Ask The Taxgirl: New Car Sales

Taxpayer asks:

Hi there,

I’ve purchased a new vehicle in 2009 on Jan. 31. The original provision of the new bill that was passed by the Senate stated that it would be from mid November 2008 through Jan. 1, 2010.

I saw your response where Congress has now said that new vehicles purchased from Feb. 16, 2009 to Jan. 1, 2010 are eligible.

Do I have any recourse or do you think it will be ammended to include the full year, i.e. from Jan. 1, 2009 to Jan. 1, 2010?

I was hoping for the tax brake and feel that its not fair to consumers.

Taxgirl says:

I’ve heard this question a lot. Unfortunately, I don’t have good news for you. I don’t think it’s going to be amended. It feels like an arbitrary date (it was the date that ARRA was effective) but it was written specifically to be effective for those dates. And yeah, it stinks. You can never trust anything that Congress tosses around until the ink is dry…