A cheaper place to Register a Sailboat.

[smillinjack]

Hi All I am trying to find a cheaper place to register a boat. Here in Florida it is 7% sales tax on a boat and I have heard that You can do it in Delaware for less money. Any info would be helpful. Thanks.

[T37SOLARE]

You must pay the tax of the state the boat resides in.

Unless you don't plan on being in any state longer that 5 months, you could register in a lower taxed state, but with todays economy I'm seeing enforcement of tax collection stepped up big time. IE: the tax officials in MD (DNR) are photo documenting our marina every month, and have told me they will be sending violations/bills to all boats who are not displaying current stickers.

[remetau]

You can register it in Delaware, but if you keep your boat in Florida, then they will require that you register it there and pay the difference in the tax.

[sailingdog]

Registering in a different state to avoid sales tax is a really bad idea, and illegal besides.

[jcalvinmarks]

Originally Posted by sailingdog

Registering in a different state to avoid sales tax is a really bad idea, and illegal besides.

As a point of clarification (and correct me if I'm wrong), it would only be illegal if you register it in Delaware and keep it in Florida. If you register it in Delaware, keep it in Delaware, but live in Florida, that's fine. But it's massively impractical in this situation.

Tax avoidance (which is perfectly legal; contrast with tax evasion, which is illegal) is not free. There is a cost associated with lowering your tax bill, and very often it's cheaper to simply whine and bitch about it and just pay the tax anyway.

[cardiacpaul]

I suggest you write John Kerry at his US Senate addy. I hear he's pretty good with stuff like this.

[sailingdog]

True... but registering a boat in another state, as Smilinjack is talking about, isn't tax avoidance, but tax evasion.

Originally Posted by jcalvinmarks

As a point of clarification (and correct me if I'm wrong), it would only be illegal if you register it in Delaware and keep it in Florida. If you register it in Delaware, keep it in Delaware, but live in Florida, that's fine. But it's massively impractical in this situation.

Tax avoidance (which is perfectly legal; contrast with tax evasion, which is illegal) is not free. There is a cost associated with lowering your tax bill, and very often it's cheaper to simply whine and bitch about it and just pay the tax anyway.

[smillinjack]

I have worked for the tax collector for a long time and I used to watch them agonize over how they could collect more taxes. And watching the people that receive the tax money and piss it way was also an education. In an average county in Florida the tax collector will bring in 400 million in taxes a year. and the schools get half of that . How they can squander it so easily I'll never know.

[T37SOLARE]

Originally Posted by cardiacpaul

I suggest you write John Kerry at his US Senate addy. I hear he's pretty good with stuff like this.

CP, if he keeps his "yacht" docked in RI he's responsible for RI taxes, not MA where he lives. I live in VA but keep my boat in MD, and I had to pay the 5% MD tax as opposed to the 4% VA tax...

[CapTim]

how does having a US documented vessel affect this? As I understand it, you don't register anywhere if you are documented, right?