How to get an address for registration & license - RV-Dreams Community Forum

Geos · RV-Dreams Community Member

How to get an address for registration & license

Technomadia · RV-Dreams Family Member

I'm not sure on the domicile/residency requirements for NV, it's not a state that is often selected for full timers. Perhaps others can chime in who have gone through that process.

Here's our article on selecting a state of domicile and setting those logistics up: www.technomadia.com/domicile

Geos · RV-Dreams Community Member

That's great information! Thank you.

NWescapee · RV-Dreams Family Member

Geos - NV was a state we actually considered and then realized unless we wanted to live there for a couple of months it wasn't going to work. I believe you needed utility bills to show that you were a resident so we would have had to find an RV park where we paid electric separately and stayed for a couple of months. That wasn't going to happen for us.

One other factor to consider, in our research we found NV to be more expensive to license and insure our rig compared to WA, SD or TX which are the other states we considered, we wanted the home state to be West of the Mississippi River in a no income tax state

Lucky Mike · RV-Dreams Family Member

We had a fellow dreamer use Nevada last year.....she had to find a park and buy a time share on a site to make it her residence.

finding a home domicile state is a tough one....you have to look at your income , you have to look at investments, Health insurance......just because it doesnt have income tax doesnt make it cheaper.....the state has to generate its money some how.

the state I use has no income tax , but it has high taxation in other areas....in fact I only use NH because it has the lowest tax and most protection for investments and Trusts in the nation....but it all evens out in the end....no free ride

-- Edited by Lucky Mike on Thursday 26th of June 2014 09:28:22 AM

The Junkman · RV-Dreams Family Member

Why would you do nevada ?..

No income tax. but they nail you here for reg fees, electric, insurance and everything else.. It's crazy..

my truck is 1200 / year .. jeep wrangler $500 / yr.. My drv would be $3200 / yr !.. so like 4k a year .. just for registration..

I'm moving to FL. .. South dakota was my first choice.. just didn't want to make the trip.

I'm in Henderson ( las vegas )...

BiggarView · RV-Dreams Family Member

With more and more states now working on ways to exact a "use" tax from residents, Mike is right, they'll get you one way or another on taxation. Even state with no income tax have ways of collecting their due in the form of fees, licenses, sales tax etc. The other variables, like health insurance, general cost of living expenses(while located there) should factor in your decision for domicile. All that said, most people seem to prefer TX, SD or FL as top picks for where to register your vehicle & get plates with all other things considered. YMMV as they also say.

Not all savings are good savings if it means you have to pay more for other things just to get the saving you're looking for. FWIW

-- Edited by biggaRView on Thursday 26th of June 2014 10:03:54 AM

Geos · RV-Dreams Community Member

$3200. to register an RV??? Holy cow! Scratch NV. My main concern was income tax for my investments but i didn't realize reg could be so high. I'm going to spend a lot of time in the southwest so I'm going to look into TX.

NWescapee · RV-Dreams Family Member

Geos - in addition to reviewing registration requirements, take a look at licensing, annual inspections, etc. that are required. We seriously considered TX but annual inspections are required and their law recently changed on deferring that until you were back in state, although I know it's being challenged.

Unfortunately laws can and do change seemingly at will sometimes. While SD was a good decision for us for now, we will continue to review that. Just got a surprise that their insurance rates went up but I do know it's still cheaper than our previous home state of WA. We've been TX or WA residents our entire working careers so we didn't make the change to SD lightly, although we do joke that for the first time in 20+ years of marriage we have a "neutral" state license now, Dale's from TX, I grew up in WA so we each are partial to our home state.

The Junkman · RV-Dreams Family Member

Geos wrote:
$3200. to register an RV??? Holy cow! Scratch NV. My main concern was income tax for my investments but i didn't realize reg could be so high. I'm going to spend a lot of time in the southwest so I'm going to look into TX.

Yep.. NV has a place on their website you can put the vin in and will get you the estimated yearly fees.

I read some states will tax you on personal property as well.. I think FL does that .. over 20k..

I really am going to have a address in FL.. and for a savings of like 8k in sales tax.. it's not work all BS of licensing, insurance, sale tax, inspections, etc.. FL , TX, MT, SD are the states I read about.. that majority uses.

BiggarView · RV-Dreams Family Member

Geos wrote:
$3200. to register an RV??? Holy cow! Scratch NV. My main concern was income tax for my investments but i didn't realize reg could be so high. I'm going to spend a lot of time in the southwest so I'm going to look into TX.

What if you had to pay 3200 in state taxes on your investments but nothing to resister your vehicle? It's all relative. Add up all taxation you'll pay in a given state... including fees and licenses, taxes on income and investments, and so forth. It's only then you'll start to get a clearer picture of the level of "pain" you'll have to endure in the states you are considering. After all that, if one state has better healthcare options and pricing (taxation being relatively equal in the scenario I'm painting), then you'll see the choices are narrowed based on that info. What I'm saying is you can't just rule out a state based on only one financial criteria (registration fees in this case.)

What? ??? You thought this was going to be easy? There really is no standard answer because everybody has certain criteria that they value in making the decision you are pondering.

We are looking at TX for our future domicile state. For now, there are more than financial reasons for that.

Your mileage may vary... weigh the financial aspects in total terms not specific ones. Consider other things that are important to you... family, access to medical, weather, preferred locations to visit or travel to and the time and expense to get to them(if that is important)... you get the idea.

Enjoy the research, learning is half the fun confuse smile

Brian

-- Edited by biggaRView on Thursday 26th of June 2014 04:39:55 PM

Selah · RV-Dreams Family Member

The easiest way to change domicile is to start about two months ahead of the actual date. Get a mail service that is recogonized by state and federal governments as a "street" address. FL, TX, and SD are the big three but TX is falling out of favor because of thier newly instituted inspection requirements.
Change your address for all your bills and such to the mail service and order new checks (you do not need to change banks). Do not change your address at the post off yet. Periodically have the mail service ship you mail to your current address. Save the bills. After a couple of months you will now have utility bills and other acceptable pieces of mail with your new address. When your ready to completely sever ties to your current state change your address with the post office, go to the county where your mail service is, and get new drivers license, voter regestration, and register your vehicles.
Your now a resident of that state.
The mail service web site has all the information and forms needed to change your domicile. If you have ALL the documentation listed it's easy. It took one afternoon the change our residency from Indiana to Florida.
Also remember to bring copies of your will, health care surrogate, power of atty, etc as these must be legal,in your state or residency. Any local atty can take your current ones and change the language so that they are legal in that state. I thing it cost us about $200.00 for thier service.
BTW: we used St. Brendan's Isle in Green Cove Spring Florida but I believe others have the same info.

Terry and Jo · RV-Dreams Family Member

Geos,

Keep in mind that Junkman's RV is a 43-foot Mobile Suites, therefore it is more expensive than most others, other than the truly custom manufacturers.

Terry

Geos · RV-Dreams Community Member

Selah-

That's what I was looking for. Thank you so much.

Here's a useful site on registration costs by state: http://www.ncsl.org/research/transportation/registration-and-title-fees-by-state.aspx

-- Edited by Geos on Friday 27th of June 2014 10:02:34 PM

The Junkman · RV-Dreams Family Member

Geos wrote:
Selah-
That's what I was looking for. Thank you so much.
Here's a useful site on registration costs by state: http://www.ncsl.org/research/transportation/registration-and-title-fees-by-state.aspx

-- Edited by Geos on Friday 27th of June 2014 10:02:34 PM

That site does not show the

Governmental Services Tax

Thats the big money part for nevada..

http://www.dmvnv.com/regfees.htm

Clay L · RV-Dreams Family Member

A couple of things to consider.
SD does not tax income from any source ie, dividends, interest, salary, etc. There is no state inheritance tax.
Tax on a new RV purchase is 3%.
Most (all?) counties (Sioux Falls, Minnehaha co for sure) will remove you from the jury duty rolls.
Vehicle registration is reasonable. It was a combined $186 in 2005 for my motor home and Honda. Last year it was $260.

-- Edited by Clay L on Sunday 29th of June 2014 11:19:46 AM

Geos · RV-Dreams Community Member

Clay L wrote:
A couple of things to consider.
SD does not tax income from any source ie, dividends, interest, salary, etc. There is no state inheritance tax.
Tax on a new RV purchase is 3%.
Most (all?) counties (Sioux Falls, Minnehaha co for sure) will remove you from the jury duty rolls.
Vehicle registration is reasonable. It was a combined $186 in 2005 for my motor home and Honda. Last year it was $260.

-- Edited by Clay L on Sunday 29th of June 2014 11:19:46 AM

Is there a mail forwarding service someone could recommend?

Clay L · RV-Dreams Family Member

We have used Alternative Resources in Sioux Falls SD for many years and their service has been great. See HERE

They have a lot of info on their site and offer a number of services very useful to full timers such as voter registration, title transfer and vehicle registration.

There is an insurance agent next door that can get quotes for a number of companies and has handled our insurance needs for years. I don't know if it is still there or not but there was a drivers license sub station a half block away. We went into the Alternative Resources office one morning and in a matter of hours were residents of SD with drivers licenses in hand and all other documentation in process. They mailed our vehicle plates to us in a couple of weeks

-- Edited by Clay L on Monday 30th of June 2014 09:27:50 AM

-- Edited by Clay L on Tuesday 1st of July 2014 10:12:11 AM

blijil · RV-Dreams Family Member

We use americas mailbox www.americas-mailbox.com in Box Elder (Rapid City) SD. Just spend a night after changing your mail (we didn't forward just changed mailing address for the things we wanted to keep and got rid of a lot of junkmail). Bring your receipt for the overnight and get a new drivers license as a SD nomad. You can register vehicles yourself in person or pay your mail forwarding service a small fee to do it for you. Lots of info on the web page and after 8 years good dependable service from friendly people. If you decide on them tell them Larry Linley #2957 sent you.

RVKevi · RV-Dreams Family Member

We use Your Best Address in Sioux Falls. It is a little less expensive than some of the others, and may not have some of the extras that some of the others have. But they will register your vehicles if you want them to. We've found them very dependable. Their link is http://www.yourbestaddress.com/

Bobc · RV-Dreams Family Member

How does getting health insurance work with all this for full timers?
How often do you have to return to that state for license renewals, vihicle inspections etc.?

bjoyce · RV-Dreams Family Member

Bobc wrote:
How does getting health insurance work with all this for full timers?
How often do you have to return to that state for license renewals, vihicle inspections etc.?

The main RV-Dreams website has lots of information and answers. For example go to http://www.rv-dreams.com/health-insurance.html for health insurance and http://www.rv-dreams.com/home-base-selection.html for choosing a home base.