boat sales tax?

[wallywalleye]

If you live in Iowa and buy a used boat privately in South Dakota you don't pay Iowa sales tax? Please, someone explain this to me... this gets talked about in Buying a new boat- need some advise. but doesn't get too detailed . I would like more information please.

[delmuts]

if i remember , last year i bought a boat from a individual in minn. i didn't have to pay taxes on the boat, but did have to pay taxes on the trailer.

[Ole1855]

delmuts is correct, I bought a boat last year and I was expecting to have to cough up sales tax on the boat but since I bought it from an individual the only sales tax was on the trailer.

Ole

[Deitz Dittrich]

Same thing here. I got my boat in Kentucky... I had to pay sales tax on the trailer only when I licenced it in MN.

[leechlake]

Just for piece of mind I would call the Iowa Commerce Department and ask someone. Every state has different laws and while the guys above are probably correct (once again it depends on the states involved)just make a 5 minute phone call and your question will be answered. For our business we have to try and figure out all of these tax issues and it is pretty complex when dealing with different entities. Every state gets their tax dollars in different ways so they want to make sure people can't easily find loopholes.

[Northlander]

I live in Wi. and bought my boat across the bridge in Duluth, Mn. The state of Wi. charged me sales tax on the hole thing boat/motor/trailer! What a joke that is. Now Mn. and Wi. have made tax $ off of the same boat. And its not cheap.

[musky hunter]

I just bought a boat from an Illinois seller, I live in Minnesota. The boat and motor are exempt from Minnesota sales tax if purchased from an individual, but the trailer is charged both sales tax and the lifetime sticker. But because they were never registered in Minnesota before, the registration was higher. The trailer, which cost $25 to renew if licensed before in Minnesota, was $55. I think the boat was a little higher too. Not a deal breaker, but I just emptied my wallet of over $150 to pay sales tax on a $500 trailer and register the boat with it too. (ouch, I'm glad the governor didn't raise taxes in Minnesota last year).

[danfall]

Technically, you are required to pay sales tax on many purchases. Just because you aren't charged sales tax doesn't mean you are out of it.

Many companies and individuals are subject to use taxes. I recently bought a motor on the internet that may be subject to use tax.

I'll be gone fishin' though.

[wallywalleye]

Thanks everybody!!! I did my homework and Iowa is the same as Minnesota. You only have to pay tax on what the trailer is worth. Iowa is 5%

[Sgt. Rock]

Another thing for the MN guys or others is how is the trailer value determined. When I did mine bought from WI and registered in MN they did a % of the total package price that was too high in my opinion. Luckily I had printed out the bluebook value sheet for that trailer and they accepted that. Was much lower cost.