"ray lunder" wrote
Something tells me rich people don't pay this.

Not until they get caught, anyway:

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/...revenue12.html
Ken Williams, former CEO of the software company Sierra On-Line, said he has
no idea how the Department of Revenue caught him when he moored his
unregistered 62-foot yacht at his waterfront home in Mercer Island for a
year in 1998.

"They nabbed me," he said, adding that he was willing to pay the $130,000 in
past-due sales taxes immediately.

He was philosophical about it, saying, "There's got to be schools and a lot
of things. Government can't run without something." After paying, he took
his yacht the Sans Souci -- which is French for "carefree" -- to Europe for
a visit and later sold it. Now living in West Seattle, Williams intends to
buy another boat and this time he said he will pay the tax right away.

Use taxes also apply to out-of-state boat owners who stay in Washington too
long, over a six-month limit for a visitor's permit.

Silicon Valley financial executive James Heffernan got caught with a 58-foot
yacht he has since sold, lingering too long in Roche Harbor in 1999, he
said. His boat the Andiamo -- which is Italian for "get going" -- didn't get
going soon enough to avoid the tax, he said. He was less than a month over
the six-month visitors' limit and had to pay a tax of a little less than
$100,000. He figures agents were walking the docks.

"They caught me. I was wrong and frankly, you don't have too much defense
for ignorance," he said. Fortunately for the state, Williams and Heffernan
paid promptly. Several cases on file with the state board of tax appeals
show that collections can take years. The most notorious case in recent
years was the saga of tax cheater Michael Albert Price.

Price, now 59, bought a 53-foot yacht in February 1990 and claimed it was a
charter boat, avoiding state sales tax. But revenue agents discovered he was
far too frequently using the boat himself, not strictly chartering it.
Price, the owner of a large Tacoma equipment leasing company, was assessed a
tax of $24,600, with interest, in March 1992. He took seven years to pay,
filing lengthy appeals before the Department of Revenue's Interpretation and
Appeals Division and then the state Board of Tax appeals, according to court
documents.

A month after he paid, revenue agents discovered he'd already bought a
73-foot yacht that he called Price's Waterhouse. Once again, he cheated on
his taxes. Court documents show that he filed false papers to support his
assertion that he'd bought the vessel for $690,000 when in fact the price
was $3.2 million.

This time he faced criminal charges. It took another two years before the
executive pleaded guilty in King County Superior Court to tax evasion,
agreeing to pay $442,661 in restitution, including taxes, penalties and
interest.

He couldn't be reached for comment.