New RV'r "Please help with some questions"

Hi There . We are from the UK and have been travelling around the states on and off for 11 years. To post on here
what we do to register all the Rv's we have owned would be a little long winded. If you send me a private message with your contact details we can help you out with some ideas

We are currently in the UK but due to fly back 8th June for some more touring . we have a truck to buy on this trip so are going through the same thing..thinking of setting up an LLC to save on taxes.

Alan & Julea

The Happy Travellers

Your biggest problem is that you do not have a US address to register it too.

Maybe a dealer will help with that. Most likely for a fee. If you want it totally under your control you might look at setting up a LLC.

The LLC holds the vehicle. You hold the LLC. You now drive the company vehicle. Your drivers license has nothing to do with vehicle registration & you drive on your own license just like you would with a rental vehicle.

Sales tax is paid to the state where the vehicle is registered no matter where it was bought. There is no sales tax in some states.

You have some research to do. Be sure that all ducks are in a row before you get on a plane.

John,

I have a possible help for you.
This gentleman lives in Sidney about half the year. Use my name as an introduction and he will probably get even with me later.

Rob Mueller (The @ddress didn't show correctly. It is robmueller at iinet dot net dot au )

He and his friends move vehicles to there from all over. He may not have the answers you need, but he can probably direct you to someone that does.

Matt Colie

If I were you I'd pick out a large RV dealer from online...say like Camping world in Oregon (No state sales tax)I would start this discussion with them. The information they give you will be from the "horses mouth". I would do the licensing and purchase in the same state. Just reducing the hassle factor is worth it.

John Green wrote:

1. If I purchase an unregistered camper trailer in say Colorado what is the registration and taxes

It'll depend. Depend on the price of the trailer(*) and where you register it. If you're not a Colorado resident, or not planning on being one, I'm not sure how it works. I register my vehicles at my "local, county DMV (Department of Motor Vehicles)" office.

(*) Actually I think it's the purchase price, how much it weighs and their assessment of value.

John Green wrote:

2. If I purchase it in say Colorado but have it delivered to California do I have to pay the Colorado tax and then the Californian tax

Cheers John & Louise

I don't think so - Colorado would take the Sales Tax (you'd pay it before you left the dealer's lot). California would take the (presumably higher) license and registration fees.


We bought our Motohome in New Mexico and registered it in Colorado. It was a small amount of extra work for the dealer. He said "Colorado can be a pain, at times..." So finding a seller that's knowledgeable about what your trying to do will help.

The "path of least resistance (ie. paperwork)" will be to buy and register in the same state.

I can answer some of the questions, but don't know the fees, because in most cases they are taxes based on value or purchase price.

In most states now, only a resident or resident legal entity can register a motor vehicle. This is a result of states trying to comply with Homeland Security rules about positive identification. There are ways to work around this, easier in some states than others. California is not one of the easy states.

Registration of camper trailers may or may not be different. Some states (Oklahoma for one) do not even require registration or licensing of trailers under a certain size for private use. Other states treat them as motor vehicles. These differences mostly have to do with tax codes, where there are personal property taxes and whether or not vehicles are treated differently. Local jurisdictions also tax personal property, so licensing costs might vary place to place within a state.

You can use your Australian driver's license to drive here, if someone else owns the vehicle and has given you permission to drive it. If it the vehicle is licensed to you, at a U.S. address, most police jurisdictions will expect your driver's license to reflect the same address and be issued the same place. This is not necessarily a legal requirement, rather a situation that requires adequate explanation.

Insurance costs from U.S. insurers depend partly on where a vehicle is "garaged" which is assumed, lacking other information, to be the address to which it is registered. Liability insurance, and to some extent other coverages, also depend on your driving record and credit history (if that is allowed in the state where insured). Each insurer has its own rules and underwriting standards, and an atypical situation may result in higher rates, if you can get coverage at all. You can call around (once you are sure where you will register the vehicle) but in general the insurers will not quote rates for hypothetical situations; the insurer wants the VINs of the vehicles involved, and drivers license numbers and addresses for the background checks used to determine rates.

Do not expect refunds of any taxes or fees. Most states do not have VAT, nor a VAT rebate program to encourage tourist spending. Most of our taxes on vehicles are either excise taxes, personal property taxes, highway use taxes, or sales taxes on the commercial transaction. In many cases for vehicles the taxes will be a combination of more than one.

You might consider hiring a legal representative at least an experienced agent, to work out the details for wherever it is that you want to do this. There is some time vs money tradeoff, and sometimes what costs the least time is to have an agent set up a corporation to purchase, own, register and insure the vehicles in question, then lease them to you as a visitor.

perhaps folks here can help with advising the state that has the cheapest registration/tax/etc. so you can license/title it there? I doubt that California jumps up high on that list.
bumpy

I can help with one question - we live in Texas and bought our TT in Colorado. The Colorado dealer charged us local Texas taxes and mailed all of the paperwork and check for the taxes to the local assessors office in our county in Texas. The TT had temporary Colorado plates, but we had to get it inspected and plated in Texas. When they received the packet and check, my local license office called me to complete. I think you need to call some American insurance companies for the insurance info.

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