Registering in one state, staying in another

[ranger58sb]

Originally Posted by YourMomma

We both have a lot family in georgia and would like to visit them on holiday's and birthday's but we found a spot in florida we love(Flagler beach) Ponce Inlet is pretty close and a bit cheaper than docking in Brunswick. We aren't trying to find some sort of loophole just figured since both of our families live in georgia, registering and docking there might be easier. I've also heard that slipping in georgia waters means more barnacle maintenance on your boat, is this true?

The "might be easier" part could do with some research. If you lived on land, you'd likely just have stuff (car, etc.) registered where you live. Not completely different if you're living on a boat. If the boat is in Florida all (most of) the time, you're living aboard... could be easy enough to register there and call it good. (If you live in Florida, what benefit would there be to registering in Georgia, since it's your relatives that live there, not you?)

More of a difference about living on a boat could be sales, use, and/or property taxes. If one state is significantly higher than the other, maybe there are work-arounds. OTOH, if it's a wash, easier could be registering where you live (keep the boat).

States often recognize sales taxes paid to other states. Florida is one, dunno about Georgia.

-Chris

[denverd0n]

My understanding is that sales tax is higher in Georgia than it is in Florida. As such, it might be worth moving it to Florida sooner, and paying the sales tax there. In fact, there are many more boats available for sale in Florida, so it might make the most sense to just buy a boat there, register it there, pay the taxes there.


Of course, if you want to visit relatives in Georgia, there is nothing stopping you from going up there and spending some time, though I would check to see if (like Florida) Georgia has some minimum time that the boat must be owned and used outside of the state to avoid them charging you additional sales tax.


Good luck, whatever you do.

[a64pilot]

We were living in Ga when we bought our boat, Ga residence, paid State taxes the whole thing.
However we bought our boat in Fl and paid Fl sales tax and of course registered it in Fl, most people and most of these kinds of questions are about how do I cheat the system and not pay sales tax, which a great many do, and I’ve not personally seen one get caught.
Surprised that this is not the purpose of this thread, sales tax is the significant issue money wise, registration is nothing.

Previous boat was registered in Ga., but was kept on the Military base in Panama City, My city (Albany) sent me a property tax bill. I went down to tell them that the boat was kept in Fl and according to the law no tax was owed as it was out of Ga for more than six months. They said you gots to pay you taxes.
So I got a letter from the Military Marina staring that the boat was permanently there and had not left in the last year.
Their answer was you gots to pay you taxes, she said show me where you paid Fl property taxes and we will accept that, I answered Fl doesn’t charge Property tax, guess what she said? Yep, you gots to pay you taxes.
So I knew if I got a Lawyer and took a few days off of work I could win this, but just paid the taxes and sold the boat.

So bottom line, if you Register it in Ga, you will get a Property tax bill, every year and then have to pay taxes, or worse they may miss a couple of years, then find you in an audit and will of course want the previous years too.

You skip that in Fl, cause Fl doesn’t tax boats, Ga does.

You would be crazy to register it in Ga, there is no upside to doing that, and frankly Ga is not a boat friendly State, never has been. We should not support that with our taxes in my opinion.

On edit I believe it’s actually the County that will charge you property tax, not the State.

[a64pilot]

Maybe not, appears to be a State tax, either way you don’t pay it in Fl, and do in Ga.
https://dor.georgia.gov/document/for...eturn/download

Even on the form it states where the boat is located for 184 days a year, but you may get that Moron that insists that you gots to pay you taxes.

[a64pilot]

Oh, and bottom growth wise Brunswick is horribly dirty looking water, but it’s all brackish and in my opinion if anything has less growth than average for down South warm water.
Worst I have experience was Stuart, and I believe it was due to agricultural run off from the lake, but strainers would clog in two weeks.

Brunswick was a really nice Marina, but the Neighborhood isn’t real nice, if you have a car, then no problem, but there just isn’t a whole lot to do there compared to Jax or St Augustine etc. Surprised to hear that it was expensive, it used to be I believe a good bargain, what was great about it was the other cruisers and the clubhouse and all the gatherings we had there, you just don’t usually find that, where I am now there are very few cruisers, most boats are Winter homes for people up North, and usually they go home when I’m here meaning Hurricane season, and when they begin to return, it’s time to leave.
But Brunswick had a great many of other Cruisers, many who were very experienced and were spending Hurricane season just inside of the waters their Insurence required.
Jax water is just as nasty looking as Brunswick, it’s just river water I guess.

[singlespeed]

Also check with the insurance company covering your vessel. Since you are going to be in a marina, it will be mandatory to carry some form of insurance. The difference in costs can be significant, especially if the marinas have differences in coverage requirements.

[BAS]

what about a CG documented boat?

[Dsanduril]

Originally Posted by BAS

what about a CG documented boat?

No difference. Florida requires that any boat present in the state for more than 90 consecutive days be registered with the state. If the boat is also registered in another state, or documented with the USCG then the boat does not display Florida registration numbers, but it must still display the annual decal indicating that registration has been completed and paid.

This is quite in accordance with USCG regulations regarding documented vessels.

IS A DOCUMENTED VESSEL EXEMPT FROM STATE JURISDICTION?
No, all documented vessels must comply with the laws of the state in which they are operated. The vessel's document must be shown to state law enforcement personnel upon their demand. States may require documented vessels to be registered (but not numbered) and to display state decals showing that they have complied with state requirements.

https://www.dco.uscg.mil/Our-Organiz...-FAQ/#anchor19

[zstine]

FL doesn't/can't really enforce the 90 day rule, though I've never over-stayed.

I sailed between many states, including FL, and none of them require you to check-in/check-out. FL does not necessarily know when you entered the state and therefore cannot enforce the 90 days rule unless you went into a municipal marina or use some public/government service which they can show you were in state.

[Chotu]

Originally Posted by zstine

FL doesn't/can't really enforce the 90 day rule, though I've never over-stayed.

I sailed between many states, including FL, and none of them require you to check-in/check-out. FL does not necessarily know when you entered the state and therefore cannot enforce the 90 days rule unless you went into a municipal marina or use some public/government service which they can show you were in state.

While I tend to agree with this, they know you’re in the state if you go through any bridges. All traffic through bridges in the icw is logged.

[Ghostrider421]

Originally Posted by Dsanduril

No difference. Florida requires that any boat present in the state for more than 90 consecutive days be registered with the state. If the boat is also registered in another state, or documented with the USCG then the boat does not display Florida registration numbers, but it must still display the annual decal indicating that registration has been completed and paid. This is quite in accordance with USCG regulations regarding documented vessels.

Yeah, we had that problem years ago when our vessel was in Homestead. FWC insisted we have it registered and we said re-read your own regs. They gave us a raft o crap for weeks on end. I kept telling them they were wrong and finally we moved the vessel to Bimini. We used to take it up to Brunswick a few times a year. Haven't been back for a long time. Yeah, the water is dirty - all the ag runoff coming down the rivers doesn't help. But the good news is Brunswick Marina offers liveaboard slips as do three others near Savannah.
https://www.allatsea.net/georgia-liveaboard-law/

[Tom in Florida]

Florida can be a stickler on sales tax & registration issues. I had a bad experience with a BMW I bought in Germany, drove it for 3 years, then shipped it to FL. They charged me sales tax on the price of a new BMW because I could not prove I paid tax in Germany. I had to take them to administrative court to get some money back. Also, I recently bought a Yamaha boat in FL, titled it in FL, then took it to NY and left it there. Dealer said as long as you own property in both states, that is okay. But he is not a tax lawyer. I would go with an inexpensive temp registration in FL to be legal if Murphy's Law catches you, e.g., accident, insurance claim, CG "courtesy boarding", etc.

[a64pilot]

Originally Posted by Chotu

While I tend to agree with this, they know you’re in the state if you go through any bridges. All traffic through bridges in the icw is logged.

Theoretically they might could make a case with that, but they aren’t going to go to that kind of trouble. You could simply say yes Was here then, but we left and came back later. They have to prove you didn’t.
They get the boats from up North that have been in one Marina for months. One I’m in is a good example, I walk the docks and see hone ports of Michigan, they have been here and not moved for over a yr, and no Fl registration sticker.
They will eventually get caught, most likely, or maybe not, cause I know many who never paid sales tax and got away with it.

Fl several years ago got a lot of press from going after business Jets, don’t know how that finally ended. You get 6% of dozens of millions of dollars apiece Jets and that’s a lot of money, but usually people with that kind of money can hire lawyers out of it.
So boats actually have it pretty good.
https://www.floridasalestax.com/flor...onsiderations/

[SVHarmonie]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

Theoretically they might could make a case with that, but they aren’t going to go to that kind of trouble. You could simply say yes Was here then, but we left and came back later. They have to prove you didn’t.

Actually, no they don’t have to prove you were there.... You have to prove you left to avoid getting a tax bill and added penalties. Now, MAYBE you can win in court... but in my mind if you have to go to court on a tax matter you have lost even if you win in the end.

[a64pilot]

Either way I doubt they are going to the trouble of trying to find bridge records and proving anything with that.
For example how many “Island Time” or “Endless Summer” named boats do you think there are? Proving a boat with that name passed under a bridge doesn’t prove it was your boat.
If you have AIS that’s another way they could as the MMSI is only registered to one boat, yours. But unless it’s a real big ticket item or you ticked them off somehow, I don’t see any Civil Service employee doing that much work, not when there are easy ones around that all you have to do is walk through a marina and go to the office and ask how long have the following boats been here?