Title change & registration (Broomfield: transplants, sales, real estate)

[caroline925]

Hi, my car is currently titled to my mother who used to live in Illinois and just moved to Colorado. So the car now needs to be registered in CO and she wants me to take title.
I live in Broomfield and the car is a '96 Nissan maxima(originally about 16,000).
So I need to know how much the title change, license plate, registration, sticker is? Are the license plate and sticker included in the registration or are they additional. Also
I know it needs to get emissions tested, there's not a charge for that too is there?
Thanks for the help. I'm trying to budget how much this is going to cost me.

[Snikt]

You have to pay sales tax on it, registration and the emissions costs extra also. The fees in CO are pretty absurd, I paid about 700-800$ to title change/register a 98 Mustang Cobra earlier this year. I think emissions is like 20-25$ also (check/cash).

I imagine you will pay considerably less since for that vehicle though

[jazzlover]

You iwll need an emission test and a VIN inspection to register the vehicle in Colorado. Since you are changing title from your mother to you, your mother will also have to fill out a bill of sale and an odometer statement. You MAY be able to not have to pay sales tax if you can prove that the transfer is among immediate family members. The best thing for you to do, though, is call the county clerk in Broomfield County and ask them the question directly, rather than rely on information (much of it likely inaccurate) on an internet forum.

[ryanek9freak]

Be prepared to take it in the you know what. Colorado's vehicle registration prices are ridiculously high, about 4 times as much as other states. For some reason, Colorado seems to think that cars are somehow real estate, and charge you an "ownership tax" as if it's a house.

Cost to register my truck in Ohio, $49.50
Cost in Colorado? $218.66.
WTH!?

[jazzlover]

Originally Posted by ryanek9freak

Be prepared to take it in the you know what. Colorado's vehicle registration prices are ridiculously high, about 4 times as much as other states. For some reason, Colorado seems to think that cars are somehow real estate, and charge you an "ownership tax" as if it's a house.

Cost to register my truck in Ohio, $49.50
Cost in Colorado? $218.66.
WTH!?

Not to rain on your parade, but many states levy what amounts to a personal property tax on vehicles--it is by no means unique to Colorado. Some states have dirt cheap license plates, but send a separate personal property tax bill for the vehicle property tax. I don't know whether they still do, but Kansas, as one example, used to do this.

If you want to blame someone for the high vehicle fees in Colorado, blame the land developers who have built far-flung sprawl all over the state and socialized the costs of the roads to serve them onto the public. It is the maintenance of all of that which has driven the need for revenue for road maintenance. It's just another example of how population growth has not paid its own way in Colorado, and the costs of it are remorselessly socialized on existing Colorado taxpayers.

[ryanek9freak]

Originally Posted by jazzlover

Not to rain on your parade, but many states levy what amounts to a personal property tax on vehicles--it is by no means unique to Colorado. Some states have dirt cheap license plates, but send a separate personal property tax bill for the vehicle property tax. I don't know whether they still do, but Kansas, as one example, used to do this.

If you want to blame someone for the high vehicle fees in Colorado, blame the land developers who have built far-flung sprawl all over the state and socialized the costs of the roads to serve them onto the public. It is the maintenance of all of that which has driven the need for revenue for road maintenance. It's just another example of how population growth has not paid its own way in Colorado, and the costs of it are remorselessly socialized on existing Colorado taxpayers.

So what's Ohio's excuse then? The population density is 5 times what it is in Colorado, yet somehow they manage to get by with a flat registration fee for all cars and trucks. $39.50 for cars, $49.50 for trucks under 3/4 ton.

I realize a lot of states are like Colorado, but a lot of them are not either.

[jazzlover]

Originally Posted by ryanek9freak

So what's Ohio's excuse then? The population density is 5 times what it is in Colorado, yet somehow they manage to get by with a flat registration fee for all cars and trucks. $39.50 for cars, $49.50 for trucks under 3/4 ton.

Probably through high property tax rates and/or high income tax rates. One always has to look at the total tax mix for a state to determine what one's total tax burden is. For example, when I lived in Wyoming, their vehicle license fees were higher than Colorado's--particularly on older vehicles. But, Wyoming has no personal or corporate income tax, nor were their sales tax rates nor property tax rates much different than Colorado's, overall. How did they do that? Well, in Wyoming, 75% of the tax burden for state and local government was borne by the minerals industry. And, there is the fact that state and local government in Wyoming only has to serve just over 500,000 residents, not 5 million like Colorado does. Of course, someday, when Wyoming's mineral resources are exhausted, Wyoming will see a big decline in what the minerals industry pays in taxes. Unlike Colorado, though, Wyoming law allows it to accumulate revenue in the Permanent Minerals Trust Fund, which will give the state an ongoing stream of revenue from interest income long after the minerals industry revenues decline. Of course, the down side of that minerals decline will be that probably one-third of the Wyoming population will wind up leaving the state because those jobs will be gone.

If you want to live in a low tax state, find one (like Wyoming) with a lot of industry or natural resources that form a high tax base, combined with a relatively low population demanding government services. Colorado used to fit that description to a tee, but population growth that hasn't paid for itself, a shrinking industrial tax base, and a "nanny state" mentality in an increasing percentage of the population (many of that group transplants from other "nanny states" like California--sorry, but it's the truth) has wrecked Colorado's status as a low-tax state--probably for good.