which state has more favorable sales tax for new or used class A?

[campcauldren]

what state should I purchase my 1st class A? Ca, NM, or AZ? we are selling our condo in Ca to go full time. Wonder what state to use as residents too.

[Kirk W]

Welcome to the Escapee forums. We will help you as much as we are able so do post at any time.

 

The only states without statewide sales and use taxes are Alaska, Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire, and Oregon. But it is important to realize that sales tax on vehicles is usually paid to the state where you register it, so even if you were to buy the RV in OR (for example) and then register it in Texas, South Dakota, or Florida, the state of registration is still going to collect their sales tax on that RV or other vehicle when you go to register it. The proper place to register & license vehicles is usually the one where you domicile, of the state where that vehicle is kept when not traveling on the highways.

 

Since you are presently a resident of CA, do you plan to move your domicile to one of the more tax friendly states? I think that you may find this article from Escapees magazine to be helpful to you as you study your options. It addresses the issue of legal domicile and what it means. You must have an address/residence somewhere in order to register & insure your vehicles and also to maintain your driver's licenses. Only a few states allow people to use a mail service as an address for these purposes so that tends to narrow the choices. You might be able to use the home address of a friend or relative for vehicles & licenses, but that too has problems. If you buy your RV in one state but then register it in CA, the state of CA will charge you the CA sales tax on it.

[bobsallyh]

There is no sales tax on used vehicles in Arizona. But as Kirk said what determines the tax will be where you register the vehicle.

[Solo18]

Don't forget that there are a lot of other considerations for choosing a domicile beyond sales taxes and income taxes. License plate fees vary widely among states, as much as several hundred dollars per year. In addition, your vehicle and medical insurance varies depending on your residence or domicile.

[Clay L]

Don't forget that there are a lot of other considerations for choosing a domicile beyond sales taxes and income taxes. License plate fees vary widely among states, as much as several hundred dollars per year. In addition, your vehicle and medical insurance varies depending on your residence or domicile.

 

Very true! For example NH hasno sales tax but does have very high yearly license plate fees. $1800 per year total for my car and motor home. Also some states like SD and TX are easy to set up for domicile and will not require you to report for jury duty. SD actually takes you off the jury duty list and I believe TX asks to to serve if you are back in the area for a while.

[Twotoes]

As Kirk said it will depend on the state that you chose as a domicile what sales tax you pay when you register your vehicle in that state. Another option is an LLC in Montana. Montana has no sales tax. The vehicle would belong to the LLC which as a separate legal entity would have a Montana domicile and you would register the vehicle in Montana in the name of the LLC. You personally can have a different domicile than the LLC if you chose to.

[mrfrank]

Montana LLC works well for us as Texas "Resident" fulltimers. Cost to start LLC at a law firm in Missoula was about $1K. $150 per year to maintain. They do all paperwork, getting registration every year. Tag is about $300 annually.

[R. Walter]

NM excise tax on vehicles registered in the state of NM is 3%.

[travelinbob]

We decided to keep our NM residency when we went fulltime. It has worked well for us for 10 years. Do your homework and make sure that all will work well for you like vehicle insurances and health insurance especially.

[RangeMaggotBob]

Blah blah blah. The state you register it in is the state you pay sales tax to.

[Alie&Jim's Carrilite]

Blah blah blah. The state you register it in is the state you pay sales tax to.

Not quite, The state you Domicile in is the state that you may or may not pay income tax in. Sales tax is everywhere. Income tax on the other hand doesn't apply to every state. South Dakota, Texas, Florida don't have state income tax.

[Chalkie]

Sales tax is everywhere. ..... South Dakota, Texas, Florida don't have state income tax.

 

No sales tax is not everywhere and South Dakota, Texas and Florida do have SALES tax, which is the question posed by the OP.

 

http://www.salestaxinstitute.com/resources/rates

[Rharv]

I'm also preparing for full time RV living. Can vehicles and RV's be registered in TX, SD, or NV without going there personally to have it done? Is there somewhere to research the sales tax involved and yearly registration fees for each? I assume you have to apply personally for a driver's license. Other than a mailing address, are there any other requirements or documents needed for a driver's license?

[Clay L]

Take a look at the Dakota Post web site. HERE - click on their FAQ. They have info on how to change your domicile to SD and detail what is needed to get your drivers licences and register your vehicles. We used them as our mail forwarding service for about 9 years and they did a good job for us. They used to be called Alternative Resources.

[Rharv]

Do you know how South Dakota compares with Texas for registering vehicles and domicile?

[vermilye]

One additional point worth considering - if you register a vehicle in one state, pay the sales tax (or not if there isn't any) then move to a higher taxed state, they will usually collect the difference when you do the new registration. Happened to me when I moved from Washington state to NY...

[kb0zke]

We established our SD residency last year. Prior to that we had been MO residents. The license on our MH was running out while we were out of State. We could have driven it back to MO, got an inspection, then licensed it, but since we were going to move to SD anyway we just registered it there. There is no vehicle inspection in SD, and it is possible to get it all done remotely, so the process was pretty easy. We got up to SD in July and registered the Jeep ourselves. No sales tax to pay since we had owned the vehicles for more than six months. SD bases the month for your license plates to expire on your last name, so both vehicles are coming due in June. Total cost to renew will be about $500.

 

Our MH is currently for sale, so we'll wait until mid-June before paying the money to get another year's registration. I suspect that we will get a prorated refund when we sell the coach, and then when we buy the replacement we'll have to pay the license fee on the "new" Airstream. We'll also have to pay sales tax on it. Same goes for the Jeep. Once the MH is gone we'll trade the Jeep for a pickup. In that case I assume that the money we paid toward the Jeep's license will be applied to the truck's license, and we'll have to pay the difference plus the sales tax. Our mail service, Your Best Address, will take care of all of that for us - for a small fee, of course - but that will still be cheaper than driving up there.

[Nuke-E]

Our MH is currently for sale, so we'll wait until mid-June before paying the money to get another year's registration. I suspect that we will get a prorated refund when we sell the coach, and then when we buy the replacement we'll have to pay the license fee on the "new" Airstream. We'll also have to pay sales tax on it. Same goes for the Jeep. Once the MH is gone we'll trade the Jeep for a pickup. In that case I assume that the money we paid toward the Jeep's license will be applied to the truck's license, and we'll have to pay the difference plus the sales tax. Our mail service, Your Best Address, will take care of all of that for us - for a small fee, of course - but that will still be cheaper than driving up there.

 

SD makes it pretty easy, but don't expect a refund. You can move the tag from one vehicle to another when you trade, but since a motorhome plate won't go on an RV trailer, you'll be stuck there. I'm not as familiar with the Jeep-to-pickup swap, as the pickup you'll be buying a gross weight if I remember correctly. Depending on the weights (and costs) involved, you may very well be better off driving with an expired registration--even if you get a ticket--than paying a year for one month's worth of tags.

 

The reason for not paying sales tax when you registered in SD wasn't because you had owned them for a particular period of time--it's because MO's tax rate on vehicles was higher than SD. I've gotten the feeling they are fairly lax anyways, but the 4% sales/use tax is due regardless, with credit for taxes already paid on the purchase price.

 

Especially if you're buying/trading out of state, make sure you file a report of sale with SD.

[Kirk W]

We established our SD residency last year. Prior to that we had been MO residents.

If you still have questions about the establishment of your legal domicile, the article in this link was published in the Escapees Magazine some years back and there is one about the making of it valid in the current magazine that is an excellent supplement on the subject. Most of us never get into the situation where our domicile is questioned, unless it is with some state tax issue, but there can be other legal issues which usually take us by surprise if/when they do crop up. In such event, it is too late to then correct any shortcoming on the subject.

[whj469]

While you can do many things remotely, register RVs, autos etc., I know of no state were you can get a drivers license

the first time without being there in person. I wouldn't want my registation and drivers license be from different states.

Good Luck

[kb0zke]

Nuke-E, thanks for the heads up. We've got someone coming to look at the coach soon, so the question may be moot.

 

Kirk, no, we don't have any questions about domicile.

 

whj, we talked about that a lot last year. When we left Oklahoma for our daughter's wedding, the Foretravel had SD plates on it, while the Jeep had MO plates. We had MO drivers licenses. Nothing happened, no one questioned us, but we still felt better when we had all of our licenses from the same State. No, we couldn't get our initial licenses by mail, but we can renew them that way. We can also renew the vehicle licenses by mail.

[BigSilver]

There is no sales tax on used vehicles in Arizona. But as Kirk said what determines the tax will be where you register the vehicle.

This is only true if you buy from a private individual. Purchase any vehicle at a dealer and you will pay sales tax.

[Twotoes]

When I moved from CA to SD I registered my vehicles in SD and did not have to pay sales tax in SD. I was told that because I had already paid sales tax to CA when I purchased my vehicles and had owned them for more than a year I did not have to pay any additional sales tax to SD. Nothing was mentioned regarding the sales tax rate between the two states.

[Kirk W]

 

There is no sales tax on used vehicles in Arizona. But as Kirk said what determines the tax will be where you register the vehicle.

 

This is only true if you buy from a private individual. Purchase any vehicle at a dealer and you will pay sales tax.

Buying from a dealer and registering in another state, it depends upon what state that dealership is located in if you will have to pay sales tax in the dealer's state. In some cases a dealer will have a sales tax license for adjacent states when he sells many RVs over the state line, as we have experienced in one case. In many other states the dealer will simply issue you a temporary plate to travel to your home state and not collect any sales tax because the registration is out of state, as was the case when we bought a motorhome in OK and registered it in TX. If you buy in CA and are not registering the RV there, then the dealer must deliver the RV over the state line and sign final papers there to avoid CA sales tax and that too is fairly commonly done. There really is not rule that applies to every situation. As I stated in post #2, it all depends upon the state of purchase and the state of registration because to avoid sales tax completely is dependent upon the laws of each state involved.

 

On the other hand, it may all be of little use since the profile of campcauldren indicates that he has not returned to these forums since his first post.