WTF is up with NYS Sales Tax???

quote:
Originally posted by CurrentSea

quote:
Originally posted by jmeirhofer

I feel the exact opposite about it. If there is a loop hole you can exploit to avoid paying any kind of tax (legally) then I say go for it. Maybe if nearly 60% of my income did not go towards some form of tax I would feel different.
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Key word be legally.
To do this legally you can't stay in NYS waters for more than 90 days in a row. Now, one can argue how do they know you didn't leave. What if you stay for 90 days then go to CT for a few then return. So yes, there is a loophole here. I would keep very good records if I was going to exploit that loophole.

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I think there is the same 90 day law in Florida. We trailer our boat down there every winter. Boat is registered in NY where our residence is. We get stopped several times each year by the FWC for fishing license checks. They check the registration and always ask when we got to florida and when we are leaving. We are there a little less than three months. I always wondered why they asked. This may be why.
 
A few years ago the state cracked down on many of those boats registered in Delaware but docked in New York. Maybe it's time they did that again. Those of us who have paid our fair share, our NY sales taxes and registration fees for our boats, shouldn't have to subsidize those other boaters who live here but register elsewhere. If I remember correctly, Delaware only required a post office box number to register a boat or car there. That saved many big companies quite a bit of money on their big boats. We, the other taxpayers, made up the difference. If someone is only here temporarily, then they owe no sales tax. That's fair. But someone who's really here full-time should pay. That's also only fair. Hy
 
When you purchase a boat new that is one thing for the sales tax. But when your buying a used boat that has already been taxed on the new sale it is like a double tax.

John is spot on...double taxation!!
 
A FRIEND OF MINE KEEPS HIS BOAT MONTAULK YACHT CLUB HE JUST GOT A NOTICE FROM NYS SALES TAX TO SHOW PROOF OF PAID SALES TAX HE PURCHESED HIS BOAT 2 YEARS AGO AND DIDNT PAY SALEX TAX
 
quote:
Originally posted by nat liantonio

A FRIEND OF MINE KEEPS HIS BOAT MONTAULK YACHT CLUB HE JUST GOT A NOTICE FROM NYS SALES TAX TO SHOW PROOF OF PAID SALES TAX HE PURCHESED HIS BOAT 2 YEARS AGO AND DIDNT PAY SALES TAX

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He's screwed, now he'll pay the tax, interest and possibly penalties...
 
When I bought my boat in NJ, I paid the tax in NY. Went to DMV.
Lady looked at my bill of sale and then looked at me as she realized how much it was.
They let me put it on my credit card! So yeah it hurt alot, but I got back 2% of the total charge!
I walked out with a piece of plastic. Most expensive piece of plastic I ever bought!
I thought about trying to get out of paying, altering bill of sale (I know everyone does this for a used boat), then I decided it wasn't worth the penalty if you get caught. On a private sale, I think you have more leeway to get a lower bill of sale from prior owner but on a new boat bought out of state, I think it's a big risk!
 
I did a similar thing when I was drivin my M/H back from Florida. I bought a Jeep Wrangler that I liked........ I put $12K on my C/C along with the 4% Florida state sales tax.....then the 4.25% NYS sales tax at the DMV when I got my NY plates.............then got 5% off when I paid the card off when the bill came.
 
I sold my previous boat three years ago but did not remove the registration stickers - my error. A few months ago I got a call from a guy who had just bought the boat from the person I had sold it to three years earlier. It seems the original buyer never re-registered the boat so he could save the costs of the sales tax and registration. The present owner wanted me to re-register the boat in my name (he'd pay the registration fee) and then transfer ownership to him for $1. No way. I wasn't getting involved in that. I had no idea where the boat had been or what it had done over the previous three years. The new owner finally was able to register it because I refused notifications from the DMV. Not my problem. So, when you sell your boat, get a bill of sale indicating that it's sold "As Is" (luckily, I had one) and remove the registration stickers from the bow. Otherwise the authorities will think the boat is still yours and will come after you if there are any problems because of the boat. Hy
 
Hy,
Funny you mention that, I always remove my reregistration stickers when I sell my cars, never thought about doing the same with a boat, good heads up.
 
Thinking back.......the last few boats I bought from SS3.....they re-used the old registration #'s when they registered my boat. Could that be ?

Ditto to Walter......when I sold my car.......I only left the inspection sticker....but removed the reggie.
 
I think you guys are giving NYS Tax too much credit. I received my another notice from NY requesting the same documentation on sales taxes paid. There seems to be a pattern to this as I've received this request three years after I bought new boats (2006 and 2008, receieved requests in 2009 and 2011). What the tax clerk explained to me is that it most frequently occurs with documented boats where they run a query through the USCG site and match NY documented boats with tax records. When they can't make a match they send the request for the bill of sale showing proof of sales taxed being paid. Apparently, large boat dealers report sales tax paid for all boats sold in a month not for each individual transaction, so the statehas no way of matching your boat to the dealers tax records. You would think since most dealers also handel the new registration the state could match their own records, but that seems to make too much sense. She said they are not generally trolling marinas for boats. While I'm happy to see the state trying to enforce tax laws it seems to me that they could do a bettr job of acquiring the appropriate information in the first place and coordinating state agency records in the second place. Very inefficient way to run things by the state but i am sure there are much worse examples of waste than this.
 
Just because your boat is documented in NY does not mean it was bought, registered or even resides in NY. My boat is documented to MD but has yet to ever dock there.
 
States have different methods for chasing down tax revenue.
I bought my boat 10 years ago in MD and paid the sales tax. This past summer was my first trip to NY waters. Likely, a revenuer saw my NY hailing port and forwarded the info to Albany.

Maryland tax people troll around marinas with camera and pad looking for tax avoiders.
Eventually they catch up with you.

Ronbo
 
I didn't mean removing the registration numbers; they stay with the boat, unlike your car's license plates, which stay with you. I was strongly suggesting that you remove the little registration stickers that you mount next to your registration numbers. Those stickers indicates that the registration fee was paid. Without them, it's obvious that it has not been paid and any authority spotting the boat on the water will stop it.
When I mentioned the NY authorities going after boats registered in Delaware (or Maryland), I was specifically refering to boats such as the one owned by jmeirhofer. I'm not qualified to judge the egality of that; I'm just questioning it's fairness to all boaters in our state. The legality seems to be in the sights of the state's DMV and Tax Bureau. I was told that one marina in Westchester, where relatives of ours used to dock their previous boat, was visited by representatives of the NYS Tax Bureau and the DMV, looking for boats registered in Delaware or elsewhere. There was also an article in the newspapers a few years back about a similar crackdown. Do I like paying sales tax and a registration fee to the state? No. Do I think it's fair that others avoid having to do so by registering their boats out-of-stae, often to a mailbox number? Also No. If you boat here, you should pay your fair share. That's just my opinion and I'm sure some will disagree, taking the attitude that, if they can avoid a payment any way possible, then they should. Hy
 
Hy - I am not sure what you mean by boat such as mine. My boat has yet to be in MD. Although I live in MD they do not expect me to pay sales tax on it there if it is not there. Nor have I boated there other than to go up the Potomac to my VA marina. Had I not blown an engine less than two months later and had the calamity that followed I might have boated in MD and even moved there by the end of summer. As it was I barely got it winterized. When I do move it to Baltimore in April, I will be expected to pay the difference in tax paid to what Maryland charges. Not that I am happy about it but I will pay it. Are you suggesting I should have paid taxes to MD when I bought it because that is where I listed as my home port? I was not living in MD when I bought it so that reasoning can not be used either. And no, CA did not expect me to pay sales tax on it either. Florida would have expected to collect sales tax had I not removed it from the state within 180 days (a nice fee was paid to keep it there that long). There are only two really fair ways to accomplish the taxation part. Either pay sales tax in the state you bought the boat or the state the boat is kept. I am for the state you bought the boat. The issue is when you move from one state to another. VA has a 2% rate. MD has a 5% rate. I will owe the difference. If I move it somewhere else that is say 7% I owe another 2%, or as it appears in NYS, the entire amount of the value time the current rate. What is unfair is how they are treating boaters with regards to taxation of the vessel. Hats off to who ever can legally avoid it. Boaters get screwed around on stuff enough. States like VA that have a low rate for sales tax on them or just don't bother to attempt collect likely have a lot more boaters and a lot more overall revenue from them. Including out of staters. I can tell you that if I happen to be going that way in my boat I will pass through NYS as quickly as I can spending as little as necessary to get through. Where as I may linger a bit longer in states that are more friendly to boaters.
 
I apologize if I misunderstood what you were saying. I thought you were a New Yorker, living and boating in this state, but registering your boat in Maryland to avoid any NY taxes and registration fees. If that's not the case, and you're just passing through or boating here for a short period of time, there is no way you should pay a purchase tax or registration fee here. If I vacation for a week in Maryland, which I have, I wouldn't be expected to pay any new fees for my car. The same should hold for your boat in similar circumstances. Yes, I paid sales tax on our boat, a used 2000 Chaparral, when we bought it in 2010. I also paid sales tax on the used 2008 Acura we recently bought. Is the double or triple or more sales taxation right? In my opinion, no; but that's the law in NY and in most states. Should New York boaters who live and boat here be able to avoid paying sales tax and registration fees on their boats by registering them in other states? In my opinion, no. That's not fair to those of us who play by the rules. I also wonder where their insurance companies think their boats are kept? Somehow I think the rates are different in different states. Hy
 
Its simple......TAXES SUCK............but it SUCKS MORE if you get caught not paying them......just my opinion
 
Never boated in NYS. And save for passing through doubt I ever will. I would not want to have people think I was shirking my civic duty by not paying "my fair share" to just visit for more than a week or so.

As I stated, I am all for paying sales tax in the state your boat is kept and where you boat from. As well as property tax if annually if due. However, to expect folks to pay a sales tax every time they move from one state to another is just plain stupid. And if you agree with it being done then you likely are part of the problem with taxation. If a state has an annual property tax and and wants to affix that to boats that are there for more than half of the year, then so be it. They likely won't get as much boating business. That is what I meant about the comment of Delaware. Even the marinas advertise that the tax collector does not care if you are registered in another state. They likely see a lot of boats for the size of their state. On the other hand, if NYS is going out of its way to find boats that have a hailing port of NYS whether they have ever even been to the state, then I think their numbers will start to drop off. Why use NYS as your hailing port if you boat your boat in FL and you boat in FL and you paid sales tax in FL yet have to deal with harassment of more taxes or double taxes from NYS too? Why spend more than a week or two in NYS if your going to have tax cops coming to your boat for your papers so they can harass you about taxes?

Double D is right, taxes suck. But I am not going to roll over because some over zealous taxation authority says we want more of your money. I am not suggesting doing anything illegal. I am suggesting to f' those states that want to screw you because you own what they determine to be a luxury item so you have money to throw at them. I will avoid spending money with those states like the plague. If you wish to throw money at them with out per suing your legal options be my guest. I will minimize my burden for the same reason I do not do my own income tax returns. I hate taxes and will do whatever I can to "LEGALLY" avoid paying any or all of it.
 
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