Posted on 02/23/2013 9:48:59 AM PST by nascarnation
In its simplest form, an exotic car with a Montana plates is an immense tax dodge. Being the Wild West, you see, Montana levies no sales tax. Instead, its government chooses to operate under the unique “we don’t need no stinkin’ money” principle, which possibly explains why they went without speed limits for several years: they couldn’t afford the signs.
In my home state of Georgia, the Veyron’s $1.7 million MSRP would be taxed at seven percent, which comes out to $119,000. For a license plate.
Anyway, if you lived in Montana, the same Veyron would cost virtually nothing to register. Yes, maybe $200 for some fee or other, and of course the requisite $30 for the special plate that no one notices. But aside from that, nothing. You’ve just saved $118,770.
(Excerpt) Read more at thetruthaboutcars.com ...
http://www.chp.ca.gov/prog/cheaters.cgi
A Nevada resident can buy a car in sales-tax-free Oregon, and then register it in state, without paying any sales tax.
The annual registration fee in California on the new Bugatti is over $400K per year.
I imagine that one could buy a small summer cottage in Montana for less than $119K and have the car be completely legal.
Just curious, how much for a 15 yr old beater?
Montana has a relatively high Income Tax rate starting at a low income level.
Stunningly high by my reckoning: 6.9% on income > 15 grand
they pay you.love them beaters,got one
There's also an implicit "Mountain Tax" that keeps wages and salaries low.
Yes and relatively high property taxes and other "user" fees to compensate for the lack of sales tax.
Montana's screwy taxes on "custom" automobiles and "classic" automobiles are beyond my pay grade. There may be some kind of dodge there.
But I do know that I just wrote a check for $400 to renew the tags on my four-year-old pickup. When it was brand-new the fee was well over $500.
A relative of mine in Idaho, by comparison, just registered his brand-new AWD Fusion for $56. Of course he had to pay Idaho's six-plus-percent sales tax...then again, he only has to pay the sales tax once.
Still and all the absence of a sales tax, regressive though it is, seems preferable to me. When you pay (non-withholding) taxes in Montana you have to write out a check: it keeps the tax-grab right in front of you.
We,too,have a hotline here that one can use to report "tax cheats" but I'd wager that few people use it.
I bet John Kerry is kicking himself that he didn’t figure out how to buy and dock his yacht in Montana.
http://yachtpals.com/kerry-yacht-9119
Some enterprising Montanan should buy an acre of Montana land, break it up into postage sized parcels, then sell one of the postage sized parcels for a nominal amount; plus obtain a Montana post office box. The purchaser of such a parcel and box by visiting the parcel from time to time and picking up his junk mail could then claim Montana citizenship and register his car. Anything to deny the blood suckers their precious dollars with which to buy votes.
Most states seem to have a 6 month rule to determine which of two states got the residency, but what if one has property and lives in three states?
What about folks who live overseas? What state should they pay income taxes to? What about US citizens who live in one of the territories?
And Montana has some pretty cool plates, I bet they have more variations and specialized plates than anywhere. It seems I almost never see two Montana plates that are alike.
I'm just pointing this out...would not want to give anyone a reason to move here..its to cold, no jobs, and packed to the gills with out of staters.
A friend of mine bought a place in Oregon and moved up there. He came back to California to work on his house to fix it up for sale. He got stopped and ended up having to reregister in California. This was back in the eighties.
You are so right.
A hateful place to live!
(I do gotta admit Max & Tester are a pair to draw to though...sheesh)
States argue about that very issue all the time.They argue with other states as well as with individual taxpayers.If you listen to Rush regularly you'll recall that he mentions from time to time that he gets audited by the State of New York every year and that that audit is very complicated and intense.This is despite the fact that he hasn't lived *or* worked in the state for years.I'm sure that their backup plan was to put a lien on his Manhattan apartment which,IIRC,he only sold a year or two ago.When you have nothing that a state can seize (a business or a residence) I don't see how they can enforce a tax decision...although I could be wrong.
Most states want to see their state's plate on a vehicle that runs around town for more than a few weeks with the owner hanging out there for months at a time.
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