Washington Sales Tax

I have somebody who is interested in buying my boat in Washington State. It would be an out of state used boat, would he have to pay sales tax? I know it varies from state to state.

Thanks

Yep...

Just like cliff says Yep, you can make the tax a little easier on him though, If he pays 10k for the boat, write a bill of sale for the amount of 5,6 or even 7k, that will help some....

I believe he'll have to pay the tax when he registers the boat. We don't have sales tax in Oregon. Sell it to someone here.......Nice boat at a good price Willy........

When I was there, last week, I could buy most things from retail stores without the sales tax by showing my out of state drivers license and signing a sheet of paper. Maybe boats are different.

Since he will be registering the boat in Wa state he will pay the sales tax when he registers. Selling it to him for 10K won't help, they have an idea what it's worth at the dmv. I tried that with a vehicle once, it was a no go.

I'm dumb. I read that wrong so just listen to nu bu and ignore my rambling.

If you buy a boat out of WA and register it here, you pay the differance in Sales Tax. WA ST 9%, somewhere else 5%. He pays a 3% water use tax (no sales tax). What he pays in other state depends on that state. I know from registering in NV years ago, they didn't care and had no sales tax and registered you out of state use for a couple dollars more.

I just went through this with my boat last year. I transfered from CA to WA. If you buy and live out of state for 6 months you pay NOTHING.. but if you move in state within the 6 months you pay the difference in state/s tax (they call a water use tax) and no they don't care what you paid for it, they go by the NADA value. Heres the kicker, the DMV don't know sheeet about this and will try and argue with you, its a totally differnt dept you have to contact. In my case I had to actually get them on the phone and they had to explain it to the DMV.

They have this law because they found with OR having no sales tax people were going out of state and buying big tickets items just so they didn't have to pay the sales tax.

So to put it simply the answer is yes they will have to pay a sales/water use tax based on NADA value BUT you tell them the condition of the boat and they don't care about anthing extra like stereo, ballast, custom blah blah, blah.

The Washington state's Vehicle Licensening system will pull up a NADA like value on the screen when he registers it. It comes down to the descression of the clerk. It's obviously easier to argue a lower value on older boats.

I've had a lot of trouble with Washington licensing--all on legit stuff. A trick I found that may help you is try going to different offices. If one gives you flack, grab your papers and leave. Go to the next office. It took me going to 4 different offices until I found one that really doesn't care...Plus I treated them really nice. They've run things through multiple times without question.

(bought a boat in OR from a dealer and had to wait 90 days to get the MSO for the trailer. Couldn't register the trailer, couldn't get a 90 day temp because I didn't have the Gross Trailer Weight and they couldn't enter it in the system with out it, if they did and it was wrong it'd inhibit me from registering it when I got the MSO. The only option WA had for me was to buy a 3-day trip permit at $45)

That 8 to 9% sales tax makes it hard to flip a boat every year, or every other year. it serves as a penelty that ultimately slows consumer spending.

(Message edited by yosquire on September 23, 2007)