I just saw a news story in CT saying they're cracking down on
"illegal" out-of-state registrations here. They want to make sure
they're getting their fair (ha!) share of taxes if you store and drive
your vehicles mainly in CT (the registration fee is just another tax,
afterall).
Sounds like more and more people were finding this a good way to lower
costs. And the state said "hell no"
On Thu, Aug 27, 2009 at 3:41 AM, <jon@dakota-truck.net> wrote:
>
> 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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