I think I have a general idea, but curious about any hacker thoughts regarding leasing a car with a newly created LLC. I assume I’d have to use my personal credit file for approval, but after that would there be anything preventing the lease from being in the name of the LLC? I see many advantages such as plate readers popping up LLC names versus personal, etc. Any other thoughts on pros/cons in doing this? Would dealers allow it? Thanks
It will show as LLC everywhere, if your dealer properly registers with DMV and the bank. Also - it needs to be insured separately from your personal insurance.
Interesting. Seems like a smart move to do by anyone with an increased likelihood of being stopped by police. ie. prior ovi, prior suspended license, etc, etc, etc. Heck, could be a smart move just for privacy alone. I can’t imagine the insurance cost would be vastly different than personal?
You are still listed as a driver on the insurance card. Insurance still treats it as your household car for multi-car discount purposes.
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Thanks! Any brokers on here you recommend that could convey this well to their respective dealers when getting paperwork put together? In the market for a BMW or Volvo… possibly 2. Or would this be something that wouldn’t catch a dealer off guard at all?
Been discussed at least twice: 
Yes: you have to be a personal guarantor, and likely the MF/insurance will be higher than as you personally. If you don’t want to be a guarantor, you need at least 2 years audited financials for the captives that allow that.
Depends if you have a one-member LLC (which the IRS treats as a Sole Proprietorship anyway), or nested shell companies. Yes the LLC will pop up, but the LLC ownership is public record from the Secretary of State’s office wherever you’ve registered. It doesn’t make you anonymous, it adds one layer of obfuscation.
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Couldn’t you put an anonymous trust in the middle (as a member/owner of the LLC) to handle that, though? (Not that I’m advocating being shady)
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IDK which state you’re in but: If their prior plate was flagged and their behavior is unchanged, the new plate is going to get flagged pretty quickly too.
It’s not like an alcoholic becomes sober by changing their plates.
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The captive is going to want to trace the ownership/custody for a lease, even with a guarantor. If the trust was anonymous, were I the captive, I wouldn’t approve this even with a guarantor.
If an anonymous trust/layered LLCs want to purchase this hypothetical mystery vehicle, different story
There are better ways to remain anonymous if you’re spending this kind of money and effort.
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So establish 2 LLC’s where one owns the second. Then have the second apply for the car with myself as the guarantor? You mention better ways to remain anonymous… what would you recommend instead?
Not at all. It will stop police harassment though. Bad eggs in every field. I’m not suggesting police are all evil or anything. I have a friend who has been stopped in his luxury vehicle roughly 6 times within the last 3 months. Every time, they let him go without a ticket. He wants something new, and just figures plate scanners are nailing him for past sins committed several years ago.
That is just one more level of indirection, and looks shady/shadier to the captive. The cost and overhead to make the lookup 1 minute longer isn’t really an advantage IMO.
It wouldn’t involve leasing, or shell companies. An NDA and a genuine third party owner (whether it was a car service or a company that does long term rentals) would be a better angle.
The challenging part about accomplishing this with a lease is that the captive, as the owner of the asset (which is typically worth more than 50% when it’s retuned), insists on transparency into the custodian, who isn’t guaranteed any privacy or rights beyond usage outlined in your lease contract (the standard one everyone gets).
If you want more privacy, you need more than a standard lease contract and state-created legal entities which are registered with the Secretary of State, who has a statutory obligation to provide transparency.
Off shore entities that will provide that privacy won’t get past the OFAC/Patriot Act checks required as part of the leasing process.
Having a registration that doesn’t match the drivers license is going to make the traffic stop longer. Having to call-in and ask someone at the station to step through 10 LLCs to find that the parent is owned by the person who is driving the car doesn’t make it look more legit.
Not knowing anything about your friend, I would wonder about their driving record, how much the car does/doesn’t stand out irrespective of luxury. A red/green 911stands out more than a white/black Panamera, for instance.
Plate scanners (as a source of a primary infraction) still have to produce probable cause: unpaid tickets, expired registration, owner has an open warrant. If your friend isn’t any of those, then a plate scanner is unlikely why they were stopped.
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Nope. 10101010
Then your friend is in some shady areas in a nice car and that comes with the territory.
I have only gotten stopped once for no reason, it was coming out of a rough neighborhood where a disabled tenant of ours lived, it was in a brand new c7 z06 5 years ago, the cop took one look at the address the car was registered to and said sorry to stop you.
Registering the car to an llc does nothing to obscure who you are, it’s really more for if you get audited, then you can show the business used and pays for the vehicle’s payments + expenses.
Like others have said a brand new business is definitely going to need a guarantor.
I’ll just be blunt. He’s an African-American, who now does quite well for himself. He still lives around where he grew up and stays close to his roots/community. I’ve been friends with him since we were in grade school a long time ago. He drives a black M760. It’s very obvious what’s happening, and he just wants a little peace and quiet. I’m trying to find some creative solutions for him. For background, he was convicted of an OVI a few years back, but nothing else on his record.
I mean I’ll be honest I got lucky and pulled over in the middle of the day, at night they probably would have asked me to step out too. So I totally get it.
It’s sad but they use small stuff like this for bigger busts, your friend sounds like a good case for debadging the car, remove all badges so nobody knows what the car is, even then that will lighten the load but probably not going to fix it.
Also it will probably cost you more to insure… by how much? That has too many factors for me to guess.
Best advice? Maybe register it to some sort of Transportation llc and not take any tax benefit, cops will think he is some kind of uber black driver and probably not bother him.
Though driving around in that area most beat cops probably know who he is anyway so they will stop him regardless of the plate registration being John Doe or uber black llc.
Every time I’ve looked at doing this, one or both was higher if the business leased than if I did personally.
It’s worth asking the dealership how they treat corporate leases: I’ve seen it treated just like a personal lease where the tier is based on guarantor, I’ve seen it where the captive has different tiers/rates for companies, and I’ve seen it where the entity that does commercial leases is different than personal (eg FMC CAB East vs FCC, both owned by Ford).