By: Diane Benjamin
If residents think they can save money on sales tax by buying a car from a small town dealer, they are wrong. The City of Bloomington (and Normal) will find you and send you a bill for the additional tax.
Even if you don’t live in the City limits, Bloomington is still trying to collect.
The additional tax only applies if you live inside the City limits. Many people have Bloomington addresses, but that doesn’t mean they are subject to the tax. Here’s a map of the City where the tax does apply: http://www.cityblm.org/index.aspx?page=62
Recently the City attempted to collect the tax from a family living outside these boundaries, but with a Bloomington address. They were smart enough to call the City and protest. I hear the person they talked to laughed it off and cancelled the bill.
How many people get billed and pay it?
This is one of those things citizens need to inform each other about. Government always needs more money, so preventing billing errors isn’t a high priority.
One more note – even if you buy a car in Bloomington or Normal but don’t live in the city limits, you only need to pay the tax rate for where you live.
That’s one of the perks of living in the country. It’s easy for a car dealer to see if you have an address like mine (Ellsworth), not so much for unincorporated Bloomington residents.
Buyer beware – it’s your money.
January 1st – Sales tax gets raised 1%. Happy New Year. Neither Bloomington or Normal knows how they are going to use it, they just did it. Keep avoiding those local elections folks, it’s working great.
(The tax doesn’t apply to food, drugs, medical devices, and anything that has to be titled or registered)
Pay it in a giant bag of pennies, I did.
Buy a vehicle in a state that don’t report to Illinois, like Montana or Alaska. They have NON-reciprocation with this state. OR simply get a PO box in another town and get your vehicle stuff there, preferably one wit a lower tax rate and SENSIBLE people running the government.
We learned of this recently. We bought a car in Morton, Illinois in Sept. We live in Nornal and we were not expecting the $94.00 bill that we received in the mail. We are raking our time paying it.
I just got hit with this on a very expensive car bought in Peoria. My tax bill will be close to $900. The salesman told me that only 3 of 102 IL counties charge this. Seems like double taxation to me. I paid IL sales tax. How in the world do they get to charge tax again? My house is in Illinois. I paid the tax. I don’t see why I have to pay yet another tax on the same car for the same property.
State tax is 6.25% She should be charged the difference for what a purchase in Bloomington would be.