IL Aircraft sales tax...

cowman

cowman

Final Approach
Joined
Aug 12, 2012
Messages
5,280
Location
Danger Zone
Display Name
Display name:
Cowman
So I got a letter from the IL DOT wanting me to fill out a form and remit sales tax on my airplane and I'm a little confused.

I bought my airplane almost 3 years ago when I lived in and was a WI resident. Airplane was based in WI, bought in SD... nothing to do with IL whatsoever. I paid sales tax due in WI.

I moved to IL last year and of course brought my airplane with. How can I possibly owe IL anything? Surely they can't charge you sales tax for something you already owned.
 
cowman said:
So I got a letter from the IL DOT wanting me to fill out a form and remit sales tax on my airplane and I'm a little confused.

I bought my airplane almost 3 years ago when I lived in and was a WI resident. Airplane was based in WI, bought in SD... nothing to do with IL whatsoever. I paid sales tax due in WI.

I moved to IL last year and of course brought my airplane with. How can I possibly owe IL anything? Surely they can't charge you sales tax for something you already owned.
Click to expand...
In the budget **** hole they're in right now they're probably trying anything to get money.
 
Put your real N number in a few fuel pumps eh?
 
Cowman..actually...Florida has a similar rule as do many states on use taxes:

Use tax normally applies to items purchased outside Florida, including another country, which are brought or delivered into this state and would have been taxed if purchased in Florida.

So if I bought a plane in another state and bring it into the state they want their share.

Example (this is the example on the website, not mine heh):

You buy a table from a company located in Georgia and you pick it up at the store. The furniture company charges you 4% Georgia sales tax and you transport the table to your home in Florida. You are required to pay an additional 2% Florida use tax (unless the tax is less than $1) by submitting a DR-15MO tax return and payment.
 
It's actually a common way to get screwed buying a car across the state lines. Happened to me once. Bought a used car in state with sales tax, registered in state with excise tax. Ended up paying both taxes and couldn't do anything about it. I learned to do research now.
 
Anytime you move to a different state, they will make you pay "registration fees" which is nothing but a renamed sales tax on some items you already own.
Though it varies state to state.
TX, for example, runs that scam on all vehicles. If you bring a car/truck into the state, you have to pay sales ta.... errrr .... "registration fee" which is 6% (same as sales tax). No matter whether you paid it earlier in the state in which you purchased the vehicle.
We elected these a-hats who are now screwing with us. We're smart, no? ;)
 
Wow, apparently I owe IL - Wi sales tax paid. It's not that much in dollars but the principal of thing and the extra work I now have to do finding all the documentation they want really ticks me off.

I already paid their dumb registration fee even though it's registered with the FAA which should be all that matters.
 
genna said:
It's actually a common way to get screwed buying a car across the state lines. Happened to me once. Bought a used car in state with sales tax, registered in state with excise tax. Ended up paying both taxes and couldn't do anything about it. I learned to do research now.
Click to expand...

Wow. Fortunately neither WI nor IL... the only two states I've ever lived in do that. You just write down on the registration form that you already paid sales tax out of state and you're done.
 
Caramon13 said:
Cowman..actually...Florida has a similar rule as do many states on use taxes:

Use tax normally applies to items purchased outside Florida, including another country, which are brought or delivered into this state and would have been taxed if purchased in Florida.

So if I bought a plane in another state and bring it into the state they want their share.

Example (this is the example on the website, not mine heh):

You buy a table from a company located in Georgia and you pick it up at the store. The furniture company charges you 4% Georgia sales tax and you transport the table to your home in Florida. You are required to pay an additional 2% Florida use tax (unless the tax is less than $1) by submitting a DR-15MO tax return and payment.
Click to expand...

Yeah, but...but...

The use taxes I'm familiar with only apply when you're a resident on one state, buy a large ticket item, like a car,in another state then immediately bring it into your home state and register it.

It doesn't apply if you bought the car three years before when you were a resident of that other state, initially registered it there, and then moved to the new state.

I'll be interested to hear what you find on this Cowman, as I'm currently contemplating a move to illinois.
 
Please don't listen to the majority of the information here. Call ILDOT or the Revenue Department that sent you the notice. If you paid sales tax on your aircraft in Wisconsin and then moved to Illinois all you need to do is show them that you paid the tax in Wisconsin and you MAY possibly have to pay the difference in sales tax rate between the states assuming Illinois is higher.

Just for clarification for a lot of folks here:

Sales tax is applied at aircraft purchase.
Use tax is the same tax rate as the sales tax but applied to purchases that occurred in other states and brought to the new home state and generally sought when an aircraft is registered within a state by the State DOT.
 
MichiPilot said:
Use tax is the same tax rate as the sales tax but applied to purchases that occurred in other states and brought to the new home state and generally sought when an aircraft is registered within a state by the State DOT.
Click to expand...

I'll echo what @MichiPilot said, definitely talk to a "qualified" person or department about this. My post was definitely talking about use tax, not sales tax.

@timwinters timing doesn't have much to do with it. No where in the FL use-tax law does it say the use tax doesn't apply if you've owned it for X amount of years in another state. I know this is IL and NOT FL, but I'm just saying... Here if you bring it into the state and it stays here as you are a legal resident, you owe use tax on it. And for me..I was even on the hook for an extra .5% of discretionary tax due to which county I live in..<sigh>

However, as @MichiPilot stated, some states DO give credits, FL IS one of them:

Credit for Tax Paid Outside Florida
A credit against any Florida sales and use tax or surtax due on an aircraft is allowed to any purchaser who provides documentation that a like tax has been lawfully imposed and paid to another state, territory of the United States, or District of Columbia.

Hopefully that'll be what happen in IL @cowman.
 
Gaylord Family OK Mem. Stadium,
cowman said:
I already paid their dumb registration fee even though it's registered with the FAA which should be all that matters.
Click to expand...

and don't forget the dumb registration fee for the federal issued pilot certificate you hold too (I hate our state)
 
I bought a "tax free" BMW oversees when I was active duty. Drove it for years oversees and brought it home when I was transferred to a base in California. Drove it four more years there (didn't have to pay use tax as active duty military while in California). Got transferred to Texas and got hit up for a use tax based on the US price of that model BMW back when I originally bought it over six years earlier. Didn't matter that I had CA plates. When I tried to register it in TX they wanted proof that a tax had been paid on it and since none had, they had me over a barrel if I wanted TX plates.
 
I received an injury the other day when someone asked me if I had any plans to ever return to IL. I laughed so hard that I fell off my chair and busted my ass.
 
I would never have moved back if it wasn't for most of my long time friends and family being here. Also the large amount of farmland I'm getting most of my income from these days...
 
Geez, there haven't been enough doors and windows to accomdate my family and friends exiting Maryland; mostly for the same reasons. . .
 
Ahh, excise taxes. Ahh, Illinois.

To be fair, Indiana does the same thing for vehicles and aircraft.
 
actually the IL aircraft tax situation is not as bad as many states. You pay the sales tax once (minus any sales tax already paid to another state) and then it's just a nominal registration fee, no "use tax" every year. It's a little surprising IL hasn't caught onto the use tax game since they love to tax everything else.
 
So, if I were to move to Illinois, and bring my Bonanza (which I have owned for nine years), they'd want me to pay sales/use tax, subject to a credit for the amount I paid when I bought it? That would suck, since I paid no tax when I bought it, under Texas' "occasional sale" exemption.
 
SCCutler said:
So, if I were to move to Illinois, and bring my Bonanza (which I have owned for nine years), they'd want me to pay sales/use tax, subject to a credit for the amount I paid when I bought it? That would suck, since I paid no tax when I bought it, under Texas' "occasional sale" exemption.
Click to expand...

And yet another good reason to stay in Texas.... For me anyhow. I lived in Illinois. NEVER again...... This would be but one small reason, of many, many more. There will never be enough money for those in power there.
 
JHW said:
actually the IL aircraft tax situation is not as bad as many states. You pay the sales tax once (minus any sales tax already paid to another state) and then it's just a nominal registration fee, no "use tax" every year. It's a little surprising IL hasn't caught onto the use tax game since they love to tax everything else.
Click to expand...

No annual personal property tax like I pay here in Missouri on my plane and all other vehicles? I pay about $450/yr on my plane and about $600/yr on everything else combined.
 
timwinters said:
I'll be interested to hear what you find on this Cowman, as I'm currently contemplating a move to illinois.
Click to expand...

I can't imagine anyone doing that willingly. I was there three months and had to get out. Listening to local radio shows was like listening to a litany of corruption stories one would only hear once in a while back home.

They just kept moving from one corrupt politician story to the next and taking callers on each, and they are so like the frog boiled in water slowly, they think this level of it is normal.

It's quite a shock if you move from somewhere with standard levels of political corruption to there.
 
BigBadLou said:
Anytime you move to a different state, they will make you pay "registration fees" which is nothing but a renamed sales tax on some items you already own.
Though it varies state to state.
TX, for example, runs that scam on all vehicles. If you bring a car/truck into the state, you have to pay sales ta.... errrr .... "registration fee" which is 6% (same as sales tax). No matter whether you paid it earlier in the state in which you purchased the vehicle.
We elected these a-hats who are now screwing with us. We're smart, no? ;)
Click to expand...

I had a short sentence in Ohio. I bought my 2004 Chevy truck and brought it to Texas when we moved here in 2007. I did not pay that tax/registration fee. I paid the license plate and registration fee.

Maybe it was because it was a couple of years old.

Maybe it is an Austin thing..... there is a reason I stay out of Austin. I was born there and refuse to move back.
 
Stop bagging on my home state already. :)

What if I am moving into Illinois with an aircraft I own or lease that needs to be registered?
If you originally purchased your aircraft from a dealer, lending institution, leasing company, or other retailer, you must use Form RUT-25 when you bring the aircraft into Illinois. Attach a copy of the bill of sale or other proof of the purchase price. If you had the aircraft registered in another state for more than three months, you must use Form RUT-25 to reflect the fact that no tax is due.

http://tax.illinois.gov/individuals/salesandrelated/aircraft.htm
 
Well the information direct from the department of revenue person who's name was on the letter is you still owe the tax but get credit for tax paid out of state. So, I had to pay the difference which was about 1% or a couple hundred.

They apparently took the check and issued a state registration cause I got that about a week after paying them.
 
cowman said:
Well the information direct from the department of revenue person who's name was on the letter is you still owe the tax but get credit for tax paid out of state. So, I had to pay the difference which was about 1% or a couple hundred.

They apparently took the check and issued a state registration cause I got that about a week after paying them.
Click to expand...

Nice, thanks for posting the results. Always helps to know how things turned out for anyone that might run into this in the future!
 
JHW said:
actually the IL aircraft tax situation is not as bad as many states. You pay the sales tax once (minus any sales tax already paid to another state) and then it's just a nominal registration fee, no "use tax" every year. It's a little surprising IL hasn't caught onto the use tax game since they love to tax everything else.
Click to expand...


Careful, they might hear you and suddenly implement something like this..
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top