Lawmakers seek crackdown on Utahns illegally registering vehicles out of state

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KEY TAKEAWAYS

Lawmakers propose SB52 to curb illegal out-of-state vehicle registrations by Utahns.
The bill uses Insure-Rite to identify vehicles insured but not registered in Utah.
Offenders face double sales tax penalties if they fail to comply within 60 days.

SALT LAKE CITY — The KSL Investigators have reported on Utahns getting their vehicles registered out-of-state to save big money on sales taxes. Now, a new law being considered on Capitol Hill could make it much harder for Utahns to illegally register their vehicles.

"Montana actually does not have sales tax on vehicles," Jayce Watkins told KSL two years ago.

He said he saved over $8,000 by registering two new vehicles in Montana instead of Utah.

Jayce Watkins explains to KSL’s Matt Gephardt how he registered two new vehicles in Montana to avoid sales taxes in Utah. (Photo: Ken Fall, KSL-TV)

Dodging that sales tax isn't unique to cars and trucks. Owners of boats and OHVs are also doing it, said Ty Hunter of Utah's Outdoor Recreation division last November.

"That is using our great facilities, our roadways, our infrastructure, and not basically paying their way for that," he said.

Tired of losing tens of millions of dollars that could go to maintaining our roads and waterways, Utah lawmakers are now considering SB52.

Here's how it would work:

There's a company called Insure-Rite that Utah uses to identify uninsured motorists. It does this by comparing DMV records to insurance company records. The law would take it a step further: When Insure-Rite finds a vehicle insured in Utah but not registered in Utah, the vehicle's owner would get a letter informing them they're breaking the law.

The Utah legislature is considering SB52 which would allow a company to compare insurance records with the DMV’s database of registered vehicles to find owners of vehicles registered out of state. (Photo: KSL-TV)

They will have 60 days to register their vehicle in Utah and pay that sales tax. And if they go past that 60-day deadline, Jason Gardner of the Utah State Tax Commission said it'll be worse.

"They will be subject to all the back sales tax, and 100% penalty of the sales tax amount that wasn't paid," he said. "So, basically double sales tax."

State law already says if a vehicle resides in Utah, it must be registered in Utah. This proposed law would allow the state to automatically scan records for illegally registered vehicles.

The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.