If you live in Colorado and have gone through the process of registering an antique Rover without a title please read on!
So a couple of years ago I purchased a 1960 Series II in need of restoration from a friend in VT for $3500. This friend happens to restore Rovers. I attempted to register it in Colorado with the bill of sale so that my friend could have plates to drive it after restoring it before shipping it to me. This didn't fly as CO DMV demands a VIN inspection by a CO state trooper in person; they will not accept this from an out of state VT cop. I had my friend go ahead and restore the vehicle and have paid him a high sum of money to do so. Now I have a totally restored Rover ready to ship to CO. When I inquired about the registration process it was explained to me that there is a 6-10 step process including vin inspection, record search (VT doesn't issue titles for vehicles over 20 years old so there is no title- only former owner's reg and bill of sale for $3500), retail value confirmation and something called a Bond that I have to apply/pay for to take place of a title. What I'm concerned about is I paid $3500 for the car. I then paid a VT shop to restore the vehicle- and I paid VT sales tax on the parts and labor to do the work because the car resided in VT. Now I find out that I have to get a retail value assessment so I can pay CO sales tax as part of the process. I was told I could either use Kelly Blue Book (no good- only goes back to 1988) or take the car (now in concourse condition w/$70k in labor/parts) to a dealer and have them appraise it. So it looks like I'm going to be paying a hefty sales tax because they are going to say, "hey...this Rover is beautiful...it's worth 40 grand!" when in reality I paid $3500 and have already paid sales tax on the labor and parts to get it to where it is today. I've thought about taking my receipts to the DMV and arguing my case- but my experience with them so far is they don't have the ability or decision-making skills to work with an unorthodox situation like mine. What they are saying I should have done is shipped the non-running vehicle to CO for a vehicle inspection by Colorado State Patrol, gone through the registration and bonding process, then shipped it back to VT for the restoration, then shipped it back to CO again to avoid the double taxing. I guess even if I have to pay taxes twice it will still be cheaper than paying fro shipping back and forth like that- but it just strikes me as odd that Colorado would have such a crazy policy like this- it's almost like I'm the first guy who's bought an antique vehicle from out of state.
My question is- does anyone out there from Colorado have any advice to keep me from getting taxed into kingdom come when I already have by the state of VT? Has anyone dealt with the registration process for a non-titled Rover from out of state? What's a Bond anyway? Thanks, in advance, for your help!
So a couple of years ago I purchased a 1960 Series II in need of restoration from a friend in VT for $3500. This friend happens to restore Rovers. I attempted to register it in Colorado with the bill of sale so that my friend could have plates to drive it after restoring it before shipping it to me. This didn't fly as CO DMV demands a VIN inspection by a CO state trooper in person; they will not accept this from an out of state VT cop. I had my friend go ahead and restore the vehicle and have paid him a high sum of money to do so. Now I have a totally restored Rover ready to ship to CO. When I inquired about the registration process it was explained to me that there is a 6-10 step process including vin inspection, record search (VT doesn't issue titles for vehicles over 20 years old so there is no title- only former owner's reg and bill of sale for $3500), retail value confirmation and something called a Bond that I have to apply/pay for to take place of a title. What I'm concerned about is I paid $3500 for the car. I then paid a VT shop to restore the vehicle- and I paid VT sales tax on the parts and labor to do the work because the car resided in VT. Now I find out that I have to get a retail value assessment so I can pay CO sales tax as part of the process. I was told I could either use Kelly Blue Book (no good- only goes back to 1988) or take the car (now in concourse condition w/$70k in labor/parts) to a dealer and have them appraise it. So it looks like I'm going to be paying a hefty sales tax because they are going to say, "hey...this Rover is beautiful...it's worth 40 grand!" when in reality I paid $3500 and have already paid sales tax on the labor and parts to get it to where it is today. I've thought about taking my receipts to the DMV and arguing my case- but my experience with them so far is they don't have the ability or decision-making skills to work with an unorthodox situation like mine. What they are saying I should have done is shipped the non-running vehicle to CO for a vehicle inspection by Colorado State Patrol, gone through the registration and bonding process, then shipped it back to VT for the restoration, then shipped it back to CO again to avoid the double taxing. I guess even if I have to pay taxes twice it will still be cheaper than paying fro shipping back and forth like that- but it just strikes me as odd that Colorado would have such a crazy policy like this- it's almost like I'm the first guy who's bought an antique vehicle from out of state.
My question is- does anyone out there from Colorado have any advice to keep me from getting taxed into kingdom come when I already have by the state of VT? Has anyone dealt with the registration process for a non-titled Rover from out of state? What's a Bond anyway? Thanks, in advance, for your help!
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