Vehicle Tax and Fee Update Log

Version 2026.3 — 13 August 2026

• Re-reviewed the state rule set against current official agency sources, corrected New York qualifying dealer trade-in tax treatment, and clarified that North Carolina's statutory $2,000 HUT maximum applies only to specified commercial and recreational vehicles.
• Expanded all detailed state calculator pages with state-specific tax-base explanations, worked examples, verification checklists and buyer FAQs.
• Added a custom Tax, Title and License calculator for searchers who need a transparent TTL estimate outside the detailed state engines.
• Expanded the guide library from 34 to 38 guides and deepened existing guides around decisions, calculations, documentation and transaction risk.
• Kept the update log available for transparency but removed it from the index-focused sitemap because it is a trust/changelog resource rather than a search-intent landing page.

Version 2026.2 — 9 August 2026

• Corrected Washington luxury motor-vehicle tax for purchase dates from July 1, 2026: the annual 2% adjustment raises the deduction from $100,000 to $102,000 for the second half of 2026.
• Added detailed engines for California, Georgia, North Carolina, Illinois, New York and Tennessee, with local or vehicle-specific inputs left visible where one statewide figure would be misleading.
• Converted the Texas Standard Presumptive Value page into a focused calculator using purchase price, 80% of entered SPV or a qualifying appraisal input.
• Expanded trade analysis with state tax-savings, trade-vs-private-sale and negative-equity financing tools.
• Added state-aware fee rules to the dealer fee checker and quote audit, plus machine-readable content and state-rule indexes.

Publication update — 29 July 2026

• The quote-comparison guidance was expanded to explain selling price, dealer fees, government charges, rebates, trade allowance and payoff as separate comparison fields.
• Cross-links between the comparison tool, methodology and official source registry were refreshed so rule evidence is easier to reach.
• The public sitemap and update feed were refreshed, and the canonical publication address remains the secure non-www domain.
• No Florida, Texas or Washington calculation rate changed in that July 29 publication-only update.

Version 2026.1 — 18 July 2026

• Calculation rules and public sources reviewed for the listed effective dates.
• Florida 6% state tax, 2026 county surtax table and common FLHSMV title and registration amounts.
• Texas 6.25% standard tax, private-party SPV path and fixed special transaction modes.
• Washington 0.5% additional motor-vehicle tax and 2026 luxury-tax threshold and rate.
• National custom-rate estimate, reverse budget solver, trade-in tax estimate, dealer quote checker and three-quote comparison.

What triggers a calculator version change

A new version is published when a source-backed rate, threshold, government fee, tax base or transaction rule changes. Copy improvements, accessibility work and internal-link maintenance are recorded separately when they do not alter the calculation.

How changes are reviewed and deployed

An official-source change triggers source review, rule update, regression-test update, public changelog entry and a new deployment. A page review date alone does not silently alter an older formula. The methodology explains calculation order and rounding, while the source registry lists the public agencies used for each state path.