hinking, seriously about retiring to Casper, Wyoming

[sunsprit]

Originally Posted by WyoNewk

What they do is establish a Montana corporation through a Montana attorney. Said motorhome would be purchased/owned by the corporation, so it would buy the insurance. Since Montana has no sales tax, they bypass that upfront cost, then save a bit on annual registration costs as well.

Thanks for the clarification about the process. Although I expect that this is the "legitimate" way to accomplish this.

By way of comparison, we have neighbors here in Cheyenne who used to be ranch managers in MT who bought one of those old Trailways intercity buses and converted it into mobile HQ and for travels to the rodeo circuit when he was team roping. It's still registered in MT, and he claims that it's a "lifetime" registration with a miniscule annual fee. MT sends him the license plate renewal doc's to his WY address, so they know he's based out of state. Not sure how this all works, but he's been doing it for 6 years. Doubtless a WY registration would be far more expensive per year. In any event, the bus hasn't moved in several years as their business/employment has changed and they no longer travel with the bus.

A couple years ago Colorado was going after its residents who had done this, demanding that they pay Colorado the taxes they'd avoided, then threatening to charge them with tax evasion. I don't know what became of it, I only saw a couple news stories on Denver 9News.

Colorado got aggressive on two issues:

1) registering motor vehicles in a different county than the primary residence of the owner; ie, folk with properties in much lower tax/registration fee areas would register the purchase and license in that lower tax area even when they lived in Denver. Lost tax revenues to the Front Range counties.

2) Colorado emissions/inspection compliance on the Front Range being avoided by folk registering their cars in those other counties. The problem was that the car was based and primarily operated in the Front Range control area. Per statute (and Fed emissions program compliance), cars based in the emissions control area must be registered in the area. As well, cars primarily operated in the emissions control area ... such as a daily commute for work into Denver from another county ... were required to have a Colorado emissions certificate.

The fines for non-compliance were increased and enforcement became much more aggressive over the last few decades. It's mostly all about the money .... and it's not your money, it's the county's money that you owe which they want. They've also gotten much more sophisticated about documenting these situations ... for example, cross checking the listed address for insurance compared to registration address. They'll notify you by mail if they think there's a discrepancy and a notice to register and pay up in the correct county.

[PepperDenise]

Originally Posted by Wm Jas

Pack up your stuff and come on out. You will not be disappointed. I’ve lived in DC on 2 different occasions [actually once in Alexandria and once in Georgetown].

You will likely get lots of very good advice from some very knowledgeable posters but where is the adventure in that?

I had never been in Wyoming when I moved to Sheridan in 2010. Best move I ever made.

Life is to be lived. If you don’t like it here, what have you lost?

Wonderful, wonderful thinking...thanks Wm.Jas. Wife and I will, though likely fly out to take look around this Fall.

[PepperDenise]

Wm,Jas....wonderful way of thinking. I will though fly out and take a look around.

[PepperDenise]

Wow.
Comprehensive and quite informative.
I like it...Casper seems just the place, for quiet and PEACE...live and let live in the Constitution, right?{winking}.

I am a skier,. and I wonder if Hogadon is open{during ski season} the entire week or just weekends?

[Wyoming_Medic]

They are open during the week usually.

[nowhereman427]

Originally Posted by sunsprit

Colorado got aggressive on two issues:

1) registering motor vehicles in a different county than the primary residence of the owner; ie, folk with properties in much lower tax/registration fee areas would register the purchase and license in that lower tax area even when they lived in Denver. Lost tax revenues to the Front Range counties.

2) Colorado emissions/inspection compliance on the Front Range being avoided by folk registering their cars in those other counties. The problem was that the car was based and primarily operated in the Front Range control area. Per statute (and Fed emissions program compliance), cars based in the emissions control area must be registered in the area. As well, cars primarily operated in the emissions control area ... such as a daily commute for work into Denver from another county ... were required to have a Colorado emissions certificate.

The fines for non-compliance were increased and enforcement became much more aggressive over the last few decades. It's mostly all about the money .... and it's not your money, it's the county's money that you owe which they want. They've also gotten much more sophisticated about documenting these situations ... for example, cross checking the listed address for insurance compared to registration address. They'll notify you by mail if they think there's a discrepancy and a notice to register and pay up in the correct county.

Colorado got bad from all the Californians that invaded it?

[sunsprit]

Originally Posted by nowhereman427

Colorado got bad from all the Californians that invaded it?

I think you are confusing me with (un)Happy in Wyoming .... he's the one who posts about all the bad things that he perceives originate there which have come to the Rocky Mountains.

Note: nowhere did I say that the changes in Colorado car ownership/taxes was due to CA migrants there.

[nowhereman427]

Originally Posted by sunsprit

I think you are confusing me with (un)Happy in Wyoming .... he's the one who posts about all the bad things that he perceives originate there which have come to the Rocky Mountains.

Note: nowhere did I say that the changes in Colorado car ownership/taxes was due to CA migrants there.

[sunsprit]

Originally Posted by nowhereman427

Look again at post 26 ... I wrote about colorado auto tax and emissions and you responded about California folk moving to Colorado. What connection did you make about Californian's and colorado auto tax revenues?

[PepperDenise]

Originally Posted by Dangerous Dave

As for the OP, anything IMHO would be an improvement from DC... but there are a lot of nice places out west. Casper has pretty nasty winds. Shopping is going to be a big shock. You may consider northern Colorado and Cheyenne if you want to be on the plains. Grand Junction is also a place worth looking into, or maybe Rapid City and the Black Hills area.


I think it really depends on how much convenience you'd like to maintain from the "big city". I used to live in Sheridan and spent a lot of time working in Casper, live in north Idaho now. We live in a quiet town but we're ten miles away from some chain shopping such as Costco, Target, JCP, etc. and about half an hour from everything else we could want or need as far as shopping, restaurants, and healthcare.

Thanks D Dave