Ray, just go ahead and pay it. Maybe the rich people don't (but see some of
the stories "Ernest scribbler " has to tell), but think about what they pay
their attorneys. You're talking about a 120K boat, and you're quibbling
about 8? Come on. Show some class here.

Reminds me of those people who buy a new Porsche and then park it half a
mile away at the back of the parking lot so it won't get a scratch on it. If
I could afford to buy a new Porsche, I'd park it wherever I bloody well
pleased and if it got a scratch on it I'd trade it in on a new one.

All that aside, I was in Ensenada, Baja California, a few years back with my
own boat, and I stayed in a new and very nice marina that the locals called
the "Ninety-day yacht club". It was full of brand new boats, that looked to
me like they'd never been out of their slips. Apparently, for California
anyway, if you (1) take delivery of the yacht outside of US territorial
waters, and (2) actually USE the boat someplace outside US territorial
waters during a period of ninety days following the purchase, you can then
"import" it into the US without having to pay state sales tax (in
California, anyway).

A friend of mine tried to do this, staying at that exact marina, but somehow
he screwed up on some tiny detail and ended up having to pay the tax. All
the effort (and expense!) he went to, to try to scam his way out of the tax,
ended up being wasted, and he almost certainly ended up on some sort of tax
"watch list".

Tom Dacon
S/V Bettina
Port Townsend, WA


"ray lunder" wrote in message
news
Ahoy, I live in Washington state and am thinking about my first "real"
boat- a blue water cruiser in the $30k-$120k. When I buy a car I pay
something like 8% or if it's a gift or a damaged vehicle or you phoney
up the bill of sale you still pay some arbitrary made up blue book
value the state institutes and which is not insignificant. On a $100k
boat this is $8000. Something tells me rich people don't pay this. So
what's the scam? Foreign registry or forming your own corporation or
what? Sorry to be so clueless. Thanks for your time.