clue me in

luvmydogs wrote:
...............We are leaving from the east coast in Spring ultimately headed to Montana to hopefully find out retirement home. We do not own a home presently. It was suggested to us since we are leaving within a few months to open an LLC and register the truck and trailer there. Just let me reiterate something I read somewhere. Tax evasion is illegal,tax avoidance is not! Why on earth would I buy a vehicle now and register it in a state I am pulling out of in a few months and never coming back to?..................But if I'm going cross country to find a place to live where the vehicles are already going to be registered, how can that be wrong? How can a cop stop me or a state go after me doing this? Please fill me in, I just dont get it.

It's not that you don't get it, it's that you don't want to get it. I think I responded to one of your first inquiries and gave you the facts, as have several other folks on the forum. I used to be in the business of advising people about states' laws, and residence, legal domicile and title and registration was a part of that. Home ownership is not a factor. You could be renting in your home state or living in an RV in that state, and that would still probably be your residence.

Why buy and register where you are? Because, simply put, that's where you are now. You said it yourself, "I am pulling out of [a state] in a few months and never coming back to [that state]?" That hasn't happened yet, it's just speculative.

Now, I fully support tax avoidance, so investigate your state laws to determine if you can obtain a temporary registration and the possibility of not paying sales tax, if any, and pay it in MT instead. Find out if you can just purchase the RV today and immediately drive it to MT, and establish a residence there (driver's license, register to vote, ect.) but don't actually physically move until you're ready. And, there's no need to establish a MT LLC just for the purpose of avoiding (or evading) taxes elsewhere, if you really plan to be a MT resident.

The bottom line is only you can decide what is best for you. The chances of getting caught evading taxes is probably miniscule if you follow through on your plan. You have to decide if saving some money up front is worth the risk.