A few weeks ago I became a resident of South Dakota, officially diminishing my legal ties with the not-so-great state of Illannoy...ahem...Illinois. I arrived exhausted in North Sioux City, South Dakota late at night. North Sioux City is about 2.5 miles over the border from Sioux City, Iowa but all that mattered is that I was IN South Dakota for the night. I decided during the end of 2010 to become a South Dakota resident in order to prepare me for the full-time RV lifestyle. I did my research and decided that for the following reasons becoming a resident of South Dakota would be a respectable option for me(or any full-time nomad for that matter!).
NO state income tax!
48th cheapest state for auto insurance and health insurance!(My car insurance went down $17 per month, over $200 a year!)
$5 title transfer fee
4% sales tax(though I paid NO TAX on my Ford Escort!)
3% excise tax on new vehicles(not that it matters much to me, but still low rate!)
Jury duty ONLY if you are in the state at the time of summons(which I won't be!)
Drivers license renewal every 5 years!
Gun owners registration is $10 and is good for conceal and carry in 23 states!(if I wanted this, which at this time I don't but its still cool that it's that easy to obtain!)
NO pollution emissions, smog testing or vehicle safety inspection, EVER!
Only required to physically be in the state to get your license and to renew it every 5 years!
You may wonder where I acquired an address in order to become a resident. After careful inspection and decision I decided to go with MyDakotaAddress ( www.mydakotaaddress.com ) Mailing Service/Agent. They are a fully legal authorized mailing agent. I give them $10 a month to forward my mail to any place in the world I want, in return they send me my mail and provide me with a full blown legal street address in order to gain a drivers license and legal residency. The only things I needed to provide were to surrender my Illinois drivers license(keep that fucking thing!), a passport(if I had one, which I do), social security card and I had to spend one night in a hotel or campground ANYWHERE in the state of South Dakota. So I decided to stay at the Red Carpet Inn in North Sioux City, SD as aforementioned. The other cool thing is I never had to go to my new hometown of Madison nor did I have to go to that county DMV. I can go ANYWHERE in the state of South Dakota to get my drivers license, I originally was shooting for Sioux Falls but after discovering Vermillion was 150 miles closer(round trip), I decided to get it there instead! Only a total of 30 miles into the southeast corner of the state and about $100 later I was a full blown South Dakota resident! (I had my mailing service mail me the license plates while I was still in Illinois, I forgot to mention that they also handle ALL vehicle registration for me, so when I buy a camper van or RV I won't have to go back, just mail them the paperwork!).
Now that I am a South Dakota resident what does the great(and certainly far greater than Illinois)state of South Dakota expect of me? Aside from coming to the state every 5 years to renew my drivers license? NOTHING!
That's right folks...NADA!
If you are looking for a cheap mailing service in a tax friendly state, if you are about to go full time on the road in your car, RV, van, truck, trailer, on foot or whatever South Dakota is the choice I would recommend! After all, you too could become the next one of only about 810,000 residents that reside in the state. Not to mention being able to say my home state has the Badlands and Black Hills in it is totally an awesome bragging right! Sure beats what I used to be able to say while tied down in corrupt-over taxed Illinois...weve got corn...uhm...more corn...horrible winters..miserable spiritually dead people..high taxes..incredibly corrupt politics...negative energy and oh...Chicago. And what's the worst thing about South Dakota? Probably Wall Drug, but hey I have to find at least one thing to complain about! ;)
Written: Big Bear Lake, California 2011
We recently changed from IL to SD after two years on the road. We figured we would go broke and be back in IL in a couple of years so we held off. We use the same service as you, and could not be happier.
ReplyDeleteOur insurance decreased by half, which more then covered changing everything over. Wish we would have done it sooner. This is the last year we have to pay IL tax, and we owe them $500. Next year that $500 is ours!