GL: Sandpiper vs. State of Mississippi

[Anne Weatherill]

> From: bob at levinegroup.com> To: great-loop at lists.samurai.com> Date: Sat, 1
Dec 2007 23:07:16 -0600> Subject: GL: Sandpiper vs. State of Mississippi> > As
many of you know, the state of Mississippi assessed a sales tax on our> boat,
"Sandpiper". We had stored the boat at Columbus Marina over the> 2005-2006
winter season. ... We were able to avoid> the tax but our legal bills were
well over $15,000. > Bob Levine Sandpiper

Congratulations on fighting the tax assessment and winning. Too bad the legal
cost was so much.

We are dealing with a similar situation. We left our boat at a marina for the
winter in Myrtle Beach, S.C., expecting to return and resume our Loop cruise
in the spring.  Unfortunately, my husband had a life-threatening medical
situation and we had to cancel our plans to continue. We were unable to go get
the boat.  Instead, we sold it.

When we owned it, the boat was documented, registered in Texas, and we are
Texas residents.

Now, we have a bill for property tax from Horry County, S.C.  To rub salt on
the wounds, the taxed value is a considerable amount more than we got when we
sold the boat.  The tax man does not agree that it is an illegal tax on a
documented boat, and he feels that he can assign whatever value he wants to
it, even though we sent him a bill of sale showing the sales price.  It
doesn't matter that the boat was registered in Texas and we are Texas
residents.

Unless he has a sudden change of heart, we will have to pay it. We don't want
any legal problems or credit problems haunting us.

This is something to keep in mind if you are doing the Loop and plan to have
your boat more than 60 days continuous or 90 days cummulative in South
Carolina in general and Horry County in particular.  We have vowed that when
we are able to start out again, we will spend as little time and money as
possible in that area.

Anne Weatherill
boatless and hard aground in Corpus Christi, TX