luxury tax and assesment in alameda county

Anyone here have to pay luxury tax on there boat in alameda county? I just got a letter from the assesor asking for details about my boat purchase price etc.?

Property assesor?

from what I understand its state wide.

yea, i have no idea because i never had to with my centurion i use to own. Maybe they just want to know if i live on it or something?

Yeah, it's a state wide assessment. Down in Socal we get the same thing. They ask purchase price and approximate value so they find another way to get you in Cali.

what do they do with it? isnt that all figured into our registration. What percentage do they make you pay?

I think it is 1% of the boat value.

ah, does it ever go down as the boat depreciates? is it every year?

Damn you boys have every kind of tax in Cali.

It goes down as the boat value decreases. If yours doesnt...call the assessor to make the correction.

Hello, my name is State of California and I like bending my residents over on a regular basis.
Damn dudes, how do you deal? It's no wonder you all keep moving to Nevada.

Shasta County has one, I get to pay the state $280 a year because I own a boat AWESOME!

yea its dumb as hell, oh well i just put my boat is only worth like 12999 hahaha

They told me they have people assess the value of my boat and they catch a lot of people who mark down low amounts, they probably did that to trick me but I still said less then what it is worth. For me the cost is 1% of the boat is worth which I have to pay every year.

Yeah, I think the 1% is standard. I was kind of scared because of what Steve said above. I figured if I marked it down from $60k to $50k it would only be a savings of a hundred bucks which I could get away with but it didn't seem worth it. I thought if I put it down to like $30k it might raise some red flags and shyed away from it.
Nick - I'm feel like Cali is forcing me to make my way to Nevada.

Alot of states, will cross check the value of your boat against boats of similar years and makes. If there are none, I'm sure it wouldn't be to hard for them to just pull up NADA.

I know in my state, they cross check to see if your value you provide on your purchase agreement is w/n 20% of others w/ the same boat. .... "If the purchase price provided is not within that 20% range, a taxable value within that range is established for excise tax assessment purposes. "

So basically if they think your lying or bought your boat to cheap, they are gonna stick it to you.

Of course, this is on excise tax.

(Message edited by Tanner on May 08, 2007)

Here's what I dont get. If you own a plane, RV, houseboat, motor boat, PWC you get butt pirated. But atv's and dirt bikes are excluded.

My question to those who may know is if I were to purchase a boat through a corporation would I avoid the tax without adding a different sort of tax?

i hate no idea but it's pretty dumb in my opinion, this state tax's everything and we have the crappiest roads and our parks and reserviors are in very poor shape. When will we get a governor that looks at the miss allocation of funds and uses them like they should?

Why is it only some people get hit with this?

yea that is my question too.

Your boat has to be above a certain value to be included in some counties. Some times if you move your boat, they don't catch up with you right away.

Why do you think some people do not get hit with it?