I’m currently in the process of buying a car in California but am struggling with the registration. It is my understanding that I don’t have to register my car here because my home record is in Georgia. We are just stationed in California. The main response from dealers is that the car must be registered in the state it is delivered. Has anyone had success with buying a car outside their home record without having to register it in their current duty station location?
Military Spouse buying car outside of home record
byu/jhoodwins inMilitaryFinance
Posted by jhoodwins
2 Comments
This is difficult in CA. California requires either sales or use tax on vehicles purchased in the state regardless of where the vehicle is registered. Since the tax is usually paid as part of the registration it’s hard to find a dealership that’s willing to do an out of state registration.
When we purchased in CA, we ended up just registering the vehicle in CA. When it was up for renewal, we reregistered in our state of residence. As a non-resident military member in CA, make sure to fill out the VLF exemption form.
Home of record means nothing. Is your state of residence GA?