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Annual License Fee For Motorhome

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 Was trying to justify how Michigan can ask $1579.00 for an annual license fee for our Holiday Rambler. Plus, we are not in Michigan all year. 

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Sounds like Michigan bases the annual registration, at least partially, on the valuation of the vehicle. Some states call this a personal property tax. Used to be that at least part of this was a deduction on Federal taxes - not sure if it is anymore.

Here in Wisconsin the annual fee for our coach is only about $120. Of course, other taxes here are higher. Michigan has a flat income tax rate of 4.25%, where the rates in Wisconsin go from 4% to 7%. You gotta pay the piper somehow.

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1 hour ago, richard5933 said:

Used to be that at least part of this was a deduction on Federal taxes - not sure if it is anymore.

 I don't know how it will be for 2018 with the newest tax codes, but has been through 2017.

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In the past, only the tax portion of the total was deductible. If there is a combined total which contains tax and a tag fee or admin fee only the tax part is deductible. Our fee in Wisconsin is only about $120, and it is not considered a tax so none of it is deductible. Turbo Tax has a listing of the states with deductible vehicle registration fees/taxes. Given the tax updates last year, it's likely that there have been changes to this in some way so I'd do the necessary homework before assuming anything for this year.

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Since the subject has come up again, for all in Alabama, RV tags are apportioned here, this means that if you do not reregister in your month to register, then you can reregister any time during the current year at a portion (the unused) portion of the current year and only pay tax for the remainder of the year. By doing this you can avoid paying for the portion of the year that the RV was not being used with no penalty. Similar to what CaptainMike says that he does in Michigan. The key word is apportioned.

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Texas?  Not.  Cost is by year, by weight...nothing else and if I get it in June & it was due in Jan., I pay the same amount & it's due again in Jan!  That's bad news for some friends, that's in Heavy Lift, out side US...their gone 6 to 8 months a year! :(

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On 10/4/2018 at 12:30 PM, richard5933 said:

.... Some states call this a personal property tax...

Yes, you are getting off light for $1,600.

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PA $121.00 for a coach our weight which is the maximum, minimum is $68.00.

 In Texas it would be $340.00 for a coach with a GVWR of 36,000

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In Georgia the sales tax at the time of purchase is used as the tag Ad Valorem fee. If you buy from an individual you pay 7% of the value of the motorhome. There after you only pay a $70:00 renewal fee. The renewal is based on gross wt and can be slightly higher or lower.  Vehicle renewal is $20.00.  

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Isn't it legal to license your coach in a different state than where you reside? I thought I'd seen this advertised somewhere in the FMC magazine...

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1 hour ago, 40SC40QS said:

Isn't it legal to license your coach in a different state than where you reside? I thought I'd seen this advertised somewhere in the FMC magazine...

That's a complicated question.

Many of the people who are licensing their rigs in Montana do so by creating an LLC in Montana, and then they register the rig in the name of the LLC and not to them personally. There are other ways of accomplishing this, but as more and more states share databases with each other there are more crackdowns on people doing this.

I know I'm going to sound like my mother here, but even if there are legal ways to get around paying the taxes in your home state it doesn't make it right. For every person that skirts the rules (by legal means or otherwise) those left doing it the traditional way are carrying a larger share of the tax burden than they should be.

My thought is that there is no free lunch. In Wisconsin we don't have personal property taxes on vehicles, so my annual registration is around $120. It would be the same regardless of the value of the rig. It may be cheaper to do the annual registration here, but of course the state makes up for it with higher taxes and fees in other areas. The bills have to get paid, one way or the other.

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Easy for you to say at $120.00. States are ripping off people on rigs that have had sales tax every time they are sold. I just bought a coach in Arizona, when I got home to license it in Colorado, I had to pay a sales tax to Colorado. How does that work? Every time I turn around, government is in my pocket. NOT RIGHT!!!

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You should have only had to pay tax in one of the two states. If you paid tax in the state where you bought the rig and then immediately took it to another state to register it (that had a higher tax), you should have only had to pay any difference in the tax. I have bought many cars from another state, and I specifically told the dealer that I was going to register it in another state. They didn't charge me sales tax.

Unless Arizona does things differently, if you were not going to register that coach in Arizona you shouldn't have had to pay taxes there. All you needed was temporary tags to get you home. If you never registered the coach in Arizona you should definitely contact them to find out if you can file for a refund of the taxes that probably shouldn't have been collected there.

Regarding the $120...

My point was that even though my annual registration is only $120, I certainly pay in other ways. In 2019 Wisconsin was ranked at 16th highest tax burden (9.15% overall) and Colorado was ranked at 34th highest tax burden (8.15%). https://wallethub.com/edu/states-with-highest-lowest-tax-burden/20494/

You may have paid more for your registration, but your overall state tax burden is still considerably lower than mine. If you only look at one piece of the equation it's easy for things to look really wrong.

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If you are in Az and its used, you buy from a private party there is not sales tax due. This is for any vehicle.   Trailers have a perm plate and a one time fee.

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1 hour ago, desertdeals69 said:

If you are in Az and its used, you buy from a private party there is not sales tax due. This is for any vehicle.   Trailers have a perm plate and a one time fee.

Don't they collect the tax when you go to register the used vehicle at the DMV? That's why when I've bought vehicles from out of state I don't register it there, just get a temporary tag for the trip home.

When I bought my current coach it was in NJ. I had the seller overnight the title to me, and I was able to register it in Wisconsin before leaving home. They calculated tax based on the sales price (one-time tax). I flew to NJ with the plates for the coach and never even had to talk to the NJ DMV.

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9 hours ago, desertdeals69 said:

No sales tax on used vehicles if purchased from a private party. Bought dozens of vehicles over the years.

I just looked up the Arizona vehicle registration site - it looks like instead of paying the sales tax you get to pay a vehicle tax every year as part of the fee to register your vehicle. Different than how we do it here, where we pay sales tax at time of purchase and only pay a small registration fee every year for our tags. Every state does it differently, but in the end they all get their money.

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On 5/1/2019 at 4:10 AM, richard5933 said:

I just looked up the Arizona vehicle registration site - it looks like instead of paying the sales tax you get to pay a vehicle tax every year as part of the fee to register your vehicle. Different than how we do it here, where we pay sales tax at time of purchase and only pay a small registration fee every year for our tags. Every state does it differently, but in the end they all get their money.

I just purchased a coach last year from a private party.......no tax paid on transfer and 5 year registration was $536 ;)

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1 hour ago, paul65k said:

I just purchased a coach last year from a private party.......no tax paid on transfer and 5 year registration was $536 ;)

What year is the coach?

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2016 Pheaton

Indiana would have been $2880 the first year, reducing 10% over 10 years,  two years in Indiana would be $5472

South Dakota $576 every year for 10 years = $5760

Sold everything in Indiana, we are now domiciled in SD and no state income tax 

Happy in SD

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