Used 2006 21' C-Ranger for sale

I was intrigued by the ad's mention that the boat was "titled in the name of a limited liability company (LLC)." and hence the "Buyer may purchase the company rather than the boat, which means there will be no additional sales tax or transfer fees."

Sounds like an interesting idea - need a lawyer (Pat?) to tell us if there's an advantage to this...
 
Wow - five minutes ago I looked at the ad, and now when I click it up it says the ad has expired. Roger must have bought the company.
 
Lookis like the ad expired as of 8 pm tonight, 8/29.

Looks to me like when you buy the corporation (LLC), you don't have to re-license or pay sales tax because the boat doesn't change ownership, it still belongs to the LLC, so no change in title or sales tax is due. But now YOU own the corporation, and hence have control and use of the boat. AND there may be some liability protection in this arrangement as well. Pretty slick sleight of hand, huh?

Didn't get the price, but for $50,000, 8% sales tax is $4,000, and the other licenses, etc. might cost from $200 to $500?

How about the Personaal Property Tax (The County's Cut of Your Fun Money)?

Maybe we should all form an LLC?

Joe.
 
The state of Florida does not seem to buy it that way. Since the principals in the company change, the person who uses the boat changes, and thus the tax office wants their due! It may work for Washington--if you don't get caught. I do know that when I left my Cal 46 in Sequim for 6 months, the state of Washington Tax board was all over me to pay my Washington "use tax" and registration. (I had paid taxes in Calif, and owned the boat for over a year so avoided the use tax.)
 
I really don't know if the "titled in the name of an LLC" thing to avoid sales tax works here or not - I suspect not, as Washington, as most states, is very protective of its tax revenues. For example, the State Patrol used to have an entire unit devoted catching Washington residents who licensed their RVs in Oregon back when that made a difference. People may DO something like title their boats or RVs in the name of an LLC to avoid sales tax, and may get away with it for years, but that doesn't make it legal. I suspect the state would generally "pierce the corporate veil" to discover and tax what is really happening. Things that are done for the sole reason of avoiding a tax rather than for some legitimate business purpose usually have some statute or adminstrative rule addressing them to protect the state's tax revenues. On the other hand, I am not a tax, business or asset protection specialist - I am just an old country lawyer (imagine my best Sam Irvin voice here) who spends his days worrying about the legal interests of the City of Snoqualmie...but having a boat in the name of an LLC probably also introduces a whole bunch of other issues, including licensing, state and local tax reporting and federal income tax (for an LLC to have a bank account, it has to have a federal tax identification number). Generally this kind of stuff is more problem than it is worth. Disclaimer - these thougths are worth exactly what you paid for them!
 
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