If you are in the market for a new car and are in the United States, there are still a few incentives for you that you may want to consider before you plop down $30,000 on your new car.

Obviously the biggest government incentive this year was the Cash for Clunkers program, but just because you missed out on that, that doesn’t mean that the government doesn’t want to help in other ways (as long as you buy your car by December 31st anyway).

When you go to a car dealership, you an typically negotiate a deal. Other than that, you can get a sales tax deduction right now. When the federal stimulus bill was passed at the beginning of the year, any person who purchased a car after February 17th and before January 1, 2010 is able to get a sales tax deduction on their car.

The downside is that the deduction is limited to the first $49,500 of the car’s price and the deduction phases out for those who earn over $125,000 per year or married people filing jointly $250,000. Once the person earns $135,000 alone or $260,000 for joint filings, the deduction is eliminated.

Sure, you aren’t going to be getting a huge deduction from this, but something is better than nothing. Because the deduction is only on sales tax, if someone lives in a state that does not have sales tax, the deductions can be applied to fees that the state or local governments impose.

You can also get a tax credit if you purchase a hybrid. Popular cars like the Prius aren’t eligible for the credit anymore, but 2009 models that are eligible include some cars from Chrysler, Dodge, Saturn and Mazda. The credits range between $1,550 and $2,200.

For the 2010 models, the tax credits are a bit more limited. They’re available to mostly SUV hybrids.

If you are in the market for a new car and are in the United States, there are still a few incentives for you that you may want to consider before you plop down $30,000 on your new car.

Obviously the biggest government incentive this year was the Cash for Clunkers program, but just because you missed out on that, that doesn’t mean that the government doesn’t want to help in other ways (as long as you buy your car by December 31st anyway).

When you go to a car dealership, you an typically negotiate a deal. Other than that, you can get a sales tax deduction right now. When the federal stimulus bill was passed at the beginning of the year, any person who purchased a car after February 17th and before January 1, 2010 is able to get a sales tax deduction on their car.

The downside is that the deduction is limited to the first $49,500 of the car’s price and the deduction phases out for those who earn over $125,000 per year or married people filing jointly $250,000.  Once the person earns $135,000 alone or $260,000 for joint filings, the deduction is eliminated.

Sure, you aren’t going to be getting  a huge deduction from this, but something is better than nothing. Because the deduction is only on sales tax, if someone lives in a state that does not have sales tax, the deductions can be applied to fees that the state or local governments impose.

You can also get a tax credit if you purchase a hybrid. Popular cars like the Prius aren’t eligible for the credit anymore, but 2009 models that are eligible include some cars from Chrysler, Dodge, Saturn and Mazda. The credits range between $1,550 and $2,200.

For the 2010 models, the tax credits are a bit more limited. They’re available to mostly SUV hybrids.

Source

This was the last weekend of the Cash for Clunkers program and it looked like car buyers came out in droves to trade in their old gas guzzlers for the discount. The program, which ended two weeks earlier than the government had intended, burned through the $3 billion that was allotted quickly and the entire program will be over by 8:00 pm Eastern time tonight.

Many dealerships have decided to stop their participation in the program sooner than the 8:00 pm deadline just to make sure that the government doesn’t run out of money before they have the chance to collect on the money. Of course, this deadline meant that customers would be flooding in the dealerships to participate in the program.

The program was seen as a success to some, as I have mentioned before. It spurred a huge deal of new car sales and was able to meet its goal of getting gas guzzlers off the roads.

On Friday, the program has boasted that half a million new cars had been sold through the program. Of course, many dealerships have been worried that the government won’t be reimbursing them for the car sales that were created through the program. As of Friday, many of the dealerships had only been reimbursed for a small percentage of the sales done through the program.