Any time a vehicle is purchased from a business or dealer outside of Georgia, sales tax will be due. The State of Georgia Department of Revenue (DOR) has determined 6% as the sales tax for Gwinnett County residents.
In such cases, the appropriate amount of sales tax as determined by the State of Georgia DOR must be paid before you can title the vehicle. Also, you will not receive a tag for the vehicle until sales tax is paid.
If you buy a vehicle from an out of state source over the Internet, and the Internet site or company collects a fee of any kind for processing the sale, that site or company becomes a broker for the sale, and sales tax will be due. This can also apply to purchases over the Internet from individuals.
Payment of sales tax can be accomplished in a number of ways:
- If the out-of-state business or dealer is authorized by the State of Georgia DOR to collect Georgia sales tax and does so, you may have nothing further to pay at your tag office. Please provide a bill of sale indicating the amount of sales tax collected.
- If you pay sales tax to an out-of-state business or dealer that is not authorized by the State of Georgia DOR to collect sales tax, you may receive credit based on the reciprocal agreement that Georgia has with that particular state. If the reciprocal agreement between the State of Georgia and the state where the vehicle was purchased does not allow for full credit of the sales tax amount you paid to the unauthorized out-of-state dealer, you will be responsible for the difference. In some cases, this could result in you paying sales tax twice on the same vehicle. In these situations, you would contact the out-of-state dealer to resolve the sales tax payment.
- Payment for any sales tax due can be made directly to the State of Georgia DOR at any State of Georgia DOR regional office. For information regarding State of Georgia DOR locations, click here.
- You may also pay sales tax at any Gwinnett County tag office. Tag offices accept cash, checks, money orders, cashier’s checks, debit cards, Master Card, Visa, and Discover. For Gwinnett County tag office locations, click here.
When visiting either a State of Georgia DOR office or a tag office, please bring an itemized bill of sale for the vehicle. If sales tax was collected at the time of sale, this must be reflected. If you are leasing a vehicle, please bring the lease agreement.
Unfortunately, the Gwinnett County Tax Commissioner’s Office will be unable to determine the amount of sales tax due over the phone.
Note: The Gwinnett County Tax Commissioner’s Office cannot accept checks made out to either “Georgia Department of Revenue” or “State of Georgia.” When paying sales tax at a tag office, please make checks out to “Gwinnett County Tag Agent.”
Updated 6/10/09