Can I claim the purchase of a vehicle? Texas does not have state tax.

[Texas Roger · Accepted solution]

You can claim the sales tax paid for a car as a major purchase in addition to the IRS table amount based on your income. You will get a tax benefit if you itemize deductions on your tax return.

[DJS]

Yes. You claim a deduction for the Texas sales tax on a motor vehicle. The tax is 6 1/4 % (.0625) of sales price, minus any trade-in allowance. 

To enter the data if you want to claim all the sales tax items rather than use the simplified method

Select Federal Taxes

Deductions and Credits

I'll Choose What to Work On

In Estimates and Other Taxes Paid Select Sales Tax and follow the instructions

[kenwha]

How this works is unclear. In my TX case I get $1221 sales tax ded. Paid $2419 in vehicle sales taxes. Entering the vehicle purchase the table only gives an addl. $24 ded. If plugging in the the 2419 directly as sales tax, it reduces what I owe by >$300. Don't know what's acceptable but makes huge difference.

[Texas Roger]

It's not clear what you did. When you use the Easy Guide in the sales tax section, you first enter the state and sales tax rate. If you have already entered it, then Edit it when you get to that screen. You then have the opportunity to enter the sales tax amount paid on a major purchase such as a car. The amount of sales tax you paid for the car is added to the IRS table amount that is based on your income.

[kenwha]

Thanks for the reply. It's the huge disparity in how the deduction is applied. Ignore the std. sales tax deduction...  If I use only what I paid in taxes on the vehicle for a sales tax deduction, my tax burden is greater than 300 less than if I use the standard deduction and then itemize the vehicle tax. It's worth only an additional 24$.TX vehicle tax is 6.25. Local Dallas rates 8.25.

[Texas Roger]

It's still not clear to me what you are doing. You have two choices for sales tax deduction. You can enter actual sales taxes paid on everything you bought or you can use the IRS standard table amount which bases your sales taxes on 8.25% of your total income plus you can then add to that the tax you paid on the major purchase of your vehicle at a tax rate of 6.25%.

[kenwha]

There are 2 choices: 1)Take the standard sales tax deduction and add any major purchases-created in a separate table. 2) Enter sales taxes paid for the year. Using this choice and I only enter the vehicle taxes paid: $2419, I receive a credit $300 < using choice 1. Don't know if this legal or acceptable but $ difference is material.

[Splittail70]

My husband is in the military and bought his new vehicle in South Carolina but, Texas is his home of record and state we file taxes in.  Can we still deduct the tax we paid on that vehicle?  If so, can you explain how I should do that.

[Vanessa A]

Yes, you can claim it if you itemize your deductions on your federal return. To enter this, you will select the following:

• Federal
• Deductions and Credits
• Show More next to Estimates and Other Taxes Paid
• Start next to sales tax for items like cars