anyway to minimize sales tax when buying toys?

You technically do not have to buy from the same dealer to get the tax credit when trading in and buying a new one - and you have a year to purchase the next one. Many brokers can do the transaction for you and get the tax credit - even if you go through a private sale - you just do the transaction through them.

Outside of that - unless you have a house or two in other states with less tax and you put your car there (or at least register it there) not much you can do about it.

You could write off some as a business expense (if you own your own business and/or can justify why you would be driving an exotic).

 

Put a trailer hitch on it before its delivered and claim ag ex,no tax

 

Register it in Montana - no sale tax - many expensive rvs are registered there - can be legal problems though

 

Oregon = no sales tax

 

Buying anything anywhere else in the country would save me on sales tax as I'm pretty sure we have the highest rate here in the Windy City.

 

There is an attorney in Missoula Montana that specializes in vehicle registration. He was mentioned in a thread here last year. We have many exotic cars registered here that have never entered the state.

 

yup...especially if you title in the city.

I havent done it but I think if you live in IL the Montana route is a good option

 

No, it's not. People in Cook Cty (Chicago and a couple burbs) used to buy cars outside the area to avoid the Cook Cty tax. Guess what: you get a tax bill in the mail. In IL you have to pay the IL tax or be subject to fines/penalties. They check for cars but not other items (usually).

Ken

 

Be careful about registering out of state, or at your second home. Most insurance companies will ask you where is your car kept. If you keep it in a location other than where it is registered you may not have insurance.

 

Haggarty told me that my arrangements (FL registration, where I have a home) and New Mexico location(where some but not all vehicles are) was ok; they also said it was important that they be notified.

 

$100K car, offer $10K for the car and $90K for the books and tools , this way the sale price of the car was $10K

 

Buy the car when its having an engine out service and pay tax on the chassis. I've done that with boats all the time.

 

In MN I was able to register the car as a collector even though it was a 95 spider. The rule is more than 10 years old and less than 500 per year made or imported into the US. No sales tax and one time plate fee of $99. I wish I could do this my my Merc. My plates went from $135 per year to $700, the law to reduce the plate fee's expired

 

Wrongo, as some states require tax to be paid on the true value of the car, if the bill of sale is significantly less that that value. Done this way to get around people 'giving' cars away for $100.

 

When I run into this, I spend a couple of hundred bucks and have an appraisal done. This will work if the car can be valued for less than you're buying it for.

 

Good idea...I was referring to rather blatant/fraud stuff, but in your case, an appraisal would be a good thing if one turns up a really good deal, vs. a fraud situation.

 

Nevada changed the law a couple of years ago and if you buy a car from a private party there is no sales tax. You pay the tax if you buy from a dealer. Naturally, my next Ferrari will come from a private owner.

As for the Montana option, you need to set up a Montana LLC and then register your vehicle there. You need to get an insurance company willing to insure a vehicle owned by an LLC. The Montana lawyers can usually arrange that. Each state has their own stance on these vehicles registered out of state so you need to check with you home state as to what liability you will have.

In many regards the coaches are easier to do since the vehicle with out of state plates is not sitting in front of your house for everyone to see. The coach is usually stored at an RV storage facility that is not accessible to anyone but the owners. California has been cracking down on this for a while. They have been stopping coaches with Montana plates to check the drivers' licenses. If from out of CA they let it go. If the driver is from CA they write the ticket and go after taxes and penalties.

 

Yeah thats if you title your car in the city with a city address, you will get a bill. This car would have a montana tag and registration under a montana LLC so we're talking about 2 different things. there are specific rules for doing it and then re-issuing title in IL but it can be definitely be done in IL. i wouldnt be so quick to dismiss it...what you're referring to is someone going out of the county and buying a car and registering it in the city. That doesnt do anything for the tax, because as you mentioned the outside county collects their amount and then the city sends a bill for the spread. totally different situation.

 

Ya know... This is so profound... People always say they dont want to pay all these taxes yet they consistently vote over and over for Liberal Democrats and big government Republicans. The solution to this problem is NOT trying to avoid the tax; the solution is to eliminate the tax by voting for people who support true capitalism and freedom....

 

I think that's an argument for a different thread(Not that I necessarily disagree)

 

Why do you need to set up an LLC?

 

You do the LLC so that when you are stopped in your state that you live in it appears as a "company" car. Registered in the LLC name. If you are stopped and you have a CA drivers license but car is registered in a Montana LLC it's just a company car. Even better yet if you have a checking acct in the LLC name and pay for service, for example, out of the LLC you have a record of the LLC actually being "used". Best to use a bank that has offices in both the state you live in and in MT, Wells Fargo for example for me. The part that can be tricky is you need an agent in Montana or use the Montana attorney's up there that do this, they charge quite a bit per year to do the maintainance you need to do to keep the LLC current. I still own property there and I use my sister as my agent so it's inexpensive for me. I still can't get used to the sales tax most of you pay on a car when you buy it, can you Imagine 7% on a new 430!! holy crap I don't mind payin' my fair share but that's just bein' raped IMO

 

The LLC is the "resident" of Montana for the registration purposes. It has the Montana address (that of the attorney you use). Their fees are not that expensive for keeping the LLC active compared to the fees you would pay in your home state. I pay under $500 a year for registration and fees on my motor home and the annual fee for plates would be about $4,000 to $5,000 at home.

 

The two posters above me said it best, but here are some links for more info:

http://www.mtregisteredagent.org/vehicles/index
http://www.actionservices-mt.com/
http://www.davidbjornson.com/RV-REGISTRATION-SERVICES.shtml
http://www.rvconsulting.com/

Obviously they pitch this to the RV crowd because the tax hit would be more significant for the average RV owner than for the average exotic car owner, but it works for exotic car owners, too. I saw several exotic cars this year in Atlanta, Georgia on Montana license plates (see attached picture).
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