[freebeard]

Register it in South Dakota? www.thedrive.comSouth Dakota Has Made Millions From Out-of-State Car Registrations -- It’s like the Cayman Islands for car registrations.

One of the hottest states for those looking to sneak around regulations and extra expenses is South Dakota. For whatever reason, the Mount Rushmore State, like Montana and others, has become a bit of a safe haven for those looking to skirt their home states' regulations.
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Despite the initial investigation taking place in 2018, the practice is very much so alive and well today. One of the most popular places for out-of-state buyers to flock is, in fact, South Dakota. The DMV's mail-in process for vehicle registration has attracted thousands of automobile owners to register their wheels in the state. As of 2018, there were 58,334 out-of-state vehicles registered with the Department of Revenue's Motor Vehicle division which represent nearly five percent of all 1.2 million vehicles currently titled in South Dakota.
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That said, when the Rapid City Journal reached out to the department in 2018, it "estimated" an annual take of nearly $7 million. The Drive reached out to the South Dakota Department of Revenue to see how this number has fluctuated since 2018 but did not receive a response at the time of writing.

And while this represents financial success for South Dakota, one can't help but wonder how much money other states are losing. Some states like California are poised to lose hundreds of dollars per vehicle if its residents register the vehicle outside of their home state.

So is this an extravagant workaround that benefits the people, or an unethical loophole being used as a revenue generator? Either way, it's a method people have used to register tens of thousands of vehicles, and that's no small feat