Buyers of luxury Lamborghinis, Porsches and Ferraris were charged with ducking $1.8 million in California taxes by registering the vehicles out of state, Attorney General Rob Bonta said Friday.
The $20 million in purchases involved 14 individuals in Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin and Sant Clara counties, Bonta said in a press release and court filing.
The case was spelled out in a 56-count complaint alleging conspiracy, filing false sales tax returns, failing to file tax returns, perjury and money laundering.
“Every dollar of unpaid taxes is a dollar taken from California’s roads, schools, and the vital services our communities rely on,” Bonta said. “Schemes that defraud the government of millions in taxpayer money will not be tolerated.”
The case traced car sales as far back as 2018, alleging the defendants, working individually and with each other, submitted false tax forms, DMV forms, and bills of lading indicating that vehicles were purchased for use outside California.
“However, none of the vehicles were shipped or used outside of California – they were delivered, driven, and stored within the state,” Bonta said.
The vehicles included a $1.8 million McLaren Elva, $1.5 million Porsche 918 Spyder, and $1.26 million Ferrari F12TDF, according to the attorney general.
…. it’s been done for many years… largely because of a loophole in the vehicle codes… sounds like those loopholes are getting sewn up!
Here are the real schemes:
Why should there be higher registration fees on a car just because it has a higher value? The government is already getting their end from the sales tax.
Why must a pick-up truck owner pay higher registration fees because their vehicle is considered a commercial vehicle?
In the next few years roughly 200–300 miles of existing roads will be turned into toll roads. Why do we have to pay for roads that we already funded?
Why do we all put up with it? Time to throw that tea overboard?
Sales tax, Road tax. Park & rec tax, Excise Sales tax, Income taxed and then the “leftover”
income is taxed for everything we buy to keep this society operating. Gas tax, Property tax,
Sewer tax, street light tax, schools tax — “share the wealth” tax tucked away in all bills for
utility, water, garbage, to pay for those Audi and Escalade drivers who say they can’t pay to
keep their kids warm, bathed and fed too. Speaking of eating…
If you sit down in mc Donald’s to eat your big Mac…no tax. But if you can’t stand all the foul mouthed 13 yr old’s noise, you take it to your car to eat it? It Is Taxed!
~~~~ WHAT the BLEEP?
Yeah, that’s what I said too.
What our robby dobby AG said…”Every dollar of unpaid taxes is a dollar taken from California’s roads, schools, and the vital services our communities rely on”.
What he meant…..”Every dollar of unpaid taxes is a dollar taken from SEIU who we need to rig our elections and keep us in power”.
Oh Boo-Hoo! don’t make the taxes so much on them in this state so they don’t have to go outside. They are paying taxes on the items anyway just choosing a state without a ridicules luxury tax. Luxury tax is simply a cash grab so s#ck it Rob. These people aren’t cheating they are just avoiding being cheated.
I wonder if this means 14 more high earning taxpayers will be relocating to a different state, resulting in even less income from confiscation from paychecks by FTB.
This is the biggest issue Bonta has to work on?
Here’s a link to the felony complaint:
Complaint_Redacted_0.pdf
Can anyone blame them for what they did? The state democrat government is basically a bunch of feckless parasites. They excel at taxing and sucking the blood of state citizens.
So they expect these people to pay an average of $128k of taxes on each vehicle. Ridiculous.
I don’t think schools should be funded if they have questionable curriculums.
I do think that lawyers, foreign entities, and governments that practice exploitation should be held accountable and not simply dealt a free pass.
If these 14 individuals committed frauds and failed to disclose material facts, then by all means they need remediation.
You know next time just by a Volvo.