Buying RV Out of State (AZ or TX)

[Matthewdortch]

Hello all. We are fairly new to Escapees and we just bought a new Coachmen Beyond. We pick it up on Monday. We are Texas residents but renting in AZ at current time to be close to our college daughters. We domicile with the Livingston address in Texas. The taxes in AZ are higher than TX. Can I buy my RV in AZ and use their temp tag while I try to register the RV in Texas? Do I have to drive to El Paso to do the inspection on the RV? Will just having the Livingston, TX, address suffice for registering the RV? So many questions and I am sure they've all been asked before. Thanks in advance.

Edited November 19, 2020 by Matthewdortch
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[Kirk W]

You can buy in AZ and register it in TX. Just tell the dealer that you will be registering it in your home state of TX and they probably will know what to do. In addition, I suggest that you call the Livingston office and get information from them as well since they deal with this frequently. 

  (936) 327-6801

[Matthewdortch]

Kirk!!!! Thanks. I called and they were so helpful.

[Barbaraok]

We bought a new car last year in Arizona, I calculated the tax owed wrong (added a penalty because we were 3 days over the 30 days to get the paper work in because of the bank we were using) and sure enough I got a check back for the overpayment within 2 weeks.   They do this all the time and are most gracious when you call.

[bigjim]

I have not purchased a vehicle in TX since I became and SKP in March of 1997.  All but one was a truck and the one was my current trailer which I bought used in FL in Nov. 1999.  I registered the trailer in FL and changed it just months later in TX at Livingston.  That cost me some money due to my inexperience at that time but not an excessive amount.  The only issue I had getting it titled and tagging the trucks in Tx. was once when I used Fedex instead some type of expedited US mail. (long story) but it could have been worse. All have been through Polk County Tx (Livingston) All got inspected when I got back to TX.  You could have some issues time wise due to the Covid situation.  Where I am now in NM they just shut down the DMV's for 2 weeks I think due to the Covid

[Matthewdortch]

On Kirk's advice above, I rang the good people at the DMV in Polk County. They were beyond helpful. They are well aware of Escapees and help RV buyers/owners with this stuff all the time. They even told me a shortcut to the docs I needed on the Escapee website! In short, it goes like this: buy in AZ with Livingston address. Dealer sends all the forms and papers to Polk Co. I complete a form that delays my inspection by up to one year until we are back in Texas. Pretty simple! Thanks everyone.

[Twotoes]

Just a side note: when I bought my Class A in Phoenix AZ I wanted to register it at my Escapees SD address. The dealer had to drive the rig to the AZ/CA border for me to take delivery out of State in order to avoid paying AZ sales tax. I did all the paper work myself with SD and mailed them a check for the tax and registration. The dealers said he could have driven to the AZ/NM border but CA was closer to Phoenix. You may have to do the same and if you take delivery in NM you will be very close to El Paso TX and may want to just go there anyway to take care of your registration and payment of sales tax and inspection. You may have to make an appointment so call first. 

[bigjim]

In Tx you need to register in your "home" county.  To do El Paso you would need an address there and it is a smog inspection county for motorized. I believe that means any adjacent county is also a smog inspection required county.

[fpmtngal]

I bought my truck in Yuma in April and all I had to do to avoid Arizona sales tax was to sign a statement that I had not been in the state for 7 months out of 12 (along with some other criteria that wouldn’t apply to me).  I had been there 3 months at that point, so no problem. I don’t think Arizona requires the out of state delivery any more (California does still require it).

[soos]

Might be different dealers in AZ do things differently, so not sure what the law is.

we bought our truck in AZ last month, drove to CA to complete paperwork to avoid AZ tax, got an AZ temp plate and sent off all the paperwork to Polk County for registration in TX. A few weeks later we had our new plate. 
 

you DON’T have to go to Texas “within the next year” to get an inspection. Every year when you re-register your vehicle they will ask you if the vehicle is outside of TX. If the answer is yes, that’s it. No need to get the inspection until you are physically in the state. When we are headed to TX I save the receipts for the last few RV parks outside the state , so I can show I just arrived.