04/28/2004
?The taxpayer sold his 2002 Ford Explorer to a private party for cash. He then applied that cash to the purchase of a new Toyota Sequoia. After paying motor vehicle excise tax on the full purchase price of the Toyota, the taxpayer applied for a refund of the tax on the sale amount of his Ford, claiming that the money from the sale of his Ford, applied to the purchase of the Toyota, should be treated as a trade-in allowance on the purchase of the Toyota. The refund request was denied, and the taxpayer protested the denial. The protest was denied because the money from the sale of the taxpayer’s Ford did not qualify as a trade-in for purposes of calculating the value of the Toyota Sequoia under the Motor Vehicle Excise Tax Act.