On Fri, 14 Dec 2007 23:43:01 -0800, ray lunder
wrote:

Foreign registry or forming your own corporation or
what?

You need to form a corporation in a tax friendly country and register
the boat to the company. You will be required to obtain cruising
permits to use the boat in the US, follow all US regulations
pertaining to foreign registry yachts, as well as paying fees to
maintain your offshore entity. The break even point is somewhere
north of $1M for most boats.

This may not help you, but it may help others.

Here in the northeast, I live in MA (5% sales tax). I purchased a
boat from a dealer in CT (6%). I keep the boat in RI (NO SALES TAX on
boat purchases).

After extensively researching the legal twists to be sure that my plan
was sound, I formed a personal corporation in Delaware. This costs me
about $150 each year for corporation tax and a registration fee.

My dealer wrote the bill of sale to my Delaware corporation and filed
the necessary forms with CT to exempt me from paying sales tax. This
required that the boat be delivered to me outside of CT, so the
delivery was done 15nm away from the dealer in RI.

Now my own state, MA, would want to be paid the sales tax on this boat
that I bought in another state (CT) just because they feel deserving I
guess. Since I keep the vessel in RI, they can't collect. However if
I were to spend 60 days or more in MA waters, they would demand
payment. The same is true for CT- if I were to spend more than 60
days, CT would want to be paid. I think the number is 60 days, but it
might be 90- I'm not completely sure.

Now RI knows where their bread is buttered. RI does have a sales tax
of 6%, but they exempt this tax on all boat sales. This includes all
equipment, outboards, etc. purchased with the boat. I think the only
requirement is that the boat be kept in RI waters for 2 years.

Now RI isn't dumb. They have created a tax-friendly environment where
boaters get a break on a purchase but then pay taxes directly or
indirectly on boating supplies, meals in restaurants, and in general
contribute to the economic health of the state. Well, it works. I've
kept my boat in RI for 10 years, and have no intention of ever moving
to one of the money grubbing states.

On Sat, 15 Dec 2007 14:58:13 GMT, Rich wrote:

This may not help you, but it may help others.

Here in the northeast, I live in MA (5% sales tax). I purchased a
boat from a dealer in CT (6%). I keep the boat in RI (NO SALES TAX on
boat purchases).

...

In the course of your research, did you look into how NH taxes boats?
Also, did you look at how used boat sales are taxed in the NE states?
Thanks in advance for any info.
Chuck Cox
SynchroSystems - embedded computer design - http://synchro.com

my email is politician-proof, just remove the PORK

No chuck, I didn't. I was only interested in MA, CT, and RI.
Sorry....

Rich

On Wed, 26 Dec 2007 18:05:16 -0500, Chuck Cox
wrote:

On Sat, 15 Dec 2007 14:58:13 GMT, Rich wrote:

This may not help you, but it may help others.

Here in the northeast, I live in MA (5% sales tax). I purchased a
boat from a dealer in CT (6%). I keep the boat in RI (NO SALES TAX on
boat purchases).

...

In the course of your research, did you look into how NH taxes boats?
Also, did you look at how used boat sales are taxed in the NE states?
Thanks in advance for any info.
Chuck Cox
SynchroSystems - embedded computer design - http://synchro.com

my email is politician-proof, just remove the PORK