T&T: Boat tax trade offs

[bob Austin]

Most of the list have not cruised foreign countries.  The majorities of ports
and countries have various fees: Lighthouse fees, Port tax fees, Clearance
fees, Cruising permit fees etc.  The tradition in the United States is to not
charge these fees.  However, I would not be surprised to see this happen.  In
some ways, Florida is doing this by imposing the tax on documented vessels
which are not "registered" in another state.

Where you are on a certain day--may or may not trigger a personal property or
other county/state tax.  Some states/counties go by the marina registration
books--if you have rented a dock for a certain number of days you pay.  Others
have people who randomly walk the docks, checking boats and checking against
the marina list.  Others use the Coast Guard documentation list.

What is a "fair tax" to pay for boating in a state?  Bill Perkins seems to
imply that because you boat in a state you owe property tax.  (I paid huge
property taxes on both my boats and the possessary interest tax in the land
under the slip I leased for many years in Calif.--and that is one reason I
left the state).  Most real estate property taxes have a high (often over 50%)
tax for school districts--yet how many transcient boaters use the schools?
Police?--very rare.  Fire?--very rare.  Use of highways?--you probably pay
some state fuel taxes anyway at the marina.  But boaters do pay the local
sales tax--and this usually is from 5 to 8%.  To me this seems like a fair
deal--you do use some "facilities" you pay the marina--which pays property
tax--and that is factored into the marina rate.  (In Florida most marinas pay
a certain percent to the state each year for the use of land under the water
which the marina is on).  So even though a cruising boat does not specifically
pay a property tax--they certainly do pay taxes to the entity where the boat
is moored at any one time.  (With the assumption that you do not anchor out
all of the time).

Bob Austin