Reading Sallie Nielson’s May 1 letter, “License plate flap misguided,” I would hope that, even though her husband works for an Oregon company but lives in Washington, he has obtained a Washington state drivers license. Unfortunately, there are many other tax evaders living in Washington, driving Oregon-licensed vehicles and carrying an Oregon driver’s license. Not only are they cheating the state and DMV by not paying purchase taxes, they’re using their license to avoid paying taxes on store purchases, too. They have a triple threat going.
After checking with Oregon DMV to determine if, in fact, there is a “sticker” that shows a company has paid some sort of fee that makes it legal to drive in Oregon, live in Washington and not pay any taxes is valid, I came up with “not even close.” You can, however, drive an identifiable company vehicle with Oregon plates, but if you are a resident of Washington you must have a Washington driver’s license. Most of the company vehicles I see with Oregon plates in Washington have either a magnetic sign or a company name emblazoned on the side. So if an individual is driving a vehicle this is not identifiable as a “company car,” get used to being stopped/reported.
John Thime
Vancouver
