Montana MH Licensing/RV LLC????

[adj]

While in the Navy, a buddy of mine and I were discussing state taxes. He informed me that he paid taxes to the state he was stationed in. His reasoning was that he uses their roads, schools, police and fire department services (if needed), etc. A very moral stand that has stuck with me.

[Tom N]

Originally posted by NCTom:
Then I read two newspaper articles that confirmed that a lot of states and the federal govt are currently getting very interested in the topic of RV licensing in states where there is no sales or property tax. The first article I read was about a women in Oregon who the state prosecuted with RICO laws because she had over 1000 RVs registered to her at her residence.

The second story I read was about several RVers somewhere in Illinois. While camped at a RV park a state and a federal revenue agent appeared at the RV park asking people to show proof of residency in state where their RV was registered.

The Oregon situation was illegal because owners were registering their RVs using their own name and an Oregon address. With an LLC the RV is owned by a corporation incorporated in the state of registration.

As to the second situation, it is perfectly legal to be a resident of one state and have a vehicle registered in another state. Many second homeowners have a vehicle registered in the state where their second home is located and are not residents of that state. My father did that for 20 years.

-Tom

[Tom N]

Originally posted by adj:
While in the Navy, a buddy of mine and I were discussing state taxes. He informed me that he paid taxes to the state he was stationed in. His reasoning was that he uses their roads, schools, police and fire department services (if needed), etc. A very moral stand that has stuck with me.

I'm a resident of Pennsylvania and have all my vehicles including my motorhome registered there. But, my motorhome is in Florida more than it is in Pennsylvania. From your statement, should have it registered in Florida??

-Tom

[Ragman]

WOW! Didn't mean to start such a controversy. Just wanted to get some information.

We've already purchased the MH and yes, we've registered in Texas. Only because we had to finance a portion of the purchase price and because of time constraints, we were not able to find a finance company that would accept the LLC and in addition let us take the MH to Mexico or Canada. For example, GEMB (FMCA's finance program) would have required us to be in the states for six months prior to leaving the country. This would not have worked for us as we wanted to leave Dec. 1. You also need a notarized letter from the finance company to take the MH out of the country.

Getting the LLC is not a hassle. It takes less than two weeks and it is legal for Texas residents.

Best regards and we'll be having a Margarita in Mazatlan at Christmas. This will be our 6th year down there.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all.

[cb5300]

Hey Ragman, controversy is good, it shows that some people are using their brain (may be ) I actually started my LLC after I bought my motorhome while I still had the 30 day tags on it. I had a law firm in Montana set up the corp in less than a day and had my tags over nighted to me, all in all took 3 days from start to finish. I did have to get the bank that financed the coach write a letter giving their permission to change the ownership of the coach from me to the corp. it wasn't a big deal. The attorneys I have been working with have been great and have answered any questions that I have had.

[amanda_h]

Originally posted by NCTom:
I have read most of thest post with great interest. I wanted to share the following with you, but let me preface by telling you that I'm a retired federal law enforcement officer.
As I was reseaching RV life prior to purchasing my RV I too considered a Montana LLC. Then I read two newspaper articles that confirmed that a lot of states and the federal govt are currently getting very interested in the topic of RV licensing in states where there is no sales or property tax. The first article I read was about a women in Oregon who the state prosecuted with RICO laws because she had over 1000 RVs registered to her at her residence. Oregon is a no tax state. RICO laws have been used mainly for the prosecution of mobsters, LCN types. The article did not mention what happened to her customers. Typically law enforcement will prosecute someone than get them to cooperate and/or seize the records of the illegal business.
The second story I read was about several RVers somewhere in Illinois. While camped at a RV park a state and a federal revenue agent appeared at the RV park asking people to show proof of residency in state where their RV was registered.
These stories convinced me that state and federal agencies have finally awaken to how much money their respective entities are missing out on and have become proactive on the subject.
And finally some food for thought. I'm not sure what laws in which state prohibit these obvious attempts to circumvent the laws, but this I am sure of. If it is illegal in the state you reside or own property in and you are forming an LLC to avoid paying their taxes, and you have the agent in Montana sending you registrations paper and plates through the mail, you are probably in violation of Federal Mail Fraud Statutes. IMHO the only RVers that may be able to get away with this are full timers that sold there homes and don't reside or own property in their old state.
Have a good weekend and by the way, technology is capable today of retreiving every email or chat room post you ever made. Thus some of our fellow Forum members should rethink about making confesions on line.

I'm not one to flame or otherwise get into arguments in online fourms or chatrooms but, NCTom, come on! ...so much of the information you posted is just doesn't make sense to me.

Sorry! I don't buy half of what you're saying. And I say that with all due respect.

[cb5300]

Originally posted by NCTom:
I have read most of thest post with great interest. I wanted to share the following with you, but let me preface by telling you that I'm a retired federal law enforcement officer.
As I was reseaching RV life prior to purchasing my RV I too considered a Montana LLC. Then I read two newspaper articles that confirmed that a lot of states and the federal govt are currently getting very interested in the topic of RV licensing in states where there is no sales or property tax.

Why would the Federal govt be interested in something that doesn't concern them at all. They don't collect property tax or sales tax...These are state taxes.

[rotts4u]

Isnt this whols Montana LLC issue very similar to Deleware Corporations? I know my employer and many others incorporates in the state of Deleware because of taxes and perhaps other benefits though we dont have any offices or manufacturing plants there at all. I understand this to be very common and we are a mid size company of 400-500 million in sales.

So if the Montana deal is illegal then soundnt this Deleware corp thing be illegal too?

I have noticed however that all company vehicles are tagged in the state of the office

[Gary RVRoamer]

rotts4u,
There is nothing illegal about having a Montana LLC or having it own your RV. The issue is whether that type of ownership exempts the LLC/motorhome/LLC owner from paying state taxes and fees in other jurisdictions. Whether it does or does not depends on the laws of the states involved and individual circumstances and in many cases is yet to be determined by the courts.

As for the Delaware corporation thing, your company still pays state taxes in the states where it has offices and plants. And if it owns a vehicle and uses it primarily in one of those states, it registers and insures it there, not in Delaware.

[rvgrandma]

We are fulltime Workampers who are Oregon residents. We are looking to change, not to avoid sales tax, but to avoid paying Oregon income tax on money we earn in another state. But, we are looking for a state that charges us the least amount of sales/use tax. Our problem is, the states with no income tax, want to charge us. We do not have the $4000+ that states want to charge for sales/use tax even though we have owned it for a few years. We are considering leaving the MH registered in OR and changing our car and drivers license to one of the no income tax state's.

[Route 66]

We are considering leaving the MH registered in OR and changing our car and drivers license to one of the no income tax state's.

Changing your drivers license is one of the first steps in moving your domicile to a new state.

I wouldn't think OR would let you register your MH in OR if you are not a resident of OR.

IMHO you should investigate OR's vehicle registration regulations.

[GaryKD]

Hi Sheba,
Consider Florida. If you have owned the vehicle/RV for 6 months and one day you can transfer the vehicle to Florida and pay no sales tax. Florida has no income tax. Go here to get the details.

[rvgrandma]

Hi Sheba,
Consider Florida. If you have owned the vehicle/RV for 6 months and one day you can transfer the vehicle to Florida and pay no sales tax. Florida has no income tax. Go here to get the details.


Gary

Thank you for the info, but Florida is one state we will not consider. One - it would be too far to travel for drivers license.

Two - we were there fall 2006 and have no plans to return to the state any time soon. We had previously been to Orlando for a convention in August - bad time with heat and humidity. We were't impressed with the area either. We worked in Vero Beach in the fall - hot, humid and bugs. We never made it to the Keys, but from the rest of the state we were not impressed.

The exception was the panhandle. We stopped to visit another workamper and visited Panama City. The beach was beautiful and that area is more like we are use with the pine trees. One must remember in the NW we do not have the heat and humidity so are not very tolerant of it, especially the humidity. Someday we may go back to Florida, but it will be in Dec-Feb as we were told that is when there is less humidity.

Someone commented on our thoughts of keeping the motorhome licensed in Oregon. Oregon has no problem with that although insurance company may, especially since we have a physical address that is a family member, the one we currently use, (as opposed to those in the midwest that used an address of someone in Oregon that they did not know). It is not Oregon that objects - they are happy to take your money. It is the home state of these people that are loosing the money that object. And that is the issue with Washington if we licensed everything but the MH - the tax money they are loosing. Washington State will charge you sales/use tax on anything over 1 ton no matter how long you have owned it. They are one of the few that still do it.

Interesting that Nevada does not but the fee they charge is based on the price of the MH when it was new, regardless of age. I found that interesting and unfair.

[MicknPat]

We have just purchased a 2005 A class RV and 2008 Jeep in Florida using a Montana LLC with no problems.

The company we used was http://www.heggenlawoffice.com/ who I will highly recommend,if you do use them please mention that I referred them.