Bass Fishing Forum - Westernbass.com

Everyone knows owing a boat is only a luxury till you have to take it in for repairs or service. I currently pay $130 a year to the state for a luxury tax on my 10 year old Stratos. When will the tax stop? This is my first new boat how long will this go on and is there anyway around it?

I'm curious about this as well...at what point does it end?

only way around it is to own a boat under 16 ft
only way it stops is to sell the boat

My tax is $431 and I'm sure there are guys getting banged a lot harder than that ...... your boat remains taxable property as long as it has value and you own it. It is not a "Luxury" tax in Stanislaus County, it is Property Tax. Your bill should get incrementally cheaper each year as the "property" depreciates, but it will never drop to zero.

They didn't tax my 18' Crestliner bass boat that had a value of close to $8K when I bought it.
I recently bought an older Ranger with a blown motor and paid sales tax through DMV on $2100. I just got sent a letter from the tax man the other day asking the value of the boat cuz they're going to tax it.

Who here pays the least tax on their boat?

You're in the land of taxes. Unfortunately it will never stop.

They call it "personal property tax" and I still pay it on my 17 year old Triton. The only saving grace is it gets less expensive every year as the boat depreciates.

I moved to Montana in 2014 and California still tried to collect this tax from me for two years. The bill had my Montana address on it. It took several phones calls to convince them that I no longer live there. No such tax here in Montana!!

No big bass either, lol

It's an unsecured property tax- you cant claim it- one of my boats tax never went down, I called the county collector and asked him why, he said that's what I valued your boat at, I said you never looked at my boat how do you know what shape its in.
He told me to go get three appraisals send them to him and he would THINK about changing it. Wanted me to do all the leg work.
They love collecting and spending other peoples Money.

do you know anyone in Az or Or. ? you can use ther address as permanent location of boat ' no taxs in those states !....

I purchased my last boat in AZ. kept it registered there for several years doing there non residence through the dept of game and fish, worked great until a local ranger checked me out on the lake one day, told me I now had to register in sunny Ca. Welcome back Mr. Brown gets me for close to 400 a year now.

The tax is only for the boat not the trailer. There are many that except an inflated amount because they think the trailer is included in the estimated value.

Everyone should try to get their boat reassessed. I unfortunately am one that is paying too much because my county has assessed my boat higher then what it is actually worth.

This tax is from the county, not the state. For the first 12 years of it's life my boat resided in Contra Costa County. Five or so years ago I got notice from San Joaquin County that now that my boat resides at Whiskey Slough, they get my money instead of Contra Costa County.

No, it is a State tax collected by the County of your residence.

I just called the Tax Assessor about this Thursday. He said they use NADA and Buck to determine what your boat is worth, and then use a standard depreciation value (not sure what it is or how its calculated) to determine current value of boat and what your tax would be. They told me that when your boat is worth less the 5K the tax will stop.

So basically those of us who have busted our butts to have nice things in this world get taxed to "have the priveledge" to have something nice and the money goes to help those who cant or refuse to help themselves. Makes sense to me.

Mine was $800 this year. Straight rape.

it is a county tax !.... levied by your county tax assessor ", called "use tax"

Welcome to California Liberal Utopia of taxes!

You pay Registration fee on your boat and trailer, user fees at State parks to launch and park, gas taxes, and property taxes on your boat.

Keep in mind most boat resides on property that you pay property taxes on.
-Double taxation

If the argument applies it's a luxury then so are your vehicles.
Therefore, there should be a property tax on cars.
If they could you know...damn well they will do it!

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flipit wrote:Mine was $800 this year. Straight rape.

Damn, that's obscene!!

I called San Joaquin County to find out why I didn't get an unsecured tax bill. They said that my 1996 Nitro was valued under the amount that they tax. After many years of paying the tax, I felt like I just found a dollar in my pocket.

I don't think I'm paying any of that. When I first started moving to Fl. I paid instate fishing lic. in Ca. and out of state in Fl. Because out of state in Fl. was less than in state in Ca.

Rod Martin wrote:I don't think I'm paying any of that. When I first started moving to Fl. I paid instate fishing lic. in Ca. and out of state in Fl. Because out of state in Fl. was less than in state in Ca.

NV. I dont have any of that crap either. The part that sux is the Ca. fishing license 150.00!

Live full time in a RV and claim your residence in South Dakota. No taxes and you only need to go there every 5 years to renew your license.

Good luck!

This is interesting. I just received a tax notice last week and didn't know what to think of it. This thread puts a rest to that. I had no idea they would tax my 21 year old 18' fishing boat.

896J wrote:I called San Joaquin County to find out why I didn't get an unsecured tax bill. They said that my 1996 Nitro was valued under the amount that they tax. After many years of paying the tax, I felt like I just found a dollar in my pocket.

What were you thinking!!! Lol. That's like a kid telling the teacher she forgot to assign homework!