Michael Maskalans <dml@tepidcola.com> wrote:
> Hey Jon, I know you looked into the Montana LLC thing a while ago, and
> didn't go that route. Why was that?
Because the New York governor and legislature, in their neverending
quest to make this state the crappiest in the union, added a bill to
this year's budget to specifically close that loophole. :-(
Here's my original post with more details:
http://archives.dakota-truck.net/0903/0089.html
It looks as though it might still be possible to do this, as long
as you don't mind paying the sales tax, which in this case would
actually be a "use tax". Assuming I am correct about that, it might
still be worthwhile to avoid the inspection and registration renewal
hassles on newly purchased vehicles, but I'm assuming that any
existing vehicles which were "sold" to a Montana LLC and then used in
NY would have to have the "use tax" paid. Where, to whom, and how
such a tax would be paid, I'm not sure - on the annual income tax
return maybe? This was never a tax "avoidance" thing for me, I was
looking mainly to avoid the constant renewal fees and the neverending
annual inspections, but if I'd have to pay sales tax again on all of
my existing vehicles, that expense would eat up any potential savings.
:-( And of course, selling them to the LLC for $1 or some nominal fee
probably won't work since if you try to pull that at the DMV, they
will just use the blue book value instead.
Getting insurance can be a problem as well - you might have to
restrict yourself to certain companies that will write a policy for
the LLC. I discovered that this would have been absolutely no problem
for my classic car insurance company, but the company I use for the
daily drivers wouldn't allow this, and would basically force me into a
"business" policy for a heck of a lot more money. So, you'll
definitely want to check out that angle too. I hear Progressive will
write an LLC policy, and I'm sure there are others, but they might not
be the least expensive, so you've got to factor the higher insurance
premiums into your calculations.
I spent (wasted) quite a bit of time researching this, so if you
have any questions, feel free to ask and I'll try and help if I can.
I located a registered agent in Montana who seemed pretty decent; very
inexpensive to form the LLC and act as the registered agent, plus they
are in one of the least expensive counties for registrations. (A lot
of counties have some hidden fees and taxes for registering vehicles,
so you need to be careful which county your LLC is a resident of.
Some counties make you pay an annual tax, based on the current value
of the vehicle.) Plus, the DMV in that county allowed the
registrations to be done via mail, so there was no expense to hire
that work done. I went so far as to get a faxed quote for the cost to
register all of my vehicles from the DMV in Montana, and the only
question remaining was finding an inexpensive insurance policy for my
daily driver vehicles. Just as I was researching that though, I
stumbled across the booby-trap in the NY budget which stopped me cold.
:-(
Likewise, if you are able to shed any new light on the situation,
I'd be glad to hear it. I haven't completely abandoned the idea and
may revisit it at some point in the future, but it seemed that for my
situation it wasn't going to work as far as I could determine.
--
-Jon-
.- Jon Steiger -- jon@dakota-truck.net or jon@jonsteiger.com -.
| '96 Kolb Firefly, '96 Suzuki Intruder, Miscellaneous Mopars |
`-------------------------------- http://www.jonsteiger.com --'
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