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Alabama Mega Taxes

Yahoo Message Number: 93696
I purchased a 2000 CC Affinity 42' with 2 slides. Went to go get tags today and to my surprise they wanted $2200 for ONE YEAR of Alabama tags. My 1998 Safari Sahara was about $400 per year. Paying the taxes is not the problem, the fact that these taxes are 3.5 times more than my home really makes me mad. What is everyone else paying? Any way to get these lowered? I do have a business LLC, any tricks to using this? Thanks for you input!

Boyd May

LA (Lower Alabama)
2000 Affinity 42'

Re: Alabama Mega Taxes

Reply #1 –
Yahoo Message Number: 93697
In Illinois, (Chicago) I just paid $102 for a 2006 40' Monaco Knight. It sounds like more than just License plate fees are rolled into yours. Maybe a personal property tax on vehicles? It still sounds outrageous.

Bob K

Re: Alabama Mega Taxes

Reply #3 –
Yahoo Message Number: 93699
Oregon is $358.00for two years for 40'. They charge motor homes by the foot. No sales tax.


Jock Vargo

2005 Inspire
51428

Re: Alabama Mega Taxes

Reply #4 –
Yahoo Message Number: 93700
Unfortunately, in Alabama, you pay the registration based on weight of the vehicle and then you pay Ad Valorem 10 or 15% of the value of the coach on top of that!! That's why we don't live in Alabama. The only way I'm aware that you can pay less is if you are over 65 years old or disabled. As far as corporate, I would check with an accountant and or attorney for that info. In Florida the registration is a lot less than Alabama. Lonny is disabled veteran and he gets a Purple Heart tag for less than $20. Not sure what the regular rate is. You can look on any state's DMV website and see their rates. Texas is also much more reasonable. http://revenue.alabama.gov/motorvehicle/mvforms/feeschedule.cfm

Re: Alabama Mega Taxes

Reply #5 –
Yahoo Message Number: 93701
In Texas they charge by the dry weight of the vehicle. {no fuel, liquids, passengers or cargo.} I paid $328.00 for 33,600 lbs.
TWI 2004 Intrigue 11731 42'

Re: Alabama Mega Taxes

Reply #6 –
Yahoo Message Number: 93703
Boyd I assume this was a new purchase, did the license fee include sales tax/use tax? In CA when you register the first time, from a private purchase, you pay sales tax on the purchase price at the same time as the plate fee. CA plates include a tax that starts with new price and lowers at the DMV's depreciation rate, which has nothing to do with reality! :(
BTW wait until your state tries to balance the budget through registration fee's! My 06 Dolphin jumped from $390 at 2 years old to $895 at 3 years old!!

Ray O'Connell

They say wine improves with age! As I enter my golden years, I say age improves with wine! The Born Loser

Re: Alabama Mega Taxes

Reply #7 –
Yahoo Message Number: 93704
Here in okla one pays an excise tax to register. After that the yearly is almost unbelievable. Our 06 Affinity runs us $87 a year for tags. OJinOK 06 Affinity

Re: Alabama Mega Taxes

Reply #8 –
Yahoo Message Number: 93705
Washington has you all beat, at least in year one. They have a "USE" tax which means if you bring in a coach from out of state (or buy it in state) when you go in for your WA tags they want 8.5% of the book value, even if you have owned it for years! So on a coach with $200K book value, for example, you owe $17,000 plus tag fees of several hundred bucks. A sales tax like that if you buy it in WA is one thing, but when you have owned it for years and had it previously titled in another state, well, that is nuts.
WA justifies it by saying "we don't have sales tax" but neither do Texas, Florida or Montana, among others, and they will all register your vehicle without additional taxes if you have owned it more than 6 months.
A lot of folks have gone with the whole concept of a Montana LLC, especially if you are traveling around the country and not bringing it into the state of WA. I checked with the State, and this is all perfectly legal aso long as you don't *use* the RV in the state of WA. This is why it is called a *use* tax.
I'm not sure about Alabama law but it may be similar... you register the coach in the name of a Montana LLC and get your tags there... here's some basic info

http://www.myrv.us/Pgs/RV/montana.htm

here's a place to get it done:
http://www.49dollarmontanaregisteredagent.com/

JB

Re: Alabama Mega Taxes

Reply #9 –
Yahoo Message Number: 93706
I paid $8800 to register my 2006 Intrigue in Iowa (5% road use tax) and the annual renewal is about $300.
Tom R

2006 Intrigue 12057

Re: Alabama Mega Taxes

Reply #10 –
Yahoo Message Number: 93708
JB,

When did WA state start the 8.5% use tax on book value of RV's? We did the South Dakota thing for a couple of years when we bought our 04 Intrigue, then registered it in WA state with all our other vehicles in 08. Plates and all fees then were only $450 on a book value somewhere around $250k. Since then plates have been a very reasonable $300 or less each year.

Ricardo 04 Intrigue #11830

Re: Alabama Mega Taxes

Reply #11 –
Yahoo Message Number: 93718
"WA justifies it by saying "we don't have sales tax" but neither do Texas, Florida or Montana, among others, and they will all register your vehicle without additional taxes if you have owned it more than 6 months."
Florida most certainly DOES have a sales Tax. I just paid them $16,000 sales tax on the purchase of a new RV.

Re: Alabama Mega Taxes

Reply #12 –
Yahoo Message Number: 93719
to be honest I don't know when WA first implemented this excise tax... but they have it now. We moved to WA recently from Oregon and this is what I was told. Seems like I recall though that it may have to do with the fact that OR has no sales tax... so when we boiught the coach 1.5 years ago down in AZ and brought it back to Oregon and registered it, we had no sales tax and only paid the title and registration fees. So maybe WA is figuring, hey, since you never paid sales tax on your vehicle since you bought it, you can pay us this excise tax. I'm not sure about all the details... I just know what they wanted from me. Again TX, FL and MT will not soak you for any extra taxes if you bought it more than six months previous. So I will never be bringing the coach into the state of WA, we will keep it registered elsewhere and WA can go get the $17K from somewhere else, not from me. We never really planned to use the coach in WA anyhow... We're headed to CA, AZ, TX and over to Florida beginning later this year and won't be bringing the coach back to west coast for years to come, if ever.
JB

Re: Alabama Mega Taxes

Reply #13 –
Yahoo Message Number: 93720
I looked into the Montana LLC and am now glad I didn't go ahead with that alternative. Iowa's Governor recently announced that Iowa is "going after" motorhomes and other expensive vehicles registered in other states, but based in Iowa. So if caught with a Montana LLC and living in Iowa the fine is up to DOUBLE the fee, plus the fee. That makes the cost 15% of purchase price.

Re: Alabama Mega Taxes

Reply #14 –
Yahoo Message Number: 93721
CA the rule is you have to own it and have it registered outside the state for 12 months minimum. If you were a resident of the state during that time you have to prove it was out of the state during that time, fuel , rv park, storage receipts etc or pay the 8-9% sales tax depending on your zipcode of residence.

Ray O'Connell

They say wine improves with age! As I enter my golden years, I say age improves with wine! The Born Loser

Re: Alabama Mega Taxes

Reply #16 –
Yahoo Message Number: 93726
Well the ones that see the impact are the ones that get caught! In their wallet mostly! In CA if you get caught they go back to when you acquired the vehicle and charge plates and penalties to current year plus a penalty and the sales/use tax.

Ray O'Connell

They say wine improves with age! As I enter my golden years, I say age improves with wine! The Born Loser

Re: Alabama Mega Taxes

Reply #17 –
Yahoo Message Number: 93728
yeah my brain fade... I meant "no income tax" of course... TX and FL have no income tax, but they certainly have sales tax... WA also has no income tax so they justify their excise tax by saying we don't have income tax, and then they slap this excise tax as essentially a sales tax where it doesn't belong... neither FL or TX do that.
JB

Re: Alabama Mega Taxes

Reply #18 –
Yahoo Message Number: 93732
Just registered our 2003 Intrigue in Florida. Cost was just under $500.00 for title fee's ect. Will be at $75.00 a year from now on. Having been an Arizona resident they wanted $900.00 for the year. We just retired and are going full time. The savings from registration fee's and state income tax was a non brainer for us.

2003 Intrigue #11566
Donnie

Re: Alabama Mega Taxes

Reply #19 –
Yahoo Message Number: 93736
In 2013, I paid 580+ for my tag. 1998 36" Allure. That's inside Bremen, GA city limits. Tough to pay these taxes...........................................

Roy Smith
CC#30195

Re: Alabama Mega Taxes

Reply #20 –
Yahoo Message Number: 93737
The "six months" law is no longer true in Texas. Texas now taxes 7 percent (approx.) of what you paid (I think I remember the figures correctly, if not it is close to these figures). They used to allow you to own it over six months and just register it, but now collect. It could vary according to the county as to the total amount.

These laws are gradually changing in all states because they need the money and it is easy to collect from a small percentage of prospective voters.
Gene Merryman 2006 Intrigue Ovation II CC #12005

Re: Alabama Mega Taxes

Reply #21 –
Yahoo Message Number: 93740
I registered my coach for 8 years in FL. It is very cheap compared to the $8,000 in excise tax in my resident state. No excise tax but I did have to pay a sales tax because it was new but only on the trade in difference. But unlike excise tax that is a one shot deal.
Florida is very liberal in enforcing their address requirements. All you need is an legitimate address and they will never send any mail to it if you declare a different mailing address no matter where it is. They also renew online and for two years if you wish. For a number of years I paid $45 per year but it went up to $75 per year a few years ago. That is a all I paid period. FL also does not have that pesky inspection requirement annually. They also do not require you to change you driver's license to FL. So unless you are licensed in FL there is no Class B requirement as long as your home state does not have one.
However there is one interesting thing that I ran into. In some counties they do require that your insurance company have an agent that physically is housed in FL. Not much of a problem since Lazy Days is an insurance agent as well as a registry agent. All in all FL was a pleasure to deal with. I however have not registered a coach there in two years so thing could have changed.

Don Seager

Former CC Owner.

t registered our 2003 Intrigue in Florida. Cost was just under $500.00 for title fee's ect. Will be at $75.00 a year from now on. Having been an Arizona resident they wanted $900.00 for the year. We just retired and are going full time. The savings from registration fee's and state income tax was a non brainer for us.

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Re: Alabama Mega Taxes

Reply #22 –
Yahoo Message Number: 93744
What the politicos don't seem to understand is if the public sees something for their tax dollars it is much more palatable. CA has always had some of the highest highway taxes from fuel down to drivers license fees. When I started driving though back in the early 70's we had some of the best roads in the country. The roads were well maintained and construction of new seemed to keep pace with growth. Now we do neither and we pay even more!

Ray O'Connell

They say wine improves with age! As I enter my golden years, I say age improves with wine! The Born Loser