Taxes on Used Tractors

wushaw · Feb 14, 2008

LBrown59 said:
I bought a homemade 6 x 8 utility trailer from a private party back in 1995.
I just handed the guy 350 dollars and hooked the trailer up to my pick up and brought it home.
There was no bill of sale title or registration to change into my name.
What now?

What do ya mean "what now"

Different states different laws....simple

Harry c · Feb 14, 2008

I moved from Tennessee to North Carolina 5 years ago. Tenn did not require trailer titles or even tags for personal use. None of my trailers even had numbers. NC requires titles and tags. I went to the DMV office, got numbers assigned, stamped the numbers into the tongue and axle. Took the trailer to the Highway Patrol office for approval. Then took the signed form back to the DMV and purchased the tags. Serious time consuming hassle but no real problem. I have a stamp set so I stamped the numbers myself, but I understand most machine shops around here will do it for a small fee.

crazyal · Feb 14, 2008

LBrown59 said:
I bought a homemade 6 x 8 utility trailer from a private party back in 1995.
I just handed the guy 350 dollars and hooked the trailer up to my pick up and brought it home.
There was no bill of sale title or registration to change into my name.
What now?

Each state could be different but here in Vermont you need to get a VIN number for the trailer if it doesn't have one. Tractors are a hard thing for taxes because each state treats them a little different. Plus depending on it's use (for personal vs. farm) could also be the difference. You might also want to look into whether or not your state's use tax covers new and used or just new.

KeithInSpace · Feb 14, 2008

Harry c said:
I moved from Tennessee to North Carolina 5 years ago...

A perfect example. You'd have to do much the same thing here except you could simply take it by the DMV for verification of the VIN number, cutting out that step at the police station.

I really don't get having licence plates on "personal use" trailers anyway. I can see the big ones (over 10,000# GW, for example), but on mine it is just something that gets lodged into the ground from time to time. Just another way for Big Brother to stick it to you, I guess.

As an aside, trailers in VA get a "Certificate of Title for a Vehicle" just like a car. Looks identical except for the way things are filled in (there is no odometer reading, for example).