NC Tax Questions

[Team230]

Can someone in NC explain to me your tax situation for boats? It looks like I will be moving there. The catch is, I'll be picking a new boat in May here in Ohio. It seems I'd be better served to give my new NC address (in Wake Forest) and then register it as a NC boat right away, but I'm looking for feedback.

In Ohio, we pay 7% sales tax and then boat registration is done every 3 years...not sure what that cost is off the top of my head, but it's relatively cheap. That's the only tax we ever pay on boats.

In NC it appears I'd pay 3% sales tax up to $1500 and then pay a yearly personal property tax according to the county I live/where the boat is based on some sort of valuation on my boat. For the area I am looking at, it appears this is just over 1% per year. It appears you pay this tax based on where you boat is on January 1. So, if you happen to live in one county but boat and keep your boat in another county, you pay taxes in the county where it is on Jan. 1st. It also seems that if I keep my boat in another state, like TN, then I would not pay this personal property tax.

The reality is that I will be boating extensively in TN and I store my boat there over the winter, so there will never be a time that my boat is in NC on Jan. 1.

Can someone shed some light on this for me? I want to follow the rules and I want to minimize my costs. BTW, I'm buying a G23 so the costs here are not trivial.

[Infinity]

Your above assessment is correct if buying new or from dealer as far as $1500 max.
Private party used boat sale...no sales tax except on trailer.
Correct on property tax as well but woukd have to be registered in TN to avoid...cant just park it there and register here (which I dont think is what you were saying)

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[GMLIII]

Im from Virginia but could you open a PO Box in TN and register your boat through the TN PO box to avoid personal property tax on the boat altogether?

[Infinity]

Pretty sure they require a physical address for "where" boat is parked in TN (Marina perhaps?)...then bill could go to the PO box for the mailing address. Just an FYI, but worth checking into for sure

[Team230]

I've not seen the NC Personal property tax form yet, but that makes sense. How do they come up with an appropriate value? Seems like a big black hole. Sure, as long as the economy is good the boats have strong values, but as soon as things go down, boats dropped like a rock.

Sounds like titling my new boat in NC makes sense initially and then I figure things out from there. At least I have till Jan. 1 to do that.

Thanks for the feedback!

[Infinity]

I've not seen the NC Personal property tax form yet, but that makes sense. How do they come up with an appropriate value? Seems like a big black hole. Sure, as long as the economy is good the boats have strong values, but as soon as things go down, boats dropped like a rock.

Sounds like titling my new boat in NC makes sense initially and then I figure things out from there. At least I have till Jan. 1 to do that.

Thanks for the feedback!

Honestly not sure how they come up with the boat value and guessing you can dispute it depending on the situation....but I KNOW that it depends on the County you register it in here in NC. It was $400 cheaper being in Catawba County this year compared to Mecklenburg County last year. Not sure if they use "boat book value" since I did not see that number, but each County has their own multiple that they use to determine the property tax.