Boaters pulling up anchor to avoid tax

[xort]

HS
Registration runs $50 to maybe $200 per year for a car or boat. We're talking 6% to 10% of the boats value every year!!! A $100,000 boat will be taxed at $6,000 every year. Even a $10,000 boat will face a $600 fee every year or more.

[byrondv]

Originally Posted by Rockter

Oh they are not paying for it right now... they just run up huge deficits every year to be paid by future generations.

So the Americans get less than you do?

I wonder why?

Because Americans would never create a deficit, much less a huge one. Oh... Wait...

[Rockter]

We do not have registration in the UK, and none of these shocking boat taxes.

Someone has lost the plot completely.

My old ship would be due about $3000 a year at that rate, plus registration, plus mooring fees.

There is a future in this?

[Giulietta]

Originally Posted by Rockter

Oh they are not paying for it right now... they just run up huge deficits every year to be paid by future generations.
I can tell you Guil, there is no way you will pay for that lot with 50% taxes.

Let me quote you from this...(I will give you the source of it if you wish, it's from eubusiness.com).

Quote...

Portugal slashes budget deficit
11 October 2007, 21:37 CET
(LISBON) - Portugal will have slashed its budget deficit to three percent of output this year from six percent thanks to two years of drastic belt-tightening, Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates said Thursday.

"Portugal will put its public finances in order one year ahead of schedule. In two years, we passed from six to three percent," Socrates said.

If it achieves in cutting the deficit to three percent this year, euro zone member Portugal will have managed to lower the shortfall to within the limit of three percent set out in European rules.

"We will no longer belong to the list of countries with excessive deficits and that is big news for the Portugese economy," Socrates said.

Socrates's leftwing government has applied two years of shock therapy to the Portuguese economy including drastic and unpopular reforms of the civil service and an increase in the retirement age to 65. It also hiked taxes across the board including value-added tax (VAT) and fuel duties.

In 2008 it is aiming for a budget deficit of 2.4 percent in 2008. The government also aims to cut public debt as a proportion of output to 64.4 percent this year from 64.8 percent in 2006.

"The government will maintain a hard line and budgetary discipline, essential factors for the future of the country, but the 2008 budget will also focus on growth (and) ... an increase in public spending," Socrates said.

..unquote.

So public debt is at 64% as a fraction of output.

...and likely to worsen, by the time they have paid all those things you list. Guil, Europeans are absolutely nuts for doing this. They promiise the earth (tomorrow) if you vote for them, then they let your children pay for it.

So the Americans get less than you do?

I wonder why?

And your point is???

Listen, its been like this since the times of my grand father...I remember back in the 70's when they said the Social Security was bankrupt, its been the same story for the last 30 years...Socrates is an idiot, and we're all hoping he moves away...nothing changes...I will get my retirment....I am happy with the way my Country is...that's all that matters to me.

That guy, (our idiotic pm mentioned in your link) and the Socialist party he represents (Democrat to you in the US) has been sinking the Country...the enormous disater created by the previous Socialist Government, the one that was "cancelled" by the President, as the PM was "fired", is what puts us here....not anything else.

Portugal is too small for Democratic or Socialistic policies...everyone knows that...

What we need is a new Dictator..that's how we're happy.

We've allways had a deficit...so what's new??

Nothing you say in your link is recent news...its been like that for 40 years...

These things, really, depend on how the "painter holds the brush"...you can make stuff like this about any Country look good or bad...

I am not worried..

Besides, we still have the best sailing grounds in the World...

By the way..I'm signing out from here...I hate politics because they can be so vague...its like BS con artist stuff.

[hellosailor]

Xort, that may be the exact purpose of the fee--to keep carpetbagging boaters OUT. Hey, it is their state, they're free to extend the welcome wagon--or not.

Rockter, you may disagree with the fee, but no one from the UK or EU can say they've got any kind of significantly lower or less taxation than we have in the US. It may be different, it may be felt differently, but you guys still pay huge tax bills. Heck, most of you pay twice our price for a gallon of gasoline--and that's a 100% fuel tax you have, making up the difference.

Then there's VAT, nice little chunk out of your pocket.

No matter what you call him, no matter how you do it--you render under Caeser, just about the same, everyplace.

[Rockter]

Hellosailor...

You are right about fuel taxes being high... more like 300% my friend.

But I will tell you this, if you ever want a foreign boater to visit your homeland, don't roll out a tax like that $6000 you talk of. We will not do it here, and you can stay 6 months.

I am very surprised that you would defend such punitive boat taxes in the name of it being their scene and they can do what they want, etc, etc. Beware too, about the use of terms like "carpetbaggers", because you will allow visits from the very rich indeed, and none else. If all states do it, you will emasculate the idea of owning a boat. If that is your intention, then this tax is leading you there by a straight route, and no tacking.

[hellosailor]

Rockter-
"I am very surprised that you would defend such punitive boat taxes"
Who says I'm defending the taxes?

It may surprise you to know that the US is *supposed* to be, by charter, a federal republic with (50 now) sovereign states in it. Each sovereign state is supposed to do things their own way, and our federal government is basically supposed to coin a common currency, fight the British, fight the Indians, and stay the hell out of most everything else.

Now that we have credit cards, the British are busy with karma as their far-flung conquests all try to "come home" to England (a very different place than it was 30-40 years ago!), and our Indians seem to think exclusives on casino gambling are a better deal than pony raids...I'm pretty amazed that our federal government keeps getting bigger, instead of shrivelling up. (OK, not really.[g])

If the folks in SC want to make sure visitors keep on passing through and not sojourning...that's their right. I don't have to agree with the policy or defend it, to say that it is their right to set their own terms in their own sovereign state.

Much the same way that I may think that Bermuda is a bit offensive for not allowing immigration or land ownership by foreigners, it is still their right to run their own state. Each of our states is, by the laws that founded our nation, a Sovereign State with most of the same rights and privileges as any other nation--like France or Switzerland or Iceland. (Tempered only by our federal charters, which many of us argue have been taken way past where they were ever intended to go.)

[denby]

TB and SD, What are the taxes and/or registration on your boats. Here in CT. I do not pay a property tax and $135 registration fee per year

[sailingdog]

Denby-

I pay a waterways usage fee, which is about $90 per year and excise tax on the boat, which I don't remember the cost of... but I don't pay a registration fee since my boat is USCG documented.

[denby]

Originally Posted by sailingdog

Denby-

I pay a waterways usage fee, which is about $90 per year and excise tax on the boat, which I don't remember the cost of... but I don't pay a registration fee since my boat is USCG documented.

I think in CT. you still pay a registration fee even if the boat is USCG documented.