Saturday, March 21, 2026

the Montana Loophole (thank you Doug!)




Buy a new million-dollar car, boat, or RV in California and you could be looking at another $7,000 in registration fees on top of the tax, adding upwards of $100,000 to the purchase. Montana, meanwhile, charges $217 per year for a new car.

The loophole is simple. Register an LLC in Montana, and claim that it owns the vehicle. Now you've evaded all of that tax. Keep it out of California for 12 months, and you can bring it back home without the sales tax. But prosecutors say that it's not a valid loophole, and that owners aren't waiting a year.

California is also using plate readers and surveillance systems to monitor for Montana license plates and other registration and tax violators.

according to Bloomberg, by 2023 there were more than 2.3 million registered vehicles “in” Montana, a state with a population of a little more than 1 million, and just 879,000 licensed drivers.

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