Help us fix a problem with the MA department of Environmental Police!

[taxonomy]

It's very difficult for people that live in state and have street registered motorcycles to get an Off Highway Vehicle Permit because the state only accepts the form form ST-6 from the department of revue to prove taxes were paid, but we pay tax to the registry. It winds up as a crazy Catch 22. I know many people that have simply given up on the process.
I have been in touch with the chief of staff to the MA state senate president's office Steven Mahar about this issue. They want to help Please send an email to Steve Mahar at Stephen.Maher@masenate.gov.

Ideally they would put "OHV Registration" in the title and include wording to the effect:

Dear Senator Rosenberg,

I have street registered off road capable motorcycle and wish to register it with the MA Department Environmental Police (DEP) through their Off Highway Vehicle (OHV) program. Unfortunately, the DEP does not accept the registration as proof of tax paid, and will only accept a form ST-6 from the Department of Revenue. This makes it difficult for us to comply with the law. Attaining a form ST-6 is difficult because the paperwork to acquire that form requests information not commonly retained by owners once their motorcycles are registered. The form ST-6 and the Registration are both issued by the state of MA. We wish to comply with the law. The simplest course of action would be for the DEP to accept a registration as proof of tax paid.

Riders can add their own personal story as well.

[maxim_X]

Did something change? I've registered multiple street registered bikes as ORV with my registration as proof. You can do it all in the same office in Fall River.

[black]

If you can tell us the office locations( multiple? not sure of the process) to avoid also better.. But i'll send an email as well.

I'm going to MA register it this week hopefully

[gregp]

I just finished registering 3 machines at the Springfield EP branch a few weeks ago. I had forgotten that the EP registration office had moved, so I went to the Liberty Street location first. This turned out to be a huge mistake because I just happened to pick a day when the whole city was having a parade for the fallen police officer who had died on her first day of duty. I eventually figured things out, and drove to the STCC location after fighting parade traffic for 45 minutes.
I had a street registered KTM which was purchased new, at a dealership, an ATV that was purchased new, from a dealership, and an ATV that was purchased used from a private party.
I was lucky that I had kept all documentation from the dealership purchases. Not only did the EP require the ST-6's, but they also required the "Bill Of Sale" from each purchase. I was uncertain that a dealership BoS even existed - but it did. I had the ST-6 and the dealership BoS for both my KTM and my dealership purchased ATV. I had no problem registering those 2 machines. (The ST-6 showed that sales tax was paid at the time of purchase for each vehicle.)
The last vehicle was a used ATV, purchased through a private party. I was unable to get this machine registered on my first try because I still had to pay sales tax on it. It is a bit ridiculous for them to turn me back to the Liberty Street location to pay sales tax, but that is what they did. There was no way that I was going to fight that parade traffic again, so I decided to just go home and pay the sales tax on line at the DoR website, and return to the Springfield EP office again the next day.
But wait! There's more! I navigated through the DoR's website and paid the sale tax, just fine. At the end of the process, there was a small tab that said "Click Here to print your ST-6". I clicked it. Nothing happened. After a short while, a small message popped up that said "If your copy does not start printing, you may have a pop-up blocker enabled". Shit! Yup. I disabled the pop-up blocker, but,....Too late! The screen read "Thank You - You have completed the process"
F*@K! Are you kidding me??!! You would think that they would warn you of this *before* clicking that button.... Grrrrr.
I remembered that they had asked for an e-mail address early in the process, so I checked my e-mail. There I found a link to the "Records of my transaction". The link basically walked me through the entire process, until I finally came across the last page with the "Print Copy" link. Whew!
The whole system is so convoluted and strewn with pitfalls that it is no wonder that people do not bother registering their machines. The state wants its money. They want your sales tax, and they want your registration dollars. It infuriates me that none of those dollars go into efforts to open up new riding area's.
BTW - If you do finally get your OHRV stickers, and go to apply them - beware! If you stick one, and then try to peel it back to re-position it, the whole thing will separate and show "VOID" all over the decal! Yup. I found out the hard way...

Edit - to be clear - Even though my KTM has a valid, current street registration, the EP's wanted the ST-6, and the dealership Bill of Sale to proceed with the off road registration.

[Garandman]

Sent, told them my solution to date was to give money to NH.....

[carsick]

Sent, told them my solution to date was to give money to NH.....

They're gonna find you and confiscate your illegal dirtbikes. I hear that's a thing in Boston.

[breakdirt916]

Huh? I thought MA hated all Dirtbikes and the registration process is how they secretly discourage you from registering so they can eventually steal your bike, sell it back to at a state auction and repeat the whole process?

Aren't they trying to ban Dirtbikes eventually altogether?

[number9]

I went and got an ORV sticker for my titled, registered & plated '05 KTM 300 EXC. This was the process:

1. Go to Massachusetts Environmental Police at 251 Causeway St., Boston
2. Fill out a Registration and Titling Form (available here). This requires a copy of the bill of sale for the bike
3. Go to Department of Revenue at 19 Saniford St., Boston
4. Fill out a Claim for Exemption of Sales or Use Tax (ST6-E, available here). This requires a copy of the bill of sale and proof sales tax had been paid -- in my case, a copy of my registration from the RMV
5. Go back to Massachusetts Environmental Police at 251 Causeway St., Boston
6. Hand them the completed Registration & Titling Form and also the Claim for Exemption
7. Write Commonwealth of Massachusetts a check for $44
8. ???
9. Profit

It wasn't that bad. If I had known you needed the ST6-E ahead of time I could have saved myself a walk.