How To Register A Car In The State Of Maine Living In Another State

The number of passenger vehicles registered in Maine but owned by out-of-state residents has more than doubled in v years.

The sharp increase – from vii,483 in 2014 to 16,589 this year – has contributed an extra $250,000 to the land of Maine.

The reason this is happening is simple: Maine's vehicle registration fee of $35 is among the cheapest in the land. And it's among the few states that allow nonresidents to obtain plates, no questions asked.

But the situation has acquired headaches for some other states, which are losing revenue to Maine. Some out-of-staters are violating their own state laws by registering their vehicles in Maine, which has no residency requirements for registrations.

Maine Secretary of Land Matthew Dunlap said he periodically hears from officials in other states almost this but said it's not Maine's problem.

"It's not up to the state to cull people from out of state and go on them from giving us their money," he said.

Paul Grimaldi, spokesman for the Rhode Isle Department of Revenue, which oversees the Division of Motor Vehicles, sees it a little differently. He said Maine is all but encouraging out-of-state residents to suspension the laws of their home states, something that he's seeing more than often in Rhode Island.

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"I practise think the state could practise more to prevent this," Grimaldi said.

Maine's registration police, created two decades ago, was lax by design, intended to accommodate both seasonal residents and businesses. It has turned into a lucrative source of revenue for Maine, particularly for commercial trailer registrations. Trucks that travel beyond interstate lines can register anywhere, and many choose Maine. Revenue from long-term trailer registrations has nigh doubled in the past decade, from $7.5 million in 2009 to $13.2 one thousand thousand final year.

Only the same law that permits trucking companies to register vehicles here also allows others to annals their vehicle with Maine plates, whether they really have a legitimate tie to Maine or not.

States have diverse ways of setting registration fees. Some have flat fees. Others summate the fee based on a vehicle'southward value, age or weight. No matter how you summate it, it'south hard to beat Maine'southward $35 apartment fee.

In Connecticut, which has the fourth-highest number of Maine license plates, 1,457, the registration fee is $eighty. Ernie Bertothy, spokesman for Connecticut's Section of Motor Vehicles, said he believes the depression fee is a reason Connecticut residents register cars in Maine, but he likewise said the DMV at that place will not effect registrations to anyone who owes holding taxes. Rather than pay back taxes, some but annals in Maine.

In some states, emissions are tested equally office of an annual inspection, so car owners may effort to avoid the inspections by getting plates from Maine, which doesn't examination. The aforementioned may go for personal trailers, which aren't inspected hither and don't need titles.

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The registration fee in Rhode Island ranges from $30 to $48, depending on vehicle weight, so the savings appear to be negligible. That suggests Sea State residents are registering cars hither for unlike reasons. Just Grimaldi, the revenue department spokesman, said public safety officials are increasingly dealing with a loftier number of cars, 446, driven past locals with Maine plates. That's a violation of Rhode Island law, which requires residents to register their vehicles locally, within thirty days of moving at that place.

Nearly every state has the same requirement, although the length of time to comply varies. The problem surfaces generally when public safety officials want to transport a parking ticket or toll violation and the plate isn't registered to a local address.

The state with the highest number of nonresident vehicles registered in Maine is an unexpected one: Oklahoma. According to state data for all active registrations, there are iv,658 Maine plates in Oklahoma, more than twice the side by side-closest state, Massachusetts.

The high total is driven about entirely by ane visitor, EAN Holdings, which operates the Enterprise, Alamo and National car rental brands and puts Maine license plates on its rental fleets. A company spokeswoman said the number of Maine plates issued to Oklahoma vehicles more or less matches the number of rental vehicles that originate in Maine.

Laura Bryant besides said the company tries to annals vehicles in the country where they are likely to be driven most merely in the case of Maine, there are savings. Standard vehicle registration in Oklahoma is $85 for a automobile that is four years former or newer. In Maine, it'due south $35. For a fleet of 500 cars, information technology costs $25,000 less to register in Maine. Added to which, a company can do business with Maine'south motor vehicle department in bulk, all without having to go out the office.

"We're a cheap date," said Dunlap, the Maine secretary of state.

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The out-of-country registrations are done by 3rd-party agents, or companies that specialize in the service. About of them market to trucking companies and other businesses that bargain in interstate commerce, simply they also offer passenger vehicle registration.

Xiii of these agents do business in Maine. Calls to several of the agents were not returned over a menstruum of three weeks.

Ane of the biggest agencies, according to the state, is the Staab Bureau, located in a sparsely populated area of midcoast Maine nigh Damariscotta Lake Land Park. Multiple attempts to speak with its owner, Shirley St. Pierre, including an in-person visit, were unsuccessful. (St. Pierre was convicted a decade agone of taxation evasion and obstructing the Internal Revenue Service for not paying taxes on income from the visitor and so for falsifying documents to conceal her failure to pay taxes.)

One agent, the Maine Motor Transport Association, which also lobbies for the trucking industry, but does trailer registrations.

"It'due south a great business for united states of america and for the state, and our customers certainly like the ease of doing business concern hither," said Brian Parke, MMTA'southward president and CEO.

The idea that a country might create a law to encourage niche business is not unusual. Delaware has become the corporation majuscule of the world considering of the ease and low cost of setting up a corporation at that place. Rhode Island is well known for enticing boat owners to register their vessels in that location.

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In Maine, the trucking industry has taken advantage of trailer registrations. Motorists traveling up and downwards the Due east Declension, or fifty-fifty beyond, may notice a disproportionate number of long-haul trailers with Maine license plates.

Maine Secretarial assistant of State Matt Dunlap acknowledges that many out-of-staters are registering their vehicles here to relieve coin, but that, he says, isn't Maine's problem. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal file photo

Each third-political party registration agent warns that although Maine law allows out-of-state registration, consumers need to follow the laws of their ain state. But the agents don't police that, nor does the Maine Secretary of State'due south Office.

Dunlap said he understands the frustration of other states, but Maine simply tin can't monitor whether people from elsewhere are properly registering their vehicles.

Similarly, officials in other states say they can't track down every improperly registered vehicle. Watching license plates is non a priority for law. And if a driver's insurance policy or license address doesn't friction match the plates, owners aren't ticketed.

In 2013, the News Journal of Wilmington in Delaware reported that drivers who owed the nearly in unpaid tolls and penalties were from Maine. Merely simply the license plates were from Maine – the drivers overwhelmingly lived in Delaware.

Some would argue that Maine is looking the other way while people use the state to violate their own state's laws.

Dunlap doesn't view it that way. He said Maine loses out in other ways. For years, the state has dealt with Maine residents who live nigh the New Hampshire border registering their vehicles in New Hampshire to avert excise taxes. Excise taxes are separate from registration fees and are paid to the municipality where the vehicle is garaged. New Hampshire's excise tax charge per unit is as much as 33 pct lower than Maine'south, so residents claim a New Hampshire address, sometimes even going so far as to get a post role box.