You Already Have A Montana LLC For Your Vehicle. How Do You Add Another?

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One of the questions we get a lot at Dirt Legal is, “What can I do about adding on more vehicles?” And why wouldn’t you want to? If you already have one vehicle in a Montana LLC, it makes sense to put your next one there. 

Also, a Montana LLC is an attractive option for vehicles you already own if you are in a state that levies annual use tax, such as Georgia or Virginia. There is a process for adding additional vehicles to your existing Montana LLC, but it’s not a big deal, and here at Dirt Legal we can handle the entire process. But first, let’s learn a little more about how it works.

What Is a Montana LLC Anyway?

We talk about the Montana LLC program so often it starts to feel and sound like an entity in itself. But it isn’t. 

The Montana LLC program is common as far as LLCs go; it just happens to be an LLC in the state of Montana. You need an LLC in Montana to establish residence in the state if you want to tag and title your vehicles there. In a past article, I detailed the difference between ‘domicile’ and ‘residence,’ so be sure to read up on it. 

Proof of residency in the state of Montana is required, but of course, owning a secondary property in Montana may not be up your alley (and negates the value of saving on sales taxes). This is where the LLC comes in. According to Montana statute, you must have a residence established within the state, and an LLC counts as residence.

The State of Montana is well aware of what’s happening. They have known about it for years. Maybe it’s sibling rivalry with other states that makes them not care; maybe they like to see other states throw tantrums about Montana license plates in their state. Maybe it’s that even small fees associated with titling and registering a vehicle in their state add up enough for them to reap the benefits. But whatever their incentive is, Montana is fine with you using an LLC to get your vehicles up and running with Montana tags. Oh, and it’s certainly not limited to traditional passenger vehicles. We provide services for:

• UTVs & Roxors

• Surplus army trucks and other assorted military vehicles (you might even be able to take a surplus tank to Costco)

• Dirt bikes

• ATVs

Why Would You Add More Than One Vehicle to Your Montana LLC?

This seems obvious unless you like paying taxes. If that’s the case, be our guest. 

How everyone think #buslife be.

The benefit of adding additional vehicles to your LLC is that you can cease paying pesky sales tax (and use tax when applicable) to your state. You can do this without having to start a separate LLC. See, there is no limit to the number of assets you have in your LLC. 

The type of LLC you’ll use in Montana is an asset-holding company, or just a holding company for short. As the name implies, this LLC type is made to hold assets that would otherwise be taxed.

Each vehicle you buy can be put in a Montana LLC (unless financed; LightStream can help you with that, though). So, as you add to your collection or fleet, you can save big on sales tax by registering each vehicle with a Montana LLC registration. (As a LightStream affiliate, we may be compensated if you use their services through this link. LightStream did not commission, sponsor, or fund this post.)

Example: you have just bought a nice, shiny pickup. You decide that your state sucks because of sales taxes and annual inspections, so you use our Montana LLC registration service. But over time, you decide that a travel trailer or fifth-wheel trailer would do nicely as well. 

You can add that RV, no problem. And then, when you add on a UTV, you can add that and get it tagged for street-legal use! Save on sales tax: ✅. Drive your UTV to the Piggly Wiggly legally: ✅.

Is It Hard to Do?

It could be hard to do if you try to do it yourself. Of course, the whole process is a pain if you do it yourself.

That’s why we have an LLC add-on service for just such events. It is by far the lowest-impact way to add a vehicle to your holding company. And if you live in a state like Virginia, this is a great way for you to get away from some of the annual use taxes assessed.

Is It Expensive to Add Another Vehicle?

With the average value hovering around $30,000 for a used car in the United States, “expensive” is a relative term. An annual tax at 4.05% plus locality? Now that is going to get expensive. Obviously, this varies a lot by state, but the average is somewhere in this ballpark. 

At 4.05% per year, you are looking at a little over $1,200 per year in ad valorem tax. Compare that to the price shown on our LLC add-on service and see the benefits for yourself. 

How Many Vehicles Can I Add to My Montana LLC?

You can add as many vehicles as you want to your LLC. We don’t care, and neither does Montana. The LLC is a business instrument; large corporations routinely use them for heavy construction equipment, UTVs, fleet trucks, and even company jets. In short, you can put all kinds of stuff in them. There is plenty of room in there for your truck, RV, and a couple of quads (which will be street-legal, of course). 

But I Can Only Add Cars or Trucks, Right?

Not by a mile, Slim. 

Got a surplus army truck? We’ve got you covered. 

RVs? Of course. Be aware, though, that if it’s valued at over $300,000, there is a one-time fee of $800. This is paltry compared to a sales tax rate of 10%, but it is still something to think about. 

To register any out-of-state vehicle in Montana, you need first to have it in an LLC, so you can easily tag and register dirt bikes, ATVs, UTVs, boats, snowmobiles, RVs, and of course, passenger cars and light trucks. Setting up your LLC and handling all the legwork is something we do every day.

The Dirt Legal Advantage

Here at Dirt Legal, we pride ourselves on our services. The Montana LLC registration program is one of the best services in our arsenal because it is so versatile. It puts you in a position to avoid sales taxes altogether and make smog checks and state inspections a thing of the past. 

We provide you with all of the paperwork necessary to add your additional vehicle to an LLC, you fill it out, and we handle the rest. It’s that easy.

Also, remember that we have boat and vessel titling in case you have come across a boat and are struggling to get it legally titled. Sometimes things happen, and it’s hard to get the paperwork squared away. We are more than happy to help.