Happy Teener Day,

Bought a 'garage find' oct 18 for 3K, worked on it in the garage until this month, then I went and registered it in Massachusetts (Tax-a-chusetts).

Was told that it would be valued from the NADA retail book, for a '74 2.0 this is $13,150. Tax: 821.88.

But it gets better.......

Since I bought it 8 months previous, I have to pay a penalty for not registering it when I bought it. This comes to $294.12.

But it gets better........

When I politely inquired if I could appeal this assessment, I was told YES, here is the process.

https://www.mass.gov/files/documents/2018/1...sc-form-abt.pdf

If you look at page 3, in essence they saw me coming and had me all figured out.

So, if you have an old Porsche in MA and have not registered it in a while, move it to a friends house in NH or RI, register it there and then transfer.

Is it running and driving? If not, I would hold off on registering it.

You can't buy a parts car any more!!!

NH is easy. When I got mine it was (and is) not running, needs work. I registered it no problems, just needs to get the VIN checked by the local PD. I did this to show ownership of it as well as the quick and easy proof that it was never listed as stolen.

New Hampshire has no sales tax, so it is easy.
Massachusetts gives you a short time to pay sales tax
and title a car. Might be 90 days..???
After that, Penalties and Interest accrue daily..
When I bought my 930, I waited over a year before going to
the Registry with the paperwork...
That was a real wake up call....
Try a year of penalties and interest on top of the Sales Tax..

NH still goes by value with some form of equation.

My Cayman is still registered in CA for that reason. CA hits me for about $280/yr. NH would be at least double that until the car gets older. I think it is a percentage of depreciated value.

In NH my '03 Tacoma is about $120 but my '85 Westfalia is about $180.

That sounds like the Excise Tax we have in Massachusetts,on top
of Sales Tax. It is considered a “”Luxury Tax” and is paid to the
town or city you live in.
If the car isn’t registered, there is no excise tax.. Excise Tax
is based on MSRP and drops off yearly so after about 10 years you pay
the tax on 10% of the original price and it never goes lower than that.

Move South Texas register it as a non running car about $30. Then when running get a $7 inspection and go buy plates.

As an example....

My 914 is valued at 550.00
The 1990 ZRI is valued at 6000.00
Wife’s 911 is valued at 3000.00
Honda is 350.00

Excise is 25.00 per 1000.00 of value..

The three motorcycles I purchased were either missing paperwork or incomplete so I registered all three in VT. There was no nada value listed for them so they took my "purchase" price of $500 each for the 6% sales tax. The antique registration was $29 each and no inspection was required. There are no late registration fees. It couldn't have been easier dealing with VT. A woman from the office called me about engine size and was very nice on the phone. That in it's self is shocking compared to all the DMV's in our tri state area. You do not have to be a resident of VT to register in the state and the registration is then transferable to the state you reside. Luckily, there is no yearly tax in either VT or PA.

I have a 914 chassis without paperwork that I will probably register in VT but for that one, I do have to use the nada value of $12,400.

When I buy cars for the shop or myself, I do ask the seller to sign their name and leave the rest blank. It negates a lot of possible issues. Most sellers have no issues with that request.

NH isn't a tax it's a fee.

Live Fee-ed or Die.

VT only works if it is a car that does not have much value. Everyone kept telling me to do VT, so I had a project 356. I sent in the paperwork, they said it would be about $8000 to register it based on the NADA value of a C Coupe. I said it was a project car and they said that's ok, just bring it to a VT inspection station and they can give it a new valuation. the closest one was 3.5 hours away, so 7 hours trailering a car, for a valuation that might not lower the value that much, was not ideal. Now that 914's are going up in value VT might backfire.

The low nada value on a 914 is still around 12K but if you don't have a title for your C Coupe, $8K might still be a reasonable price to pay to get it back in the system legally and have the paperwork you need to register or sell it. In PA, I was going to have to jump through a bunch of hoops and even go in front of a judge to get the title work started.

How much were you told the 356 was worth according to NADA?

No title needed in NH. IMO NH is one of the easiest.

Back in my Jeep days my club would go out with 10 or so Jeeps and 7 of them would be owned by the same guy from NH. They'd be on 20 day plates as you do not need to inspect until 10 days after registration. By then we'd be home.

Just a VIN check as previously mentioned.

You can apply for a title I think but I imagine it would take a while.

Pretty sure any other state accepts the registration from NH to register the car and you could apply for a title from that state.

Just registered my 914 in Oregon. They didn't care how much I purchased it for. Zero tax. And no penalty for registering it over 4 years after I purchased it. Consider myself fortunate.

Some states are much easier than others. I think VT may be unusual in that you don’t have to be a resident to register the vehicle. Most other states that I looked into had a residency or visual inspection requirement.

Maine is even easier. I was in exactly the same position, except like 10 years late.

My friend has a place in Maine. I went to the town hall (no RMV in Maine). Pulled out my 30 year old bill of sale for $250 and paid maybe $100 for sales tax, registration and plates.

6 months later transferred the reg to my address in MA. Now I even have a good title!

Had I known!

I looked into Maine but I think the issue was a residency requirement or visual inspection. I don’t remember the issue but I’m 500 miles away so there was some issue.

I'm surprised the pointy headed _____________ in Sacramento haven't figured out to use the NADA book values.

So far, I've had pretty good luck getting around their shenanigans.