Montana LLC registration

[FlyNavy01]

CA sucks. I just paid over 700 bucks for a 2022 Model 3 registration. I have no clue how they even assess the fees anymore. The day after I retire I'm moving out of state.

EV's have higher registration fees in many states because they aren't paying taxes that everyone else does when purchasing fuel. It's actually pretty straightforward.

 

[Strmshdow84]

I never get the tax dodging. If you have enough money to pay for the car you have enough to pay the taxes. Does it suck? Absolutely, but you knew the deal when you decided to purchase it.

 

[Porter]

I never get the tax dodging. If you have enough money to pay for the car you have enough to pay the taxes. Does it suck? Absolutely, but you knew the deal when you decided to purchase it.

100%.

My Emira was delivered in March. I paid $4220 in sales tax to the state when I bought it. And last month I just paid $2700 to the county where I live for 9 months of personal property tax for 2024 (Apr-Dec). I'll do it again next year on the 12mo value, so probably $3600, and again every year as long as I own the car.

I suspect this is more money being paid in ongoing taxation than many people on this forum. But you know what I'm not doing? Trying to cheat the community where I live out of the tax that I owe on the assets that I own in the local jurisdiction. I'd literally be stealing from the schools, the emergency services, the park system, etc if I tried to dodge the tax through a shady Montana LLC. I'm a member of my community and I'm proud to pay taxes to support it, just like my neighbors.

Just my opinion. But yes, you can imagine what goes through my mind when I see a Montana plate on a nice car at our local Cars & Coffee.

 

[NicolasB]

I don't know, I already pay really high taxes just to live in the house that I own, I would hate to have to pay taxes on my car every year just to be able to own it. It's bad enough you have to pay an 8% tax in New York state, paying a high percentage every year for it seems a bit ludicrous.

 

[dgrace]

An additional complication often overlooked is that when you sell the car, the check will go to the LLC, not you personally. So now you’ll need a bank account for an out-of-state business in order to deposit it. Setting up such an account may take some effort.

 

[Porter]

I don't know, I already pay really high taxes just to live in the house that I own, I would hate to have to pay taxes on my car every year just to be able to own it. It's bad enough you have to pay an 8% tax in New York state, paying a high percentage every year for it seems a bit ludicrous.

It's part of the deal when you choose to live in a particular place. There are plenty of upsides.

 

[Joencaxe]

Jumping in on this older post because I’ve been looking into Montana LLCs too, and the insurance part seems to be the biggest wildcard. Some people say their insurers don’t care, others mentioned rate hikes or needing special paperwork. Has anyone here had their insurer push back or ask for proof of where the car is kept? Curious how companies are handling this lately.

 

[FlyNavy01]

Jumping in on this older post because I’ve been looking into Montana LLCs too, and the insurance part seems to be the biggest wildcard. Some people say their insurers don’t care, others mentioned rate hikes or needing special paperwork. Has anyone here had their insurer push back or ask for proof of where the car is kept? Curious how companies are handling this lately.

Insurance has to match the address where the car is domiciled, which is unrelated to registration.

Ex: All my cars are registered in Oregon where I'm a resident, but insured where they currently reside in Florida (where the cost of insurance is double what it would be in OR, but that's another discussion entirely).

If you insure the car at the Montana LLC address and it's physically elsewhere, that would be insurance fraud and they will deny any claim and likely ban you from using them as an insurer in the future. Easiest way to avoid this is to not abuse the shady Montana loophole and pay local tax like every other honorable American.

 

[Six Speed Stephen]

Insurance has to match the address where the car is domiciled, which is unrelated to registration.

Ex: All my cars are registered in Oregon where I'm a resident, but insured where they currently reside in Florida (where the cost of insurance is double what it would be in OR, but that's another discussion entirely).

If you insure the car at the Montana LLC address and it's physically elsewhere, that would be insurance fraud and they will deny any claim and likely ban you from using them as an insurer in the future. Easiest way to avoid this is to not abuse the shady Montana loophole and pay local tax like every other honorable American.

The montana thing is a state tax liability thing, not an insurance rate thing.

 

[Emira Fan]

[Easiest way to avoid this is to not abuse the shady Montana loophole and pay local tax like every other honorable American.]

LOL, yep.

I'm in N_Virginia and aside from the 4+% sales tax they VA also asses's a 4+% annual property tax on all cars plated in VA. Off the NADA current value.
What stinks is exotic cars don't deprecate and in some cases increase in value.
Some of my friends have leveraged this so-called loop-hole.
Seen some other cars sporting MO plates a the car shows.... surprised VA hasn't cracked down on this.

 

[FlyNavy01]

The montana thing is a state tax liability thing, not an insurance rate thing.

Correct, and his post was about insuring cars registered in Montana but are located elsewhere, which is a valid concern.

I was simply stating it's possible and actually not too uncommon to have registration and insurance in two different states, but involves extra hoops to jump through and some risk. In other words, it's probably best and easiest just to suck it up and register the car where it's actually located and pay your taxes, which anyone buying six figure sports cars should have no problem affording.

 

[Six Speed Stephen]

Correct, and his post was about insuring cars registered in Montana but are located elsewhere, which is a valid concern.

I was simply stating it's possible and actually not too uncommon to have registration and insurance in two different states, but involves extra hoops to jump through and some risk. In other words, it's probably best and easiest just to suck it up and register the car where it's actually located and pay your taxes, which anyone buying six figure sports cars should have no problem affording.

For an Emira this probably doesn’t make sense, but for a Bugatti it’s probably worth the trouble to figure out

 

[scv]

Florida is very aware of the Montana style LLC effort to avoid sales tax and . has a ‘users tax” (equivalent to the sales tax percentage) for vehicles titles outside the state and used/domiciled inside the state

 

[Six Speed Stephen]

Florida is very aware of the Montana style LLC effort to avoid sales tax and . has a ‘users tax” (equivalent to the sales tax percentage) for vehicles titles outside the state and used/domiciled inside the state

Ive never heard of this before, but it looks like it only applies to cars titled and registered in FL that are bought out of state. But if you have the car in the state for more than 90 days in a calendar year, you are required to register it.

 

[Dino67]

Jumping in on this older post because I’ve been looking into Montana LLCs too, and the insurance part seems to be the biggest wildcard. Some people say their insurers don’t care, others mentioned rate hikes or needing special paperwork. Has anyone here had their insurer push back or ask for proof of where the car is kept? Curious how companies are handling this lately.

I heard Hagerty doesn't care about Montana LLCs. I can't confirm since I never tried the Montana LLC thing. I can confirm Hagerty does not care where the car is located. I use Hagerty for three of my cars and they are all in different states. Only one of the cars has a registration address that matches the vehicle location.