Georgia Automobile Sales Tax

Factual Questions
1

I live in Georgia, I’ve recently started looking at purchasing a car out of state.

I know that in Georgia, any time you buy an automobile from a dealer, you must pay the sales tax, however if you buy from a private individual, there is no sales tax. (There was, but this was changed around several years ago, as I remember.)

However, what about out of state? I know that if I buy from an out-of-state dealer, I’ll have to pay the Georgia Sales Tax when I try to register the vehicle. But what if I buy from a private individual? Since I’ll still have to go through the rigamarole of registering the vehicle with the state, that’d seem like a prime-time to enforce a sales tax…But would they? or does the same exemption on private sales still exist, eventhough the vehicle was purchased out of state.

And finally, a bit more generally, why are state sales taxes on cars assessed by the state of the buyer, not the seller? If I buy a coke in Alabama, I pay Alabama’s sales tax. If I buy a car, I pay Georgia’s. I understand Georgia can’t make an Alabama dealer collect my taxes, like they can a Georgia dealer…but why does Georgia even get a say so on an Alabama based transaction? And further, why DOESN’T Alabama get say so on said transaction?

Thanks!

Steve
(And yes I did google…but apparently I didn’t come up with the right keywords. And since this is about “Tax” with 3 letters, I couldn’t search the SDMB)

2

I don’t know about Georgia, but anything I buy outside of the state of Michigan has a “use tax” that’s the same as the state sales tax. Yeah, online purchases, too. You pay this with the state income tax (it’s on the form).

I do know, though, that my father once bought a car in Missouri and paid Nevada sales tax on it (he’s a resident of Nevada). I’m not sure how, but I’m positive it was done. The car was removed immediately from Missouri. We drove it to Nevada after my Army basic training graduation (truck was broken down in Illinois).