Some Iowa MH owners facing big tax problems.
Desmoines Register Article Registering your MH out of state is not an option anymore.
Forum Discussion
Many of you are fixated on Police Officers and it isn’t them.
They are not the ones that are pursuing this, it is the Dept. or Revenue, for the State of Iowa. It is essentially the IRS of Iowa. They operate under wholly different rules than “probable cause.” Basically, if you have a Motorhome, $75k SUV sitting beside your garage or in your driveway, continuously, they will be interested in you. They won’t waste time with those that are working within the law. There are enough idiots that park their $$$ MH beside the garage, thumbing their noses at their neighbors and employees of the company that they own. The DOR will pursue you. The will send you a letter and command you to appear, with the proper paperwork. If you don’t, there are various remedies at their disposal. States typically will move twice as fast, when is it DOR issues, than the Federal Government’s IRS. Basically with DOR, you are guilty until YOU prove yourself innocent.
As for Probable Cause, I can only speak for Colorado, but many LEOs don’t enforce registration or miss use of plates, feeling it is the State Patrol’s job. Many have felt the heavy hand when parking their vehicles in Denver and the parking patrol finally nails you for parking at the curb with out of state plates, too many time. Their fancy hand held devices record vehicles that are known to the state. There isn’t a person driving that I couldn’t determine a probable cause within a few hundred feet. I was brought into an evidentiary hearing on an arrest where I had pulled in behind someone, after midnight, stopped at a Traffic Signal and when it turned green, he immediately pulled to the curb and stopped. He testified that he saw my patrol car and was scared and pulled over and parked. He was not intoxicated, just had some felony warrants and was going down for Habitual. My notes, brief as they were, showed these facts; He changed directions without signaling, didn’t signal for 150Ft before making the change, parked within 15’ of a private driveway, not his own and his tire/s were more than 12” from the curb. The reality was, he was scared and figured if he wasn’t driving I couldn’t pull him over without probable cause. To bad for him I was curious.
Also, my memory is the US Attorney General brought Oregon up on Federal Charges for their collusion, along with the State of Georgia. So yes, there was a good thing that Oregon did, but I think they were pushed’. Many states care only for the revenue. Many years ago, it was not unusual for me to pull someone over in Colorado and be presented with a Driver’s License from Arizona, completely legit. The issue was, Arizona recorded out of state addresses on Arizona Driver’s Licenses. They saw revenue from those that traveled to Arizona for winter months and like many states of the Southwest. Now we have a national driver’s license data base and that occurrence no longer occurs.
Register your expensive motor vehicles, SUVs, MH, Boats and Sports Cars legally and you will not have any problems. Just don’t drive down the road with a Denver Car Dealer sticker on the back of your car with out of state plates and not expect an officer to be curious when he pulls you over.
b
They are not the ones that are pursuing this, it is the Dept. or Revenue, for the State of Iowa. It is essentially the IRS of Iowa. They operate under wholly different rules than “probable cause.” Basically, if you have a Motorhome, $75k SUV sitting beside your garage or in your driveway, continuously, they will be interested in you. They won’t waste time with those that are working within the law. There are enough idiots that park their $$$ MH beside the garage, thumbing their noses at their neighbors and employees of the company that they own. The DOR will pursue you. The will send you a letter and command you to appear, with the proper paperwork. If you don’t, there are various remedies at their disposal. States typically will move twice as fast, when is it DOR issues, than the Federal Government’s IRS. Basically with DOR, you are guilty until YOU prove yourself innocent.
As for Probable Cause, I can only speak for Colorado, but many LEOs don’t enforce registration or miss use of plates, feeling it is the State Patrol’s job. Many have felt the heavy hand when parking their vehicles in Denver and the parking patrol finally nails you for parking at the curb with out of state plates, too many time. Their fancy hand held devices record vehicles that are known to the state. There isn’t a person driving that I couldn’t determine a probable cause within a few hundred feet. I was brought into an evidentiary hearing on an arrest where I had pulled in behind someone, after midnight, stopped at a Traffic Signal and when it turned green, he immediately pulled to the curb and stopped. He testified that he saw my patrol car and was scared and pulled over and parked. He was not intoxicated, just had some felony warrants and was going down for Habitual. My notes, brief as they were, showed these facts; He changed directions without signaling, didn’t signal for 150Ft before making the change, parked within 15’ of a private driveway, not his own and his tire/s were more than 12” from the curb. The reality was, he was scared and figured if he wasn’t driving I couldn’t pull him over without probable cause. To bad for him I was curious.
Also, my memory is the US Attorney General brought Oregon up on Federal Charges for their collusion, along with the State of Georgia. So yes, there was a good thing that Oregon did, but I think they were pushed’. Many states care only for the revenue. Many years ago, it was not unusual for me to pull someone over in Colorado and be presented with a Driver’s License from Arizona, completely legit. The issue was, Arizona recorded out of state addresses on Arizona Driver’s Licenses. They saw revenue from those that traveled to Arizona for winter months and like many states of the Southwest. Now we have a national driver’s license data base and that occurrence no longer occurs.
Register your expensive motor vehicles, SUVs, MH, Boats and Sports Cars legally and you will not have any problems. Just don’t drive down the road with a Denver Car Dealer sticker on the back of your car with out of state plates and not expect an officer to be curious when he pulls you over.
b
