| Title: | SAILING |
| Notice: | Please read Note 2.* before participating in this conference |
| Moderator: | UNIFIX::BERENS |
| Created: | Wed Jul 01 1992 |
| Last Modified: | Mon Jun 02 1997 |
| Last Successful Update: | Fri Jun 06 1997 |
| Number of topics: | 2299 |
| Total number of notes: | 20724 |
I am in the process of buying a 37 foot sailboat and I have a dilemma. The boat is in Portsmouth RI at Brewers Sakonnet Marina and I would not mind keeping it there but they only have slips, no moorings, cost $2500 summer only. Next door is Pirates cove who have moorings for $850. However, I have been offered a mooring in Padanaram for which the summer fee comes to about $400. This is a very good deal, except that I would have to register the boat in Massachusetts. If I do that I will have to pay sales tax and (so I believe) excise tax. Does anyone know how the excise tax works? What other fees would I incur in MA. Any RI fees or hidden costs I missed? (No sales or usage tax any more in RI). I assume that if I do keep it in RI initially and then at some time in the future move it to MA I will get a bill for the original sales tax regardless of the elapsed time or current value of the boat? Consequently I would only be delaying the tax payment assuming I want to leave RI eventually. Does anyone know what Pirates cove is like for current and wake from the river and its associated traffic? Thanks, Paul
| T.R | Title | User | Personal Name | Date | Lines |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2299.1 | excise tax in Mass | ASDG::ANTONIADIS | Mon Apr 28 1997 12:00 | 7 | |
Excise tax is calculated on the boat value. I dont recall the algorithm but for a 1984 Beneteau 42 in Padanaram I pay $ 150 per year to the town. I do not think that your boat must be registered in MA to be moored there. A friend of mine has his boat registered in Antigua, and all he does is pay his MA excise tax every year, in order to be in Padanaram. /Dimitri Antoniadis | |||||
| 2299.2 | UNIFIX::BERENS | Alan Berens | Mon Apr 28 1997 15:24 | 14 | |
In MA (and many other states these days) there is a use tax, which just happens to be the same percentage as the sales tax. If you use your boat in MA more than some number of days, you are liable for the use tax. Usually you get credit for sales/use tax paid in another state. Since you aren't paying one in RI, you'd probably get a bill from MA for 5% or the purchase price of the boat. The MA tax folks do apparently go through mooring permit and marina rental records looking for boats for which no use tax has been paid. The yearly excise tax declines with the age of the boat and is some percentage of the original price of the boat (we've been paying $93 per year for some years now on our 1979 32' boat). In many towns (eg, Marblehead), you cannot get or renew a mooring permit without paying the excise tax. | |||||