Make sure you make a copy of the bill of sale if you sell your car.

[Eaglefreek]

I've done this for years, but wanted to bring it to others attention just in case. When you sell a car, make sure you make a copy of the bill of sale for yourself. I try to make it as detailed as possible. I ask for their address and DL number and not only do I put the date but also the time. I sold my Festiva a couple months ago and this morning, my dad got a call from someone that said they bought my Festiva. My dad and I have the same name and he's in the phone book. Apparently, the guy I sold it to never registered it in his name and was driving it for couple months with probably a wrong tag and no insurance and then sold it to someone else and now they are having title issues. Being the nice guy I am, I'm going to help them out. Plus I want to make sure it gets out of my name. About 10 years ago I got a letter from an attorney asking me to pay a repair bill on a van I owned. I called them and let them know I sold it 2 years prior. Luckily, I still had the bill of sale and just faxed them a copy.

[drddan]

Get burned, lesson learned! That is sound advice!

[Damkid]

Definitely good advice!

[zoe60]

I always just meet them at the DMV and get it signed over all legal like. No way I want someone running around in a car that is still in my name and you can't trust them to take care of it!

[1990new]

Definitely good advice!

This is a bit long but it shows you how you can legally save some real money on taxes if you understand your states, county and city tax laws as related to vehicles.

In SC you are supposed to turn in you old tag and the bottom part of the title that has been filled out with the new owners name and address.
I keep a copy of the complete title plus the bill of sale if I sell a car. If turn in your tag here you can also get a prorated portion of you county auto taxes refunded
(unless your are transferring you tag to another unlicensed car that you have bought).

Say you renewed you tag on your Festiva in July and your sold it in September. You then bought a new 2015 aluminum body F150 with options for $38,000.
You really luck out tax wise here when you transfer you old Festiva tag to that new truck. You paid the maximum $300 state sales tax (no addition county or muni sales tax is allowed) on the truck
when you bought it but you don't have to pay county tax on the full value of the truck until next July when you renew the tag.
You have already paid tax for the year on the maximum assessed value of the Festiva, which is $50 for an auto that is 15 years old or older. County taxes on
my Festivas have been about $11 per year for many years now because the millage rates have been very stable in Charleston county since
the population continues to increase each year and thus the value of all real and personal property just keeps climbing.
But then the next July instead of the maximum $50 assessed value you will be assessed county tax at 6.5% of the market value of the truck at that time.
For example say $35,000 * .065 = $2275 instead of $50. So say you combined county and millage rate is .22, that would be 2274 * .22 = $500 in taxes instead of $11.
So by transferring the tag, you save almost $500 in taxes that first year.

The maximum $300 sales tax rate was set back in the early 70's when the state sales tax rate was 3% so at that time $300 was what you would have paid on a $10,000 vehicle.
It got written into the law that way and so far no politicians have had the courage to mess with it even though the average cost of a new car has almost tripled since then and
the sales tax rate has climbed to %6.

[Movin]

^^^ wow, I am glad I live in Oregon. If the wife would go maybe Alaska is better..

But less snow than normal, more mosquitoes, My copper river dream is going up in a global temp shift!!

[moz]

When we sell a car here down under, you have to fill out the change of ownership form on the back of your registration certificate.
That form has two sections. One section is for the new owner and the other is for the old owner.

Both sections have to be signed by both parties and the seller has to hand the notice of disposal in to their local dmv equivalent.

I still make a bill of sale with the exact time and date of purchase in case they have an accident on that same day. But otherwise the seller becomes isolated from any strange activities once the dmv processed the disposal slip.