boat registration

[gman]

In May of 2015 we sold house in calif and moved to Arizona. I submitted the registration papers in Dec but did not actually get the boat registered in Arizona until January 2016. Well the wonderful state of calif does not care. They show the owner address of Calif even though they have record that home was sold in 2015 I have my utility bills from Arizona. They want their personal property tax. Make sure those of you moving out of calif that registration happens in the state that you are moving to before Jan 1 otherwise the wonderful social democratic republic of the state of calif will take your money and they don't even want to have a discussion with you. I am so happy that I am out of there.
By the way, There is no personal property tax in Arizona and trailers are registration for the trailer is just once for life.

[Thegerman618]

I will be registering my boat out of CA and in AZ later this year as well. Thanks for the advice on the wonderful "Luxury Tax" they send me every year I guess I will have to make sure I get it done before Novemberish. Soon as the Lake House Construction is done and we have a mailbox that's where its getting registered.

[xpjim1]

That is not enough you own a house in AZ. It must be your full time residence. Trust me I have tried for 11 years. Boat is registered as a non resident in AZ for $259 per year. Prior to 2008 it was about $50 per year. That is when AZ started charging non residents more. This was still less than the personal property tax in CA. You must weight the cost of registration and Personal property tax in CA versus the Non Resident Registration fee in AZ.

[TeamAllen]

Good information!

[Thegerman618]

Thanks Jim, I was just looking at the resident requirements. To bad I just separated from active duty or I could have squeezed in under the radar but not anymore. Looks like I will paying a high registration cost to avoid a higher property tax cost.

[kjohnson709]

I can confirm the AZ resident requirements. We have a vacation house in Havasu but I was not able register as a resident. I have been thinking about having my grandfather who is a permanent resident in AZ register the boat in his name. I crunched the numbers and it was still worth it to me to register in AZ as out of state vs. increase in my CA property tax bill.

I have a friend that has a boat here but somehow has his boat registered in Oregon. He has it made!

[Thegerman618]

I work in Law Enforcement, and looked through the laws I could find and when it comes to boats the laws are murky,

1. Any Vessel shall be registered in the state of the owners primary residence. CA. LAW (this is pretty simple and easy)
2. All vessels are required to registered when operating on any waterway/river/lake or within national navigation limits of the United States. (Federal Law again pretty simple)
3. Vessel Registration requirements- A vessel is required to be registered in the owners primary state of residence OR registered in the state of the vessels primary use. (Federal Law)

The other tricky part of this, is that CA. looks at the boat and the trailer as 2 different entities. Two Completely different registrations and pots of money even though the majority of the time a boat and trailer are sold together. A boat registered in NV. where its primary use location is, but has a "mooring location" here in CA. but the primary travelling and trailering location is within CA. the trailer is registered in here CA. and this is 100% legal. Its seen no different than a car trailer registered in CA. towing a car registered in NV. (as long as the cars use location is in NV).

So really, if you can justify the "primary use location" you can register wherever you want, just not as a resident but maybe you guys all already new that. The flip side of this is our trailers, they still need to be registered in the state they are most travelled in.

KJohnson-I don't know if that will work, since the registration often requires the lien holders information and the information must match who is on file OR the current registration from the current state its registered in at that time of new registration and the names must match or you will need to provide the bill of sale, and in AZ. be prepared for that state Tax. Just a hint NV has no state tax, and the registration is significantly cheaper in NV.