Do you need to register/pay taxes on documented vessels in SC?

In addition to Kendall's response about personal property, a documented boat kept in South Carolina for more than 180 days is not required to be registered with the state of South Carolina.
 
As has already been stated, yes you do have to pay personal property tax. I imagine the tax would be based on the mailing address listed on the USCG Vessel documentation. If you plan to simply move the boat here but not purchase a residence, you will probably continue to be taxed in whatever County you are currently being taxed in. Unless you change the USCG listed address, I don't see how SC would ever know to send you a tax bill nor would your current county know to remove you. Assuming you are up in New England I imagine you would be at an advantage to be paying tax in SC over whatever you are paying up there. The USCG reports Documented Vessel owners to county tax offices yearly with updates based on the mailing address on the documentation certificate. It is a messy process and from what I have seen does not work very well.
 
dcpringle said:
So they are saying that you are taxed 6% of the boats value a year? IE if the boat is 250k the tax would be 15k a year? Or is it $1,500/year?
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No it does not mean that. It means the millage applied to the boat to determine the tax is based on 6% of the assessed value of the boat. That 6% is only if the boat can be categorized as your second home. If it can't (such as a runabout) the tax is based on millage applied to 10.5% of the boats assessed value.
 
SC taxes on my boat was $1200.00 per year. I moved to NC and my taxes on the same boat is $300.00 per year. I keep hearing from SC residents that it's cheaper to live in SC.........I disagree!!!!!!!!! My entire tax load is less in NC, than when I lived in SC. NC taxes everything you own, just is less. SC folks remind me how they don't have to tag a trailer.......ok.
 
islandhopper00 said:
If you keep your boat in a marina in SC, the marina will notifiy SC that your boat is in their marina. They have to by law.
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If there is such a law I would say, at least around here, many of the marinas are not aware of it. I have been at 4 marinas including one on LKN and have had casual discussions with management about mooring boats at a SC marina that came from NC, vice-versa or from farther north to get a longer boating season. Never has any reporting duty to counties ever been brought up. It may be different at the coast where the Coast Guard is more active or maybe they all just keep it a secret, don't know.

And as for taxes being lower in NC, all I can say as a former resident of Mecklenburg County that is not entirely true. My home taxes were literally cut in half when I moved to SC an all the while moving in to a home with twice the tax value of my home in Charlotte. The biggest tax savings in SC is the discount for the primary residence, everything else is going to vary widely by city/county regardless of state.
 
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Key words, Mecklinburg county. This is why everyone thinks SC is cheaper. Hell, everywhere in the rest of the United States is cheaper than Mecklinburg county!! haha
I live in Lincoln county, moved here from York county. Cheaper, much cheaper, better, nicer roads, better infastructure, local government. Gas is 20-30 cents more per gallon....but I can keep my front end in alignment here in NC.......and LKN doesn't have Tega Cay dumping raw sewage in the lake everytime it rains, nor chemical dye dumping into the lake waters by a company in Belmont changing the water color. How does that happen and even allowed to happen? LKN doesn't turn orange evertime it rains hard either.....naw, I'll stay in NC. Far from perfect, but fits me better.

My current Marina, Mid Way marina reports to the county every boat in the marina to Catawba county. My old dry stack marina reported every boat in dry stack to the county. When I moved up here, I put my boat at Westport marina dry stack. They reported my boat was there to Lincoln county. I paid Lincoln county taxes. York county SC, would not forgive personal property taxes and I paid taxes to both counties because York said my residence (hadn't sold my house yet) was still there because I owned a house there. I owned a house in NC also....and lived in NC. My SC house sat empty untill it sold. Crooks in York county.
 
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islandhopper00 said:
My current Marina, Mid Way marina reports to the county every boat in the marina to Catawba county. My old dry stack marina reported every boat in dry stack to the county. When I moved up here, I put my boat at Westport marina dry stack. They reported my boat was there to Lincoln county. I paid Lincoln county taxes. York county SC, would not forgive personal property taxes and I paid taxes to both counties because York said my residence (hadn't sold my house yet) was still there because I owned a house there. I owned a house in NC also....and lived in NC. My SC house sat empty untill it sold. Crooks in York county.
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I would like to see the context of this law, not because I doubt you necessarily but because I am curious as to why I have never heard it mentioned. Maybe it is a NC thing. One would think if there is such a law in SC, tax assessors would be proactively visiting marinas on a regular basis writing down registration numbers and I can say for certain that I would have heard if that was going on by now. Sounds like you got caught in a "situation" because you had two residencies with real "land" addresses in both states. Not sure the same circumstances would apply to the OP unless he buys a home in SC and changes his address to the same. I think all these tax rules and regulations are intentionally hard to understand.
 
Are you at Lake Wylie Marina? I'll call Larry or Rick and ask them if they report the boats to the county. The 180 day rule comes into play also. If you let the marina employees "see" you take the boat from the marina a certain number of days, somehow the rules become different. I know some folks that keep their boat in a marina in Myrtle Beach, they move the boat every year to get around the rule. That's kinda why I bought a smaller trailerable boat to take down there to leave part time.

I agree the tax rules are vague on purpose. I find if you talk to two boat owners the results never seem to be the same. Lol

SC property tax book page 20 eludes to taxes based upon time the boat is in SC....it kinda reads like the bible thoe. haha I don't understand half what I'm reading. I couldn't/didn't want to read it to prove my point. It in there.
 
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One more thing about SC PP taxes on boats that may still happen to an unsuspecting boat owner.

After I got my first tax bill for my then new 2006 260DA, I found out (from Mike....AKA Island Hopper) that the County conveniently forgot to notify me you can get a reduced tax rate if you have a Cabin Cruiser. It was necessary for me to get a form from them stating that my boat has living quarters. That reduced the tax rate considerably and I saved about $900.

I can also tell you that several years back someone in our Marina who had a documented 38DA told me he never got a PP tax bill from the County. So unless your Marina reports the documented vessels, then I am not sure the County is ever aware of the fact they need to send you a tax bill.
 
Yea, York county won't help you lower your taxes.

Yes, the marina has to report your boat location inlike, January....if it's not there, then they don't have to report it. Now, depending on how your marina "sees the law" they might just overlook things to help out. I hate to post that, but there you go. It's a fine line.

If your boat has sleeping quarters, food prep (galley) area, bathroom facilities it qualifies as a second residence. The millage rate can be lowered signifigantly. You have to find the forms, York county employees will not help you find them, they told me there was no such forms, but I am hard headed and did what I needed to, to figure it out.
As a side note, there is also a form to be filed that lowers the tax rate on your home! They will not help you find this one either. I don't remember exactly what it is called, but "Homestead Exemption" is close. There is no reference anywhere to this form either. I might have stuck my foot in the door to the file room, at the gov. building when someone left out (the room is locked) and found the document on my own........
 
Every state figures out the best way to get the money they need to run the state based on their demographics. SC doesn't have a lot of high income jobs so they get their money from luxury and vacationing stuff - second homes, boats, RVs, speeding tickets from out of staters that don't know where the 10 million speed traps are, etc. My current residence is now my primary and property tax on it dropped more than in half from when it was a second residence when I lived in Virginia.
 
When I kept my boat in Charleston, I saw them walking the docks and checking boats. I was even questioned a couple of times when they saw me on the boat, to make sure I was really from NY, detailed questions about locations and streets. I'm guessing that the 6 months I was there, I personally saw them checking boats 3 times.
 
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