical stealership to lie to the unwary buyer to make him think he was buying an actual "new" car.
Can you get the tax credit for each volt you buy? In other words, take your initial investment and then buy and return a volt every day for the rest of the year, and then claim you bought 160 new volts in 2012?
Shame on the citizens who will "hire themselves" to do such work against their fellow citizens!
"To preserve [the] independence [of the people,] we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. We must make our election between economy and liberty, or profusion and servitude. If we run into such debts as that we must be taxed in our meat and in our drink, in our necessaries and our comforts, in our labors and our amusements, for our callings and our creeds, as the people of England are, our people, like them, must come to labor sixteen hours in the twenty-four, give the earnings of fifteen of these to the government for their debts and daily expenses, and the sixteenth being insufficient to afford us bread, we must live, as they now do, on oatmeal and potatoes, have no time to think, no means of calling the mismanagers to account, but be glad to obtain subsistence by hiring ourselves to rivet their chains on the necks of our fellow-sufferers." --Thomas Jefferson to Samuel Kercheval, 1816. ME 15:39
Is this what America has come to?
The increase in federal government workers in the past 3 years is astounding and grows every day.
The increase in federal government workers in the past 3 years is astounding and grows every day.
We have to reverse this trend promptly before it's too late if it isn't already.
Update: A local Chevy dealer informed me [Mark Modica] that sales tax is refundable. GM sales spokesman, Jim Cain, says returned Volts will be resold by dealerships as used and it is up to buyers as to whether or not they claim tax credits.
I wonder why Government Motors just won't come out and say it's used and the second buyer can't take the update. /sarc
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