Adaptive equipment now exempt from sales tax
Living with a disability can be costly, with adaptive equipment often a necessity in both home and transportation. Add to that the tax formerly charged to individuals registering vehicles for the apparatuses required for access in and out, averaging about $1,000 or more during the registration process, and life could be quite expensive. But thanks to a law passed in April 2013, An Act to Exempt from Sales Tax the Sales of Adaptive Equipment to Make a Vehicle Handicapped Accessible, there’s one less expense to worry about.
Mike Chasse, of Presque Isle, was instrumental in getting the law passed. Chasse, who became a quadriplegic as the result of a skiing accident several years ago, said last year he realized it was time to address the issue.
“This little doozy had been gnawing at me for months, ever since I purchased my new-to-me but definitely used handicap-accessible van and got charged $800 sales tax by the state of Maine for handicap equipment it had already been taxed on before,” noted Chase in an online blog from July 2013.
He indicated earlier that summer he’d made the decision to get a “new handicap-accessible van (HAV).”
“When I say ‘new’ I mean slightly used/new to me, because there’s no way I’m going to pay $60,000 for an overpriced HAV that is little more than a $25,000 van with a lowered floor and foldout ramp,” he said.
Chasse said he started looking for used vehicles and contacted two dealers in Maine “only to find they’re equally proud of their used inventory and charge $40,000-plus for low-mileage three- to four-year-old vans.”
He turned to eBay and after a few months found “the perfect van from a private seller.” After several emails to learn more about the vehicle, Chasse committed to the deal, sight unseen.
“I sent my sister and her husband south to Connecticut and made the biggest purchase of my life without even rolling my wheelchair into the van,” Chasse said, noting upon seeing the van — which cost $27,000 — how pleased he was with it. “It was amazingly perfect, still smelled of that new-car smell inside.”
Chasse said he learned from the previous owner’s family that the sales tax in Pennsylvania, where the van was originally registered, was 6 percent, which came to $918 for the vehicle; in addition, he learned Pennsylvania only charges sales tax for the purchase price of the vehicle.
“Now on to the Maine Department of Motor Vehicles. I arrive at the DMV with all my paperwork, including this previous registration, and a further breakdown showing that of the $27,000 I paid for my new van, only 41 percent of that — $11,000 — was for the actual vehicle, and the rest, $16,000, was for the handicap conversion part of the purchase price. You think they cared? Heck no. The state of Maine wanted me to pay sales tax on the entire $27,000,” Chasse said.
When Chasse questioned the tax, he was told that was the law and given a number to call in Augusta.
“I talked to this lady in Augusta about how ridiculous this was, how I was being forced to pay taxes on handicap-accessible equipment that had already been taxed once before, and she not so sincerely said ‘Sorry, that’s just the way it is,’” said Chasse.
Outraged, Chasse said he left DMV without registering his van and began making phone calls.
“I called Maine AlphaOne, the state of Maine Law Library, one of my friends who is heavily involved in state politics, and researched the Internet. What I found was Legislative Document 447, ‘An Act to Exempt from Sales Tax the Sales of Adaptive Equipment to Make a Vehicle Handicapped Accessible,’ which was proposed in 2003 by the 121st Maine Legislature. This bill would have expanded the sales tax exemption to include the sale of certain adaptive equipment. But the fiscal disposition indicated ‘Ought not to pass pursuant to Joint Rule 310, dated March 25, 2003,’” said Chasse.
With little choice, Chasse returned to the local DMV office and paid $1,350 in sales tax, of which $800 was for sales tax on handicap-accessible equipment.
Chasse said he was outraged at the system.
“Not only do I have to pay thousands and thousands of extra dollars every year for my extensive medical and home health care aid costs, have my earning potential significantly challenged due to my very real disability, but on top of that to pay an extra $15-30K for a vehicle, I also have to pay the state their cut — their tax on me for being disabled. That’s ridiculous,” he said.
That outrage set the momentum for getting the law changed. Working with local Rep. Robert Saucier, Chasse made trips to Augusta to speak with legislators and explain how the tax impacted people with disabilities.
“Mike brought his concern to me. Working with him and others from the community affected by the tax — including Matt Bell, who was paralyzed in an accident, and Cheryl Markey, whose son Adam MacDonald has Duchenne muscular dystrophy — I was able to get changes made. The law passed without any trouble, and initially took effect in October 2013,” said Saucier.
The act making such equipment nontaxable took effect July 1, 2014 and applies to sales of certain adaptive equipment, “Sales to a person with a disability or a person at the request of a person with a disability of adaptive equipment for installation in or on a motor vehicle to make that vehicle operable or accessible by a person with a disability who is issued a disability plate or placard by the state of Maine, pursuant to Title 29-A, section 521.”
