In reality, the IRS does not care. As long as the IRS has a mailing address that serves as a valid channel of communication with you, everyone is happy. I have used my PO box exclusively on all IRS forms for years without a single issue or problem having arisen.

If the property is held in an AZ LLC, then the member's name and address is on public record.

I think it is important to have an LLC between the rental property and me to stop any liability arising in the rental property from coming to me personally. To maintain the liability shield, you can't comingle LLC funds with personal funds.

What is your suggestion for holding rental properties and maintaining privacy. Thank you

... For holding rental properties, I suggest an LLC from your own home state, despite the loss of privacy. You need the help of an Arizona CPA and/or tax attorney on this one.

Colorado does NOT permit CMRA or P.O. boxes on driver's licenses unless you've got a domestic violence situation, in which case the STATE has a "ghost address" that it allows victims to use that does mail forwarding. (Sheesh!)

The state now mails ALL DL's except temporary permits, for "security reasons" (like street mailboxes are secure...), and it takes about 10 days to get your DL in the mail. I THINK they will mail to a PO box, but the DL has to have a street address.

Colorado DOES provide penalties for lying on your DL application, up to and including perjury. The Department of Revenue requires that you submit a change of address for your DL within 30 days of moving. These rules are rarely enforced, and usually you can say "I moved and forgot to change it" once before the DOR will send you a nastygram.

They DO NOT check to see if you're actually living where you say you are living, so you could, in theory, go to a motel, rent a room, go to the license bureau, give the street address of the motel and your ghost PO box as a mailing address, and then move out of the motel and not have told an actionable lie in the process, particularly if you do this BEFORE you rent someplace that you "intend" to make your home.

You are required to register your vehicle in the county where you "reside", but this is almost never checked (although there have been notorious cases where penalties were levied for evading the AIR program (pollution inspection) requirements in the Denver Metro area by using a "ghost address" (like a summer cabin) just outside the AIR program boundaries to register your vehicles. According to the law, if your vehicle remains in the AIR program area for more than 90 days in a year, you are required to get a pollution check and a sticker, even if your vehicle is not registered in the AIR program counties. This is sometimes enforced, particularly by Denver police, who are rather anal about such things. They WILL ticket you for an expired emissions sticker if they find your car parked in Denver, regardless of where you live, and it's about $100.

But, since they stopped issuing plate numbers by county, police officers can no longer tell right away where your vehicle is registered. This may, however, be coming to an end again, as some departments in the Metro area are buying the automated license plate scanners mentioned earlier.

If you get stopped, the officer may ask you to explain the difference between your DL address and your vehicle registration address. This is an EXCELLENT reason to have your vehicle owned by a NM LLC! You are NOT required to answer a cop's questions at all, but should have a prepared story "It's a company car" and documents available if you don't want to raise their "spidey senses."

There's a couple of different variations of this. First, obtain a ghost address somewhere on the other side of the state (Grand Junction for example) and register a "trade name" for your business in Grand Junction, at your ghost address. This is the address that goes on your vehicle registration AND insurance. To do this you have to get a FLEET INSURANCE POLICY on your vehicle, which does NOT require the names of the drivers, but merely lists the general age and qualifications required for drivers. It's a bit more expensive, but it's a way of keeping your name completely unattached to the vehicle.

The only downside is that you have to actually go to Grand Junction to register your vehicle, particularly if you're coming in from out of state, because you have to have a VIN inspection. However, you can have the county clerks's office MAIL the renewal form to you at any address you like, even out of state, so you don't have to go back to renew your plates.

Another layer is to open a Colorado LLC owned by the NM LLC, which gives you a legitimate "business presence" in Colorado, and makes you pretty much unassailable if the cops wonder why you're driving a car registered in Grand Junction. You just type up a letter authorizing you to use the vehicle as part of your compensation and carry it with your registration and insurance.

Or, you can register your car in Montana, by opening a Montana LLC, and tell Colorado to shove their exhorbitant registration taxes and fees. The state hates this, and wishes it were illegal, but Montana tells Colorado to shove it regularly when the tax people here try to nail RV owners who buy their half-million-dollar RV's in Montana and keep them registered there to a legal business entity. Montana has very low registration fees, and no sales tax.

Colorado maintains that they will pursue such people if they can show an intent to evade taxes, but if the Montana company is owned by a NM LLC, they'll have a hell of a time proving you actually "own" the vehicle at all, and Montana won't help them out. Their argument that Colorado residents are "required" to register their vehicles in Colorado within 30 days is true, but if the vehicle isn't "your" vehicle, and you have a legal entity in Montana, it's exactly like registering a corporation in Delaware. You're doing it not to "evade" taxes, but because you have a business in Montana and it offers favorable tax structures for your business. Just be sure to put a magnetic sign with a business name on it on your RV. Cars, there's pretty much nothing they can do about it.

You may garner attention by having Montana plates, however, since the cops know about this "scam", and may try to coerce you if they see your car in the neighborhood for a long time, so if being invisible is your goal, better to have legit Colorado plates and pay the taxes and fees.

Get your LLC's BEFORE you come to CO if you can, so you have the documents available immediately.

Do NOT connect even your single computer directly to the RJ-45 jack that connects you to the Internet. Purchase a router, and place it between the Internet and the LAN (Local Area Network) in your home -- even if your LAN has only a single computer. Also, DOT NOT use a router that has wireless ("Wi-Fi") capability.

For an explanation of how this works, see Steve Gibson's article at the link below. Steve is a guru on this stuff, and he writes well, making his descriptions much easier to follow that that of some of the other geeks.

You can find this article either by following the link below, or going to his home page [www . grc . com - but without the spaces around the dots] and clicking on links to "Research", then to "Recent", and then to "NAT router security".

There was a thread about this last November: see posts #5034, #5035, #5037, #5044. But read Steve Gibson's article first, as he explains it better than we do. (Steve's a super-geek, but he makes geek-speak more intelligible than most of us do!)

Submitted Link #1: http://www.grc.com/nat/nat.htm...

Lesson learned: never buy into a community association/home owners association (HOA)...EVER! They (the HOA and management company) are protected by many laws and can get away with ALLOT of things that would normally require a warrant or other reason in a normal situation, because every homeowner has signed paperwork agreeing to the rules as being a homeowner in the community. Worst move we ever made, but at least we got out! Never again.

i've 2 of your books (htbi,business) and have found them to be very practical.

... Might work, but the "normal" Canary Islands address service is for personal use only. For a business address (on a different island), contact Rosie Enriquez.

1. Bank statements, utilities, misc. mail should go to PO BOX.

2. Packages (UPS, FedEx) and anything else that requires a physical address (car title, etc.) should go to a ghost address.

Does that sound right?

I am having a heck of a time finding a ghost address that wouldn't be tied to a friend or relative. Any new ideas out there?

... Generally speaking,"yes" to your first two questions.

I have nothing to add to what I say in HTBI. Getting a ghost address requires some serious effort.

1. Can we have mail sent to each other's house as the ghost address? I send my mail to Friend A's house. Friend A sends his mail to friend B's house, etc.

2. Could we open up utilities in the name of an LLC and use the SSN (only if forced to provide SSN) of our friend (same strategy as above) instead of giving our own SSN?

3. Is it advisable to have at least 1 ghost address in a state other than the state in which we live? I notice that many folks have their mailing address listed in another state. Is that going the extra mile or should that strategy be employed by everyone?

... 1 and 2: Yes, might work.

... 3. Many readers have a close-by ghost address but use Alaska, Canada or Spain for once-a-year items like tax notices, licence tab renewals, annual statements from a Canadian bank, etc.

Now, I am ready to get going on becoming invisible, but don't know where to start. Do you have a recommended guideline to follow? I could go through your book chapter by chapter and write down a list, but I was hoping you already had a suggested step-by-step process to follow. Thanks!

... Each person has different needs and cicumstances, Steve. There is no "one size fits all." But a good starting place is to never get mail or packages or pizzas at your home address.