Sales Tax and Registation

[upstateny]

A few years ago I was at the boat show">Annapolis boat show. It was fun taking your shoes off and walking around on $900,000 boats.

At the boat show they had a presentation about how to save a lot of money when buying your boat. I walked away with few items:

1. They recommended taking delivery and registering new boats in Rhode Island
2. They showed how to setup an LLC where you rent out your boat for one week a year and then depreciate the value of your boat as a business.
3. I believe they said for a fee they would walk you through the whole process.

[Nicholson58]

Do a bit of research on the CF. This is a topic discussed almost as often as anchors. There are many threads.

[denverd0n]

Originally Posted by upstateny

1. They recommended taking delivery and registering new boats in Rhode Island.

Did they tell you that you have to then leave the boat in Rhode Island?


Take delivery and register your boat in RI, then sail down the east coast to... oh, let's say Florida, where you REALLY want to keep it for the long term. Florida will now require you to register it again with them, AND pay a use tax on it (if it has been less than 6 months since you bought it).


Not sure about the laws in every state, but I do know that many states have very similar provisions to Florida.

[kimoj529]

We bought our boat in VA in the late fall. Our plan was to move it to FL the following fall. We were Mi residents. Our broker wanted us to pay Fl taxes and Monroe County, FL Taxes. We did a lot of research. As long as we were not taking the boat to FL for 6 months after purchase we did not have to pay FL taxes. We had the broker rewrite the closing docs and paid VA taxes which were capped at $2,000. We left the boat on the hard in VA for 7 months since it was winter. When we finally moved it to FL we registered it there. If you take it to FL before 6 months be prepared to pay the difference between the state you bought it in and the amount FL charges. For us it would have been about $12k. They will ask for a bill of sale when you register it and the closing docs showing you paid VA taxes. They walk the docks often checking for non-registered boats. We were documented so we did not need FL numbers. This was in 2014. It may have changed. Do your research by studying the state sites.

[John Saylor]

Thanks to all of you for your insights and your experiences - good, bad and otherwise. It is very helpful. Still working on final decisions and plans, but intel has been very illuminating.