Can A Non Resident Register A Car In Maine

The number of passenger vehicles registered in Maine simply endemic by out-of-country residents has more doubled in five years.

The sharp increase – from 7,483 in 2014 to 16,589 this year – has contributed an extra $250,000 to the state of Maine.

The reason this is happening is elementary: Maine's vehicle registration fee of $35 is among the cheapest in the country. And it's among the few states that let nonresidents to obtain plates, no questions asked.

Merely the situation has acquired headaches for some other states, which are losing revenue to Maine. Some out-of-staters are violating their own state laws by registering their vehicles in Maine, which has no residency requirements for registrations.

Maine Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap said he periodically hears from officials in other states near this but said it's not Maine's trouble.

"It's not up to the state to choose people from out of state and continue them from giving us their money," he said.

Paul Grimaldi, spokesman for the Rhode Island Department of Acquirement, which oversees the Division of Motor Vehicles, sees information technology a little differently. He said Maine is all just encouraging out-of-state residents to break the laws of their home states, something that he's seeing more than frequently in Rhode Isle.

"I practice recall the state could do more than to prevent this," Grimaldi said.

Maine'south registration law, created two decades ago, was lax by design, intended to adjust both seasonal residents and businesses. It has turned into a lucrative source of revenue for Maine, particularly for commercial trailer registrations. Trucks that travel beyond interstate lines tin register anywhere, and many cull Maine. Revenue from long-term trailer registrations has well-nigh doubled in the past decade, from $seven.5 one thousand thousand in 2009 to $13.2 million terminal yr.

But the same law that permits trucking companies to register vehicles here also allows others to annals their vehicle with Maine plates, whether they really take a legitimate tie to Maine or not.

States have various ways of setting registration fees. Some have flat fees. Others calculate the fee based on a vehicle'due south value, historic period or weight. No matter how you lot calculate it, information technology'southward hard to trounce Maine'due south $35 flat fee.

In Connecticut, which has the fourth-highest number of Maine license plates, ane,457, the registration fee is $80. Ernie Bertothy, spokesman for Connecticut'southward Department of Motor Vehicles, said he believes the low fee is a reason Connecticut residents register cars in Maine, simply he besides said the DMV in that location will not issue registrations to anyone who owes belongings taxes. Rather than pay dorsum taxes, some merely annals in Maine.

In some states, emissions are tested every bit part of an annual inspection, so car owners may effort to avoid the inspections by getting plates from Maine, which doesn't test. The same may go for personal trailers, which aren't inspected here and don't need titles.

The registration fee in Rhode Island ranges from $30 to $48, depending on vehicle weight, and then the savings announced to be negligible. That suggests Ocean State residents are registering cars here for dissimilar reasons. Merely Grimaldi, the acquirement department spokesman, said public condom officials are increasingly dealing with a high number of cars, 446, driven by locals with Maine plates. That's a violation of Rhode Island law, which requires residents to register their vehicles locally, within 30 days of moving there.

Well-nigh every state has the same requirement, although the length of time to comply varies. The problem surfaces mostly when public prophylactic officials want to ship a parking ticket or price violation and the plate isn't registered to a local address.

The state with the highest number of nonresident vehicles registered in Maine is an unexpected one: Oklahoma. According to state data for all active registrations, there are 4,658 Maine plates in Oklahoma, more than twice the next-closest state, Massachusetts.

The high total is driven nearly entirely by i visitor, EAN Holdings, which operates the Enterprise, Alamo and National machine rental brands and puts Maine license plates on its rental fleets. A company spokeswoman said the number of Maine plates issued to Oklahoma vehicles more or less matches the number of rental vehicles that originate in Maine.

Laura Bryant also said the company tries to annals vehicles in the state where they are probable to exist driven most just in the example of Maine, there are savings. Standard vehicle registration in Oklahoma is $85 for a car that is four years sometime or newer. In Maine, information technology's $35. For a fleet of 500 cars, it costs $25,000 less to register in Maine. Added to which, a company tin practise business organisation with Maine'south motor vehicle section in bulk, all without having to exit the office.

"We're a cheap date," said Dunlap, the Maine secretarial assistant of land.

The out-of-state registrations are done by third-political party agents, or companies that specialize in the service. Most of them market to trucking companies and other businesses that bargain in interstate commerce, but they also offer rider vehicle registration.

13 of these agents practice business in Maine. Calls to several of the agents were not returned over a period of three weeks.

One of the biggest agencies, according to the state, is the Staab Bureau, located in a sparsely populated area of midcoast Maine near Damariscotta Lake State Park. Multiple attempts to speak with its owner, Shirley St. Pierre, including an in-person visit, were unsuccessful. (St. Pierre was convicted a decade ago of revenue enhancement evasion and obstructing the Internal Revenue Service for not paying taxes on income from the company and then for falsifying documents to conceal her failure to pay taxes.)

One agent, the Maine Motor Ship Association, which besides lobbies for the trucking industry, just does trailer registrations.

"It's a great business for u.s.a. and for the land, and our customers certainly similar the ease of doing business here," said Brian Parke, MMTA'southward president and CEO.

The idea that a state might create a police to encourage niche business is not unusual. Delaware has become the corporation capital of the world because of the ease and depression price of setting upward a corporation there. Rhode Island is well known for enticing boat owners to register their vessels there.

In Maine, the trucking manufacture has taken advantage of trailer registrations. Motorists traveling upwards and downwardly the Due east Coast, or even beyond, may discover a disproportionate number of long-haul trailers with Maine license plates.

Maine Secretary of Country Matt Dunlap acknowledges that many out-of-staters are registering their vehicles hither to save money, but that, he says, isn't Maine'due south problem. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal file photo

Each third-party registration agent warns that although Maine police force allows out-of-land registration, consumers need to follow the laws of their ain state. But the agents don't constabulary that, nor does the Maine Secretary of State's Office.

Dunlap said he understands the frustration of other states, just Maine simply can't monitor whether people from elsewhere are properly registering their vehicles.

Similarly, officials in other states say they can't rail down every improperly registered vehicle. Watching license plates is not a priority for police. And if a driver's insurance policy or license address doesn't match the plates, owners aren't ticketed.

In 2013, the News Periodical of Wilmington in Delaware reported that drivers who owed the nigh in unpaid tolls and penalties were from Maine. But only the license plates were from Maine – the drivers overwhelmingly lived in Delaware.

Some would argue that Maine is looking the other way while people use the state to violate their own state's laws.

Dunlap doesn't view it that way. He said Maine loses out in other ways. For years, the state has dealt with Maine residents who live near the New Hampshire border registering their vehicles in New Hampshire to avert excise taxes. Excise taxes are split from registration fees and are paid to the municipality where the vehicle is garaged. New Hampshire's excise tax rate is every bit much as 33 percent lower than Maine'southward, so residents merits a New Hampshire address, sometimes even going and so far as to become a postal service office box.