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If the FL tag is valid, that's got to be nearly impossible to enforce. If the guy says he lives in NC 5 months out of the year and in FL 7 months, how could the cop prove/disprove that? Does he keep his FL registration up to date? That's got to be a pain, having to get someone in FL to forward his mail, etc.
Yeah, I haven't checked his car for whether it's up-to-date, but it just seems like a PITA unless maybe he's registered at his parent's address (he is about 30 and single) and goes home often enough to pick up major mailings. I can see wanting to be registered to vote in FL, the biggest swing state of them all, but still it's a big hassle and NC is also a swing state--though I don't think that is the true reason. This is someone I usually think of as a rule-abiding guy and perhaps there is some other reason he "has to" keep his legal residence in FL, but it always irks me. What would he do if he got called for jury duty down there, for example? And I presume he files taxes via his NC address, since otherwise he'd have to explain how 100% of his salary is from a place in NC (though I guess he could claim he is a telecommuter?). So if he were to get caught, it would be a mess, therefore I don't see the point of maintaining this subterfuge even for $150 a year or so in NC taxes on his vehicle.
Yeah, I haven't checked his car for whether it's up-to-date, but it just seems like a PITA unless maybe he's registered at his parent's address (he is about 30 and single) and goes home often enough to pick up major mailings. I can see wanting to be registered to vote in FL, the biggest swing state of them all, but still it's a big hassle and NC is also a swing state--though I don't think that is the true reason. This is someone I usually think of as a rule-abiding guy and perhaps there is some other reason he "has to" keep his legal residence in FL, but it always irks me. What would he do if he got called for jury duty down there, for example? And I presume he files taxes via his NC address, since otherwise he'd have to explain how 100% of his salary is from a place in NC (though I guess he could claim he is a telecommuter?). So if he were to get caught, it would be a mess, therefore I don't see the point of maintaining this subterfuge even for $150 a year or so in NC taxes on his vehicle.
I had FL plates while up here for years, it was super easy. You give them a mailing address, FL has many people who live out of state part of the year, they are very adept at dealing with this scenario. I mostly did it because it was nice to just once a year (or you can prepay a coupe years at a time) send my $56 in and get a new sticker. No inspections, no crazy taxes, nothing.
The bigger problem is you are required to give an insurance code when renewing your FL plates and you only get that with a FL insurance card. Some insurers will issue you a FL card even with your vehicle elsewhere (ie those accustomed to dealing with military). Otherwise you have to either have FL insurance which negates any savings (by far!) or just go unregistered, which is probably what most will do.
You can usually get an expired tag ticket dismissed. So if so someone bought a new luxury car in another state, paid thousands in sales tax, then moved here six months later, they would have to pay thousands again to register it. You can understand their logic anyway. These aren't the kind of cars/drivers usually targeted by police.
Exactly what happened to us. We paid sales tax in NY for an expensive vehicle and then property tax a year later here. Oh well.
A lot of states (not sure about NC) have police cars equipped with license scanners to detect expired registrations. However, I think they only catch registrations for cars in that state, not for out-of-state plates. I know that in DC if your car is parked and one of their traffic enforcement people notices an expired registration they will write you a ticket -- even if the registration is for an out-of-state car. I had that happen to me.
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