Florida out-of-state reciprocity

[BandB]

Virginia has a $2000 cap on sales tax, or at least it did when I bought a new boat in 2006.

Gordon

Yes, it's 2% and a maximum of $2000.

 

[ranger58sb]

2% with a $2K cap is cheap. But then some VA counties also have an annual personal property tax on boats, yes?

Maryland sales tax rate is 6%, but sometime within the last two (I think?) years they capped the total for boats. I think at $15K, but not sure; didn't check closely since it didn't affect us.

Seems to be making the expected difference on boat owners' willingness to stay in MD, though...

-Chris

 

[rwidman]

Virginia has a $2000 cap on sales tax, or at least it did when I bought a new boat in 2006.

Gordon

And SC has a $300 cap. But, SC has personal property tax so you get to pay tax on your boat every year you own it.


Somebody has to pay for police and fire departments, roads, libraries, subsidized housing and free cell phones. If you own a boat, you must be rich so certainly you can afford to share your wealth.

 

[Moonstruck]

Likely marinas will want to know if you have valid registration/documentation, as well as adequate insurance. If you're in a marina on January first in California, you would likely need to prove you're not subject to property tax and even use tax.

I have never been asked for my state registration in any marina. I have been asked to show documentation papers. I suppose if a boat is undocumented, they would ask for state registration. Only marinas where docked long term have asked for proof of insurance. However, I can see that may be coming.

By the way, the Florida registration number stickers on documented boats are the same as the document number.

 

[rwidman]

I've never been asked for registration or documentation papers in a marina. Or insurance papers either except for my home marina.


I think in some cases, the form you sign without reading when you check into a transient marina has you signing that your boat is insured. They wouldn't care if it's registered or not.

 

[psneeld]

I find it is rare they don't ask for registration numbers or doc number...usually right on the form you fill out at checkin. But not the actual documents.

Asking for proof of Insurance is becoming more common, especially if the stay is greater than overnight. Insurance they will ask for a copy or make one.

Of course your registration, documentation, insurance without notification clause could be expired or made up...I doubt they check.

 

[ranger58sb]

Somebody has to pay for police and fire departments, roads, libraries, subsidized housing and free cell phones.

Different strokes for different states (how they get there from here... but yep, some of that is fair enough. Even your last two maybe wouldn't seem as bad if there wasn't so much fraud, waste, and abuse involved...

-Chris

 

[BandB]

2% with a $2K cap is cheap. But then some VA counties also have an annual personal property tax on boats, yes?

Virginia property tax is by county. For instance, in Fairfax county the tax on airplanes and boats is $0.01 per $100 so on a $100,000 boat is $10. Some counties don't tax boats, some tax for more.

 

[tadhana]

At some point your just have to pay the piper. We bought our boat to live aboard. We bought her new, in MD, in 2009. We had 90 days to get it out of state or pay 5% sales tax, $18,500. As soon as we could, we got the boat to Deltaville VA where I was running a boatyard. Virginia had no sales tax obligation for the boat. Deltaville is in Middlesex County their personal property tax works out to about 1%. Our first year in VA we paid $3,700 in property tax. After 4 years in VA we had paid $13,500. So much for low tax state. Now there are ways around this by moving to another tax district. But it would cost $1,200 plus electric for a live aboard winter slip in Hampton and the the commute would be 1 hour each way. (vs walk to the office in Deltaville) So if you figure out the cost of running a car 6,000 miles and add tolls and then compare it to the slip, I'd be out of pocket over $2500. to avoid a tax of $3000. And I'd be driving 120 hours in the dark in deer country. So we just paid the tax. In year 5, I was transferred to MD. MD is pretty strict about collecting their sale/use tax on any boat in the state over 90 days. So we went to the DNR office in Southern MD to pay the piper. They had a little trouble finding our boat's value in the tax books, but they settled on a value and we paid the tax. It worked out to be equal to two years of VA tax. Now have been FL residents for 3 yers. We are in FL 4 months and in MD 5 months a year. Our state of principle use is Md. we are documented in Annapolis. Now we have the MD use sticker which cost $10 every two years. So, no matter what state we might want to live in, we have paid the sales tax in MD and that should cover us about anywhere we keep the boat. In theory, we should get the sojourner permit since we are in FL about 120 days, but no one at any of the FL marinas we have overwintered in, could direct us to who, what, why and where to get the permit.

 

[meridian]

It pays to call around to the various counties in FL before you register. You get different answers to the same questions.


We purchased our USCG documented boat in GA 18 months ago, private sale, no tax due. We registered in GA although we didn't cruise more than a month total in their waters. We went to Vero Beach to register for FL and were dismayed when we entered and saw a long line for drivers tags and licenses, we were expecting a arduous process. The gal we got knew exactly what to do although she said they didn't often have my kind of transaction. On top of this I was registering as a antique since the boat is over 30 years old. 20 minutes later we were out the door, total cost $3.75. The annual fee for an antique is about $8.00 and I paid for a partial year. I took in my USCG documentation, and GA registration. No questions asked about boat value or bill of sale. I registered my previous out of state boat in Marathon and had the exact same experience 3 years ago.