Anyone set up a Montana Loc to register their cars

I heard that California changed that 1 year rule down to 90 days, do you know if this is correct?

 

Far as I know it’s still a year, or it was at the beginning of 2021.
I haven’t had any issues.

 

There has been a crackdown on the Montana registrations.

 

The penalties in Georgia are stiff if you get caught.

 

Yep. Enough to scare me off. Especially as I’m an attorney.

 

Yet ……

 

In Virginia your license plate registration must match your driving license and your insurance billing address. If not, you're in for a whole heap of trouble.

 

Ok… I’m probably going to get blasted for this but here goes… I think it is our civic duty to an extent to pay our fair share of taxes as we drive our $350k+++ cars around the roads expecting the traffic lights, road conditions, and drainage to be in top condition so our cars don’t get damaged. If not is it the folks who can’t afford these cars or the ability to set up ghost LLCs in Montana responsibility to abide the laws and subsidize those that try to bypass the system? I’m not perfect by any means and I try to pay the minimum amount of taxes within the limits of the law. But something about this just rubs me wrong.

 

+ 1000

 

Paying sales tax and initial registration makes sense and is paying our fair share of taxes.

Paying yearly property tax for the entire car the same as if it was your house, based on arbitrary valuations by a private company that often exceeds $10,000 per year, is ridiculous.

If I lived in Virginia, I would pay close to $14,000 per year, or $168,000 over a 10 year period in PROPERTY taxes on a Ferrari, in addition to the initial sales tax and registration from when I bought the car. That is not okay, it is unfair, and it is a mechanism to punish those who’ve been successful in life. Everyone on here should pay their fair share of sales tax and registration, and most do. But continuing to pay those same taxes every year for 10, 15, and even 20 years after you bought the car, is not right.

Here is a case study for you:

In Virginia, you buy an 812 new for $400,000. You will pay $20,000 in sales tax and then another few thousand in various registration fees. You will then be taxes at an annual property tax rate of between 4-5% depending on your county, which is at least $16,000 per year. After 10 years. After 10 years, you will have spent $160,000 in property tax. After 15 years $240,000, 20 years $320,000, and 25 years $400,000.


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Agreed that is excessive

 

In Virginia If you own a Pista, RS or other similar car where the market value exceeds the retail price, even if you paid retail, you get taxed on the inflated market value! On a Pista you would pay annual property taxes of 4% on a $600-700k valuation from NADA and not even on the original $400-450k MSRP You bought the car for. The state of virginia uses NADA, a private company, to determine the assessed value of your car to tax you own. This is not Europe. This is not Hong Kong. THIS IS VIRGINIA! And this is why I moved out of this state, it is the worst in the Union for other similar but related reasons and this doesn’t even hit the top of the ice berg.


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What if you own 10+ cars and your state (VA) imposes recurring taxes as Cog describes? You only drive one car at a time, its not like you use more resources than anyone else. You've also paid sales tax which by the way you get no credit for when you trade in. If some states like VA weren't so over the top you wouldn't see Montana plates. Many of us that buy $350K cars are paying more than our "fair share" in income tax, property tax and sales tax. The "fair share" reference is just plain silly.

 

If you own 10+ cars,,, especially in this price range I don’t think anyone is going to feel sorry for you. And you are the exception and not the rule. Regardless I have already acknowledged that some states are excessive and in the case of Virginia you would be paying more than your fair share in that scenario. We live in a wonderful democratic country you and people who agree with your stance should lobby your elected officials.

 

We're the lucky and hard-working few who can afford cars that people literally dream about. Most will never even be able to sit in a Ferrari much less drive one. We shouldn't ask for those less fortunate than us to subsidize our toys.

I'm glad you received many likes rather than being blasted.

 

Thank you I completely agree with you. There are some here who see owning these cars as a right of privilege rather than the blessing it really is. A bad break instead of a good break here or there and their narrative would be totally different. Happy and prosperous New Year to you and yours!

 

Helps to live out of state, of course. So no issues.

 

Not looking for sympathy just describing an egregious cash grab by a specific state. Only if it were so easy to change law, sounds great as a post but not reality. Instead many just leave the state.

 

Owning a car is not a blessing, you have your morals all twisted up. Being egregiously taxed could certainly put someone in a bad spot if they are continually over taxed. There is a right way and wrong to do things and if people feel taken advantage of they will look for alternatives./options. Its really that simple.

If someone wants to have Montana plates that's their prerogative and they can live with the outcome good or bad. I could care less.

 

I read the postings about Virginia and feel really sorry for you old sots. Here in Tennessee, we don't even bother with registrations at all. Insurance? That's for losers. A high percentage of cars here have fake paper tags and an even higher percentage have tags that expired years ago. We have virtually no speed limits or traffic laws at all for that matter. The famous "California roll" through stop signs is replaced by the Memphis race, which is to drive through a stop sign or light without even slowing down. We have no inspection, emissions, or any other requirements for basic vehicle safety. People are regularly shot and carjacked at gas stations in broad daylight. That's freedom for you folks!

So in a way, you folks in Virginia are lucky. The cops in your state are stopping people for silly infractions like tags from Montana and probably actually causing people to drive safer and keep their cars in basic safe operating conditions.

In Tennessee, the "Live free or die" thing is real, especially if you drive on the public roads.

 

That’s crazy John about Tennessee. I had no idea. My nephew used to work for the Titans and never mentioned that. I know he had fun down there as a single good looking athletic guy. He unfortunately moved to SF to work for the Niners and then back to Seattle for 2 years and now is in Vegas.

 

Especially Lamar Ave in Memphis!


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I had an office in Nashville but rarely visited so didn't notice any of this and never had any employees mention it. They were all big fans of TN.

 

What’s interesting to me is that not one person commenting in this thread actually lives in Montana. Since I have resided in Montana for the past 30 years, perhaps I can provide some insight into why many of us are less than thrilled with this whole “beat the taxes scheme” being discussed here. I own a number of exotic cars, many of which are Ferraris. There are no dealers for these cars in Montana, so all of them were purchased from out of state dealers, who shipped the cars to me in Montana. As a result, I did not have to pay sales taxes on the purchases. However, cars that are registered in Montana do have to pay a state registration fee and a county registration fee which is based on the manufacturer’s MSRP of the vehicle. On top of that, I pay gasoline taxes in Montana, which are set by my state and go towards road maintenance and repair, property taxes which help pay for our schools, and state income taxes which are the reason we don’t have a sales tax in Montana. While I am not thrilled about paying my state taxes each year, I do consider it my duty to support the state I reside in. So what’s my beef with out of state owners registering their vehicles in Montana? Because of their actions, I now have to pay a “light vehicle luxury tax” on every vehicle I own which had a manufacturer’s MSRP of $150k or higher when new. And I have to pay that luxury tax every year until the car is more than 10 years old, and that tax is added to my auto registration bill each year on top of the registration fees I already have to pay. That luxury tax fee is a flat $825/vehicle so I will pay an additional $8250 to register my car if I keep it for 10 years. Since I own quite a few that fall into this category, the overall cost to me to own and drive my fun cars in Montana is not insignificant. Ironically, that luxury tax is also known as the “Ferrari Tax”. The important point to understand here is that the only reason I have to pay these additional fees every year is because of the LLC scam being used by out of state owners trying to avoid paying taxes in their home states. You see, this luxury tax was added by our state legislature because they couldn’t stop the tax avoidance scam since the LLCs are not illegal, but the out of state owners were not contributing residential taxes to the state. So they came up with a punitive measure to try to reimburse the state for the lost revenue. Unfortunately, they couldn’t come up with a way to restrict the luxury tax to the LLCs so those of us who live in Montana, and pay our fair share of taxes to support the state, got caught in the net too. Yes, what people are doing with these LLCs may be perfectly legal, but in my opinion it is morally wrong and I have to suffer the consequences of their selfish actions. Please keep that in mind if you are considering whether to take advantage of this tax avoidance scam or not.

 

Change the law then. Or move.