Registration/Documentation for charter

[robknapp]

I purchased and sailed a catamaran and 2010 in France and it has been in Honduras since. I have USCG documentation for the vessel however it has never been registered in a US state. Obviously, I have never paid sales tax in the United States. I would like to bring it to Key West and am considering contracting it for charter . I am getting conflicting advice concerning implications especially sales tax, etc. Any advice would be greatly appreciated

[skipmac]

Hi Rob,

Very common and very frequent question. Addressed most recently a few days ago on this thread. Post #30 includes a quote and link to FL state web site that addresses this question.

http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...ml#post1634714

[Amapola]

To register a boat in Florida, you are required to pay sales tax or prove that you paid it elsewhere. It doesn't matter whether it is USCG documented or not.

[skipmac]

Originally Posted by Amapola

To register a boat in Florida, you are required to pay sales tax or prove that you paid it elsewhere. It doesn't matter whether it is USCG documented or not.

Sorry but this is not completely correct. There are exemptions to that rule, primarily for boats that were legitimately owned by an out of state resident that later moved to Florida.

Read the thread linked in the previous post.

[Hud3]

Originally Posted by Amapola

To register a boat in Florida, you are required to pay sales tax or prove that you paid it elsewhere. It doesn't matter whether it is USCG documented or not.

When I registered a boat in Florida, the folks at the county tax office told me that since I had owned it for more than six months, there would be no Florida sales tax charged, just the rather reasonable state registration fee.

I was not a Florida resident, and the boat had been kept outside the US for several years and had never been registered in any state.

[Vasco]

Originally Posted by robknapp

I purchased and sailed a catamaran and 2010 in France and it has been in Honduras since. I have USCG documentation for the vessel however it has never been registered in a US state. Obviously, I have never paid sales tax in the United States. I would like to bring it to Key West and am considering contracting it for charter . I am getting conflicting advice concerning implications especially sales tax, etc. Any advice would be greatly appreciated

There is an added complication that if it's a foreign built boat that the duty has not been paid you might have to pay duty unless there is a free trade agreement with the country that the boat was built in.