Starting on the Ladder

[europa1]

All appears to be going well and will be buying my first boat soon, I am Australian living in Oz, and want to buy a US registered boat which is currently berthed in Mexico. My son is a US citizen living in DC, and I could use either him; or me; or even joint, as owners. Firstly are there any insurance, tax, or registration difficulties with either joint ownership or my son as owner and me as skipper. I gather from another thread on this forum that it costs approx. $1000 to transfer a US boats registration to Australian, and also 10% sales tax when the boat arrives in Australia, so it may be of benefit keeping US registration, until its time to sell, which hopefully will be in many years time. I intend cruising the Pacific before eventually finishing in about 4/5 yrs time in Australia, perhaps? Any advice would be appreciated. Many thanks.

[akio.kanemoto]

From an Australian tax perspective - you may want to check out what the processes are in detail - as I believe that if you don't take it out of the country within a certain period of time, regardless of registration, it is considered an import and you will be shafted the 10% GST and potentially 5-10% import duty (can't remember for sure).

Originally Posted by europa1

All appears to be going well and will be buying my first boat soon, I am Australian living in Oz, and want to buy a US registered boat which is currently berthed in Mexico. My son is a US citizen living in DC, and I could use either him; or me; or even joint, as owners. Firstly are there any insurance, tax, or registration difficulties with either joint ownership or my son as owner and me as skipper. I gather from another thread on this forum that it costs approx. $1000 to transfer a US boats registration to Australian, and also 10% sales tax when the boat arrives in Australia, so it may be of benefit keeping US registration, until its time to sell, which hopefully will be in many years time. I intend cruising the Pacific before eventually finishing in about 4/5 yrs time in Australia, perhaps? Any advice would be appreciated. Many thanks.

[s/v Moondancer]

If it is a US boat make sure it has a US Coast Guard registration that costs less than $150, no US taxes due, they are levelled at the State level for being in a particular state.

Big advantage is the The US Coastguard is far more likely to assist a US boat with a US citizen aboard (They may not admit to it but I have seen it happen)