Michael Burbidge

Well Known Member
The tax office in Washington state is telling me I have to have an appraisal of my aircraft to pay use tax. Does anyone have a recommendation in the Seattle area of an appraiser that knows RVs?

Michael-
 
Is this a new requirement? In the past they have used the price on the Bill of Sale for value or, for a new build, they sum of the receipts for the kits.
 
What their docs say

The tax office in Washington state is telling me I have to have an appraisal of my aircraft to pay use tax. Does anyone have a recommendation in the Seattle area of an appraiser that knows RVs?

Michael-

Quote their own regulations back at them...

If your aircraft is home-built, use tax
is due on the value of the materials
used to build it. You may receive
credit against the use tax for any
sales tax you paid on the materials.


From here -

http://dor.wa.gov/docs/pubs/industspecific/aircraft.pdf
 
Michael-

Like others have said above, that's strange. Two options that I see off the top of my head:

1. Go to another tax office and pay there. It may just be that this office doesn't know what it is doing.

2. On the other hand, if you poured a ton of money into your build, maybe having it appraised would give you a lower value than the total of your receipts. Although the market seems to be improving, it still seems a bit soft, so the fair market value may be less than what you put into it.

Good luck.
 
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Was it a slow build? Here in MO you only pay use tax if you go over the $2000 per year. Taking 9 years to build I had several years were my receipts did not equal $2000 therefore got stuff those years use tax free. Check your laws to see if there is a dollar threshold per year.