Do you pay FET on a new trailer?

Unfortunately it’s also for the trailer

 

SHYSTERS !

 

Yep

 

Depends, if you buy a trailer with axle ratings LESS than 25,000 there is no FET, also if you buy a tractor with axle ratings of less than 33,000 and NO 5th wheel, you dont pay FET.

 

I bought a new reefer last year in AZ for interstate use and I'm based in California. I was told by the tax board that as long as my first load was out of state, I could avoid the FET. What I didn't understand was that the load needed to be picked up out of state and delivered out of state before the trailer entered California. I brought the trailer home because it and my truck needed to be prepped, and I wasn't ready for business yet, then booked my first load out of state from here. Then I owed over $7,000 in additional taxes because I brought the trailer into California before booking that load. It sucked in a big way.

 

how’d they know you brought it home if you didn’t book a load to/from Cali?

 

Because I didn't think it mattered where the load originated from, and it came out of California and delivered in Nevada.

 

I’d lie to save $7k. Lol. Are you sure it was FET and not a CA state tax? I know when a buddy of mine gets a new truck that he can’t do his regular haul for the first quarter he has a new truck. He ends up running all over and staying out of CA to avoid some type of sales tax.

 

I was told it was FET, but frankly it could have been anything. All I know is that I'm the one who had to pay it.