I'm guessing this is done for cost savings? If so, maybe I need to check into doing it myself. I was born/raised in Texas, but my family moved to MS back in the late '80s when the TX economy crashed. I just purchased my truck in March and tags cost me over $1,000
NEW vehicle sales tax in texas <depending on the county>is roughly 6%
diesel engines are not emmissions inspected...safety inspection
for state residents is nominal 18 or 24 bucks (iirc).
harris county (texas) "tags" for my f350 are under 100 bucks...
93 dollars iirc PER YEAR.
there is NO PERSONAL PROPERTY TAXES IN TEXAS <on vehicles>...
so what you see is what you get cost wise.
ftp://ftp.dot.state.tx.us/pub/txdot-info/vtr/misc/vtr450forms.pdf
there are plenty of caviots that come w/ this territory...in many
localities the local law enforcement act more as the tax police and
will target out of state "residents" to determine where they "REALLY"
live...i only recommend this if its legit <disclaimer off>...
if you are military the justification is easy & lawful...its federally
permissible to, as an active military person, claim residence in
texas while actually deployed in another state.
that wont stop virginia state, county & local law enforcement personel
from harrassing you <because of their ignorance of the law>.
i obtained a virginia inspection sticker <lawfully> and displayed it on
my TEXAS TAG'd vehicle just to avoid some harrassment...i was NEVER
required <by texas> to show proof of inspection.
gasoline cars could present other issues...in some texas counties, you must
prove to be emmissions compliant/inspected no less than every two years...it is
permissible to obtain the inspection in another state & produce that documentation
to the state of texas as proof of inspection & compliance.
texas emmissions inspection does NOT apply to anything other than passenger based vehicles,
so if you own a motorcycle you can avoid this "inspection" too.