Can I switch a business car to a personal car?

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(FORTUNE Small Business) -- Dear FSB: I have an S-corporation and wanted to know how to go about it if I want to sell/transfer a business car to a personal car? What are the tax implications? Would a sales tax need to be paid?

- Gregg Slimski, Voorhees, N.J.

Dear Gregg: It's a little more complicated than merely peeling off the company stickers from the doors. If you want to transfer ownership to yourself, the owner of the corporation, you must effect a transfer of the title as you would for any other transaction for the sale/transfer of a car, according to Marc Hyman, technical manager of the tax division of the American Institute of CPAs.

"If the car is given to the owner for no charge," he says, "you must be certain to properly classify the transfer as either compensation to the owner to the extent it is for services provided, or as a distribution on which you, the owner, will pay tax to the extent the value of the car exceeds [what you paid]."

If, on the other hand, the corporation sells the car to the owner of the corporation for an actual cash transfer, "the corporation must recognize a gain or loss on the sale as appropriate," Hyman says. "In both cases, whether it's a sale or a moneyless transfer, depreciation recapture will need to be considered to ensure that the S-corporation has not depreciated more of the car than permitted during the time it owned it."

Either case usually requires a sales tax, Hyman, says but it depends on the specific laws of your local jurisdiction.