I'd love the first bike ever but it's so expensive!! Need to check incentives as well
I think we had this discussion at the launch party in May? If you had a friend or relative in Colorado, they could get huge incentives on it, but I'm not sure what the qualifications on it would be...?
Yep, we did have that conversation! I do have a relative in Colorado that might be able to help out...what are the differences in incentives? I couldn't find anything concrete for Colorado rebates on motorcycles.
The first problem you would run into is that the bike would have to be purchased and titled by your Colorado relative. Buying a vehicle in Colorado as a Colorado resident means having to pay Colorado sales taxes and fees at time of purchase. It also means they would have to purchase insurance in their name in order to get plates. If you have to get a loan to get the bike, then the loan would also need to be primarily in the name of the Colorado title holder. If insurance is dropped, the lender will buy insurance on your behalf, and bill you for it, or simply repo the bike for the violation of the terms of the loan. If you get in a wreck on the bike, your Colorado relative would also be on the hook if there were no insurance, or if insurance didn't fully cover costs.
While there is no specific requirement for keeping the vehicle for any specific number of years like in California, if it is clear that it is a straw transaction then the tax credit would probably be denied, and might expose your relative to legal liability. A quick change in title to a relative in another state would be a red flag. That could lead to them asking about where the money came from for the original purchase, which would expose the straw purchase. Straw transactions just for the purpose of manipulating taxes is always a violation of tax laws. The most conservative approach would be to keep the bike titled, licensed, and insured in the buyer's name until the tax credit is issued. That could be up to 18 months later depending on when you buy. Meanwhile you would probably be violating the law in your home state for not licensing your vehicle. When you changed title, you would still need to pay taxes and license all over again in your home state. If you have a loan, you will need to pay off the loan and refinance into a new loan when the title is transferred. A used motorcycle loan would have its own new fees and will likely have a higher interest rate. You might have problems with qualifying for the new loan if the lender doesn't think the bike has enough value as a used bike to be collateral for a used motorcycle loan. You would likely have to up-front the entire payoff of the loan while the new loan gets set up.
There is also a federal tax liability for the tax refund that your relative would receive. If they make a lot of money and pay a lot of state taxes, they might be fine. But a large rebate beyond what they owe may be considered taxable income by the IRS. We had that problem with tax refunds we got a number of years ago when we had TABOR tax refund checks sent to us.
There also might be an issue if you need warranty work. The Brammo warranty does not specifically state whether the warranty is transferable or not, but does use the term "original purchaser" when it comes to showing proof for qualifying for the warranty.
Finally, the last thing that the Colorado green car movement needs is a handful of out-of-state folks getting caught gaming the system and getting exposed by 9 News the way they did a big news story about the same program and green car leases. It is hard enough to get this stuff passed into law without handing our opponents a loaded gun to shoot us with.
If you would really like to get a state rebate, I suggest you lobby your own state to start their own rebate. If your politicians are against green issues, work to get them replaced with ones who will.
