[MKSixer]

Originally Posted by ASAP

I always think about this and it makes me wonder a bit...

When a car is sold in the USA as new, the new owner pays a sales tax on it. When the car is resold, the new owner pays tax on it again... and it keeps going and going every time the car is sold. The reason for this is because we pay car sales tax based on each transactional sale and not on the "car itself" nor its usage.

This only applies to cars more than anything else because the car itself has to be registered and registered at which point the new owner has to pay taxes on it.

Here is a couple of hypothetical situations-

I buy a new car and sell it one month later... is it fair for me to pay full taxes on that vehicle even though the product has been consumed for such a short time?

Should there be a useful depreciatable value with regards to taxes on car?

Should taxes instead be paid annually on the usage of a car... i.e. like real estate taxes?

Something about the way cars are taxed just doesn't make sense to me... you should be paying taxes on the usage of the car like a lease or something to the like so that roads can be upkept etc etc. Thoughts?

Tax law is made to benefit those who understand the law and can apply it's esoterica to their advantage.

"Anyone may arrange his affairs so that his taxes shall be as low as possible; he is not bound to choose that pattern which best pays the treasury. There is not even a patriotic duty to increase one's taxes. Over and over again the Courts have said that there is nothing sinister in so arranging affairs as to keep taxes as low as possible. Everyone does it, rich and poor alike and all do right, for nobody owes any public duty to pay more than the law demands."

-Judge Learned Hand