Kokua Line
By June Watanabe
Tuesday, March 16, 1999
Kokua Line
Car buyers, take heed. Car buyers don’t have
to pay dealer's use taxIn the March 10 Kokua Line, someone asked if a car dealer could legally add on a 0.5 percent state-use tax as part of the purchase price of a vehicle.
A state Tax Department spokeswoman said that "on the face of it," the answer was yes.
If the dealer disclosed that tax up front, "then it is our presumption that the visible passing on of the 0.5 percent use tax, in addition to the 4.166 percent visibly passed on and represented to be the Hawaii general excise tax, is allowable," the Tax Department said.
The state Office of Consumer Protection says otherwise.
"Consumers have no legal obligation to pay the dealer's use tax incident to the purchase of a motor vehicle," said OCP executive director Jo Ann Uchida.
What is negotiated is one thing, she said. But it would be "objectionable" for a dealer to imply that assessment of the use tax is required by law, she said.
There is no state law requiring that "the dealer's use tax, general excise tax, documentation fees, VTR fees, or other similar fees be separately passed on to the consumer," Uchida said.
The use tax is a cost of doing business, "not unlike paying for workers' compensation insurance, property taxes or rent," she said.
"This is particularly important to remember in a transaction like a car sale because consumers spend a lot of time negotiating an acceptable purchase price and are then confronted with a list of additional charges that inflate the 'out of door' price," she said.
"Because of the significant likelihood of confusion and misunderstanding as to the nature of this half percent tax, the likelihood that this pass-on would be portrayed or interpreted by consumers as a mandatory or government charge, and the likelihood that the practice would result in a windfall to the seller, a visible pass-on of this nature could be construed as an unfair or deceptive act or practice, depending upon the facts in the particular case," Uchida said.
Call 586-2636 for information.
My mom, who is 81, believes she is going to be a winner in the Publisher's Clearing House sweepstakes. She keeps buying magazines and now has over 20. She just received a check for $1 from Publishers Clearing House, giving her more hope that she will be a big winner. Is there some place that will help persuade old people not to spend all their money like this?
Officials from more than half the states are looking at how the sweepstakes industry lures people, especially the elderly, into buying magazines and other products in hopes of hitting the jackpot.
Congress also is considering a bill to issue fines up to $2 million to sweepstakes companies caught in deceptive sales practices.
Closer to home, call 586-2636, the Office of Consumer Protection.
"Our focus over the past couple of years has been telemarketing and direct mail," including sweepstakes lures, said executive director Jo Ann Uchida. "We had sued American Family Publishers in the past and we are involved in the Multistate Sweepstakes Group."
Uchida's office can tell you how to get your mother's name off telemarketing and direct marketing lists, as well as off the Publishers Clearing House list.
"We've gone as far as doing outreach for people who are really being victimized," Uchida said. That involves going to a person's home, showing a videotape and explaining that chances of winning are slim. "In certain situations, we have been successful in convincing people that it's not a good idea to participate."
To a nice gentleman who helped my son and his girlfriend when they got into an accident on the Lunalilo on-ramp to the H-1. He left before they could get his name. -- James M. Mahalo
Need help with problems? Call Kokua Line at 525-8686,
fax 525-6711, or write to P.O. Box 3080, Honolulu 96802.
Email to kokualine@starbulletin.com
