Hi,

After reading about Flying Pig and having heard other American
yachtees mention over the years that they bought their yachts on
mortgage, how many cruising yachtees are sailing on a boat they are
paying off?

This concept is generally foreign to most of the other nationality
cruisers I have met. Are there tax breaks or is there another reason
why older people would do this?

Just idle curiosity.

Peter

In article ,
Peter Hendra wrote:

After reading about Flying Pig and having heard other American
yachtees mention over the years that they bought their yachts on
mortgage, how many cruising yachtees are sailing on a boat they are
paying off?

This concept is generally foreign to most of the other nationality
cruisers I have met. Are there tax breaks or is there another reason
why older people would do this?

In the US, most cruising boats can be considered second (or first)
homes, so can fall under a mortgage agreement, which has substantially
better rates and can have some tax advantage.

We could have financed Xan's initial purchase and substantial (for her)
refit by selling stocks and such, but thought we'd do better by dipping
into a home equity line of credit we kept active 'just in case'.

Personally, given the choice of taking money out of the market or paying
less than 8% on a loan, I'll take the loan. In the 80s, when loan rates
were so abysmal, we paid cash.

--
Jere Lull
Xan-a-Deux ('73 Tanzer 28 #4 out of Tolchester, MD)
Xan's NEW Pages: http://web.mac.com/jerelull/iWeb/Xan/
Our BVI FAQs (290+ pics) http://homepage.mac.com/jerelull/BVI/

Thanks Gentlemen,

I now understand.

In the Antipodes we do not have such a scheme unless a company owns
the boat. There is no tax relief for mortgages on personal assets,
especially a boat for pleasure use. Nor is there any tax relief on
mortgages for one's own home.

Whilst awaiting at Gibraltar Christmas 2005 for a break in the
Atlantic weather so that I could head head down to the Canaries and
across the Atlantic, I was fortunate enough to spend a lot of time
with a retired university professor from Florida and his wife. I had
always wondered why Americans donated money to their "Alma Mater" when
we would not think of such a thing in our State financed education
system. He explained the system as a mixture of donation and tax
relief and said that it was considered to be a major part of his job
to solicit former students (for donations, of course. I simply cannot
imagine Bruce standing on a street corner with a little white handbag
waiting for former students to walk by). As it was all based upon
revaluing the assets and issuing a receipt based upon the reappraised
value; and, as the donor got to keep the donated boat, RV, work of art
etc until he died, it sounded like a wrought (sp?) to my simple mind
or at least some form of creative accounting.

Rousseau - "All taxation is theft"

On Sun, 25 Feb 2007 18:42:24 GMT, Jere Lull wrote:

In article ,
Peter Hendra wrote:

After reading about Flying Pig and having heard other American
yachtees mention over the years that they bought their yachts on
mortgage, how many cruising yachtees are sailing on a boat they are
paying off?

This concept is generally foreign to most of the other nationality
cruisers I have met. Are there tax breaks or is there another reason
why older people would do this?

In the US, most cruising boats can be considered second (or first)
homes, so can fall under a mortgage agreement, which has substantially
better rates and can have some tax advantage.

We could have financed Xan's initial purchase and substantial (for her)
refit by selling stocks and such, but thought we'd do better by dipping
into a home equity line of credit we kept active 'just in case'.

Personally, given the choice of taking money out of the market or paying
less than 8% on a loan, I'll take the loan. In the 80s, when loan rates
were so abysmal, we paid cash.

In article ,
Peter Hendra wrote:

As it was all based upon revaluing the assets and issuing a receipt
based upon the reappraised value; and, as the donor got to keep the
donated boat, RV, work of art etc until he died, it sounded like a
wrought (sp?) to my simple mind or at least some form of creative
accounting.

It IS creative accounting, but legal.

Remember the golden rule: those that have the gold make the rules.

Rousseau - "All taxation is theft"

True.

--
Jere Lull
Xan-a-Deux ('73 Tanzer 28 #4 out of Tolchester, MD)
Xan's NEW Pages: http://web.mac.com/jerelull/iWeb/Xan/
Our BVI FAQs (290+ pics) http://homepage.mac.com/jerelull/BVI/

Peter Hendra wrote:

Hi,

After reading about Flying Pig and having heard other American
yachtees mention over the years that they bought their yachts on
mortgage, how many cruising yachtees are sailing on a boat they are
paying off?

This concept is generally foreign to most of the other nationality
cruisers I have met. Are there tax breaks or is there another reason
why older people would do this?

Yes there are tax breaks. In the US, you get to deduct the interest
paid on a house mortgage on your taxes. You can have up to two house
mortgages to deduct, and the boat if it has a head and sleeping
quarters counts as a house.

We bought our boat with a loan because we could not have afforded it
otherwise. (We paid almost $100K) We had (at that time) two houses,
so we couldn't deduct the loan interest on the boat, but after 3 years
we retired and sold the city house (where we lived during the week
because it was too far to drive to work otherwise), and after 4 years
we had the 30 mortgage paid off on the other house (which we kept).

We got that size boat because Bob felt that we would need some space
to be separate from each other if we were going to be living on a
boat. I agree although the boat is a little big for us.