South Dakota Mail Forwarding
We receive many questions about what folks should do for mail forwarding, personal residency, business residency, and where to register vehicles, motor-homes, and RVs. There are many needs for a full time traveler, and they are distinct and different. The need for just plain mail is one. The need for registering vehicles is another. The need for maintaining residency and a drivers license is yet another. If you are truly going to realize the best tax savings and logistical solution for your full time traveling needs, one service will not provide a solution for everything.
Because we wanted to meet these various needs, we decided to look into these services. The honest truth is that we drove the State of South Dakota and considered opening a satellite office in South Dakota to provide mail forwarding service. We looked at purchasing an established mail forwarding service based in South Dakota. At the very least, we wanted to get to know someone to refer our clients to.
Unfortunately, we were about a year late. We toured, visited, and got to the managers of each of the South Dakota mail forwarding operations and this page is a result of what we discovered. We are providing this page as a reference to our clients that might want personal residency in a state with no income tax. The most advantageous tax situation for a full time traveler is to have a Montana LLC own your vehicles because there’s no sales tax in Montana, and have personal residency with a mail forwarding service in a personal income tax free state such as South Dakota, Texas, Florida, Alaska, Washington State, or Wyoming.
South Dakota Mail Forwarding Options:
Dakota Post:
This is by far the nicest office building and location of any of the South Dakota mail forwarding services.
Pros:
- The most organized
- Dedicated staff focused totally on mail forwarding
- Very little diversification. Very dedicated to quality mail forwarding
- Manager is very impressive
- Ownership seems very well funded. I don’t think they’ll have to nickel and dime a client to be profitable
- They own the location
- In Sioux Falls, South Dakota’s biggest city. You could fly into here easier than anywhere else in SD, and you’re very close to Omaha, NE for cheaper flights.
Who might like Dakota Post the best: You care about technology. My guess is Dakota Post will lead the South Dakota mail forwarding industry in technology and never look back. You like simplified pricing even if it might be a little bit more than others.
Americas Mailbox:
Pros:
- Insurance agent on-site. This is an advantage because you have access to an insurance agent and mail forwarder both.
- RV park in the back. You could bring your RV in and stay onsite.
- Hotel rooms onsite.
- They allow you to ship massive RV parts and have a garage area where they could store massive parts. You could come into town, rent an RV spot for a few nights, and they’ll get a mobile RV repair person to come fix your RV onsite.
- The owner is a full time RVer. It’s basically like this business was created to make a living while solving all the problems a full time RVer has. If you can think of a problem, the owner has probably already figured out a way to solve it and offer it as a service.
- Close to Mt Rushmore and all the very cool touristy things in Rapid City.
Who might like Americas Mailbox the best: You are a full time RVer with a lot of needs. You frequently drive through the Midwest. You want your original mail forwarded, not scanned. You like getting shipments.
Dakota International Services:
Pros:
- Small office and low overhead. Can’t see a reason they’d need to raise their rates soon.
- Not very many employees and you get to deal with the owner directly.
- The owner will be sorting your mail. If you’re into privacy, this may be of a benefit.
Who might like MyDakotaAddress.com: You want very few people touching your mail. You don’t want your mail opened.
Your Best Address:
Pros:
- Very knowledgeable owner and you deal directly with the owners all the time
- Small business and very personalized service. You get to have a very close relationship with not only the owner but the person handling your mail.
- Incredibly cheap price to do DMV registrations for you.
- You can tell the owners care very deeply about their clients and doing them right.
Who might like Your Best Address: You like dealing directly with an owner and you value their expertise. You value long term consistency of very reasonable pricing.
Why you should establish personal residency in South Dakota:
If you’ve been to South Dakota, you notice something different. The roads are of higher quality. The people seem well off. There’s not a lot of poverty. There’s not a lot of people. The towns and couple cities seem pretty clean and legit. The state is just doing well. It has a long history of conservative settlers that just have done things right for multiple generations. South Dakota does not have personal income tax, and we think it’s safe to say it’s not going to have it anytime soon. There’s not a lot of point in establishing personal residency in a state that has income tax.
To claim residency in South Dakota, you only have to stay one night every 5 years in South Dakota. You have to show up and go to the local licensing office, preferably in the county where you hired the mail forwarding service. You’ll have to bring all the normal things like current drivers license, Social Security card, passport, etc.
After you have a South Dakota drivers license, it’s pretty easy. You just don’t have a personal state income tax to file with South Dakota.
Why you’d be nuts to register your RV or vehicle in South Dakota:
- South Dakota has 4%+ sales tax. Why would you pay sales tax when you could pay zero in Montana?
- Registering a vehicle in South Dakota is a real pain. LOTS of documents, signatures. Easily 15 times the paperwork that it takes to register your vehicle in Montana.
- You probably are going to go back to your home state. You’re going to be driving an RV in your own personal name and you’re going to say you house it at a mail forwarding service address in South Dakota? The beauty of using a Montana LLC to register your RV is that if you do go through your home state, the RV isn’t in your personal name. It’s in the Montana LLC name. Someone can very easily say you don’t live in a mail forwarding suite number in South Dakota. Who’s to say that the Montana LLC, a business entity, doesn’t live in Montana. Yes, you personally might live somewhere, but your LLC is a Montana LLC.
- Your information is totally public in South Dakota. You can register your vehicles and RVs in Montana without ever disclosing your personal name or information.
- You can renew your plates and registration online in Montana.
- If you register your vehicles in your personal name at a South Dakota mail forwarding address, you’re lying to your home state. It’s that simple. That seems like a bad idea to us.
We like the idea of you personally getting your mail in South Dakota. A lot of people don’t even bother with getting a South Dakota drivers license, they just have their mail sent there. When you have an option for $800 total, where you never have to expose your personal details, never have to sign anything, and could get your plates and registration back in your hands in 3 days, why not? Using a Montana LLC for vehicle registrations or using a Montana LLC for an RV registration is the only way to go.
South Dakota vs Florida vs Texas vs Wyoming:
We think they’re all great options for personal residency in a state that has no income tax. South Dakota, Florida, and Texas have all had extensive legislation introduced to deal with retirees and travelers using mail forwarding services. They all also have some pretty extensive disclosures and hoops to jump through. If the regulars aren’t really your style, Wyoming is a great place similar to South Dakota and Montana. Not a lot of people to support and very little appetite for government looking over your shoulder. Here’s an option for RV mail forwarding in Wyoming.