Shopping for Best Title State

[Silver Hawk]

For South Dakota: " just a 3% excise tax."
What is excise tax and what does it apply to?
They say no sales tax, but excise tax?, is it another form of sales tax or what is it?
Thanks,

[Dreamnair]

Thanks for all the input. Sounds like our best bet is to renew in Texas online.

[gr.austin]

The fed's have put excise taxes on hundred's of products. Including Cars and trailers. Most of the time this tax is buried in the MSRP. In SD it isn't. So call it a 3% sales tax if you like. But this tax is not on other things you might buy.

[Sharkboards]

We just renewed the registration on our inherited AS in Louisiana. It was only $70, and no inspection requirement. That was a nice surprise.

[Glenn T]

I just transferred my registration to Michigan - no inspections - no renewals. A permanent plate costs $200. It is not transferrable. You'll need to transfer the title as well, that's an extra $16.

[jwp]

Anyone know about registering and sales tax in Oregon ? On normal items there is no sales tax. I'm not sure yet about annual property tax but in NC the sales tax for an RV is apparently $1500 cap. On vehicles it's 3% but then they get you every year on property tax which ends up being roughly 1% of the current book value.

[Protagonist]

I follow the law and register my vehicles in my domicile state. Registering out-of-state to avoid paying taxes is illegal. But I'm not going to rat anybody out for doing so— our great nation was founded on the principle of tax evasion, going all the way back to the Boston Tea Party.

Plus there are loopholes to register out-of-state and still be legal, such as forming a corporation incorporated in a specific state that has low corporate taxes, and making the vehicle or trailer a corporate asset; which is a trick yachtsmen use to register hideously expensive yachts and avoid paying excise taxes. By registering in the corporation's name, you're registering in-state for the corporation, regardless of where you personally happen to live.

[jwp]

I have an office in NC, in WA, and relative living in OR where the trailer would actually be used and parked/stored. For me it's just choosing the best of 3 locations each with legitimate basis.

So, I'm hoping an Oregonian will chime in....

[nrgtrakr]

Also Texas please ...

We bought in Colorado but have no plans to stay here. Our new base camp home will be in Texas. So we thought to wait a couple of months until we go to Texas to re-title etc.