Today, we are going to talk about a curious case in Missouri, United States, that has gone viral on TikTok and has taught us a huge lesson for any dealership or any person who sells or buys vehicles.
Everything started when a man decided to trade his truck at a local dealership, and all the paperwork went as usual but it became a situation that cost him thousands of dollars…
The salesman of the dealership, known as @rideorbuy3 on TikTok, published a video that has reached 33,500 views in which he tells how a client traded his truck for another one and, then, the new buyer of the vehicle found out a $3,300 debt with the Department of Mobile Vehicles (DMV). So, let’s find out how this situation ended.
How the issue started
According to the salesman, the truck had a clean and clear South Dakota title and the vehicle’s history report showed no problems. Everything looked legitimate. The dealership then sold the truck to a new customer in Missouri. The thing is that when the new buyer went to the DMV to register his new truck he found out he owed a $3,300 debt on sales tax, since the state of Missouri had detected something suspicious on the vehicles’ documents.
Missouri
The title of the vehicle was registered in South Dakota, but the name and the address of the previous owner were in Missouri. This raised a red flag for the Missouri DMV. State officials believed that the previous owner was trying to avoid paying Missouri’s higher sales tax by registering the vehicle in another state.
The salesman explained that the first owner of the truck had registered the vehicle in South Dakota because the sales tax is around 4% there, while in Missouri it is about 9%. By doing this, the client tried to save money on taxes, but this isn’t legal if the person doesn’t actually live in South Dakota.
The dealership
When the new buyer wanted to register the vehicle, the DMV refused until the debt was paid. So, the salesman decided to pay the $3,300 from his own wallet because the new owner was innocent.
Meanwhile, the man who traded in the truck was upset because he had already paid 4% sales tax in South Dakota. But the salesman explained that the customer should never have paid taxes there in the first place, since he didn’t live in South Dakota. Missouri wouldn’t allow any credit for the 4% already paid.
Who should pay for it?
The salesman asked for people’s opinion on TikTok: should he or the previous owner pay for it? Most people agreed the dealership was responsible for what happened because its finance department should have detected the issue before reselling the vehicle.
Even though in this case the dealership was the one paying for it, normally the sales tax is paid by the client who registers the vehicle According to J.D. Power, “even though it’s not immediately clear, sales tax applies to every car deal you make. Generally, it is paid by the buyer whenever they register the car.”
How much is paid on taxes for a vehicle?
In most of the states of the U.S., the sales taxes on vehicles ranges between 5% and 9% for both new and used cars. This percentage is calculated depending on the price of the vehicle.
Only 5 states don’t apply this tax: Alaska, Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire, and Oregon, although in some of them there are additional local taxes. This is because each state establishes their own rules, so the best thing to do is going to the official DMV website of each state to know the exact percentages before buying or selling a vehicle.
The takeaway
This story is a reminder for every dealership that handles trade-ins: always double-check out-of-state titles and confirm where the previous owner actually lived. A simple oversight can turn into thousands of dollars in unexpected costs.
For customers, it’s also a warning — trying to avoid taxes by registering a car in another state may seem like a shortcut, but it can backfire badly. In this case, it cost one dealership $3,300 to make things right.