[RobRoy]

I was given a 1954 Ford Pickup by my uncle a few decades ago. I had to pay tax based on "what it was worth" but they didn't call it a "sales tax". I was steaming mad until they told me that, at which point I shut up.

Being a black and white thinker, I believed that if they called it a sales tax they could only tax the amount of money that changed hands, but if they called it anything else, they could pretty much charge what they wanted. They based it on a $500 value - and I quietly paid it.

[tacticalogic]

I got questioned about the sales price on an old Triumph Spitfire I bought. I explained that the transmission was in a bushel basket in the trunk in about a hundred pieces and they said "Ew." and processed it.

[snoringbear]

While this bill is obviously for the purpose of pulling in more tax dollars,it also closes a loop-hole in the system. Private sales of cars, trailers, boats, etc, can be consummated by merely hand-writing a bill of sale on a piece of paper. The price stated on the BOS can be whatever the two parties agree upon which may or may not be the actual sale price. As an example, a friend can sell a car to his neighbor for $5,000 but write on the BOS the price to be $1,000. Thereby, the buyer will have to pay taxes only on the $1,000 price stated on the BOS.