I have had my xB for 8 days. The car is great! I love it.

The overall buying experience was good. However, there is one thing that I need to metion about my buying experience:

The F&I department did not do their job right. They calculate the sales tax on the $400 college student cash rebate

In Minnesota, all those rebate is non-taxable when you buy a car. (this may not apply on purchase of other personal stuff). I know it is not taxable because I did the sales/use tax for my company. Here is the link.

When I told him the rebate is non-taxable according to the fact sheet on Department of Revenue's website, he refused to deduct the rebate before the tax. He told me if I confirmed the rebate is non-taxable I can always get the money back from Dept. of Revenue.

I called Dept. of Revenue today. When I asked the agent whether the dealer did the calculation right, the agent said the dealer have the choice to do calculate the sales tax either on after rebate or before rebate price. I was very surprised when I heard this. No wonder the dealer is not doing the things right. The agent is not doing his job either.


I told the agent that was not what I was reading from the Fact Sheet 125 about sales/use tax. It took a while before the agent got back to me saying you are right, rebate on cars are non-taxable and you can get the tax back from the dealer. He said what I need to do is to show the dealer the fact sheet from Dept. of Rev.'s website.

I am going to call the dealer and get the tax back. Hope this will be a good experience.

Hope this is helpful to those who are eligible for the rabate.

 

I'm sorry Hui. I never knew that either. Let me know if you have any problems with the finance guys. I'll try to talk to them if you do.

 

THanks Jess! I sent you an email.

As I said, I had good car buying experience with you. I post this to make people aware that the college student rebate ($400) is not taxable. That's pretax.

 

Thanks...I didn't know so I am glad you did.

 

lol... is there a highschool student rebate?