I lived in GA and owned boats there for 26 years. Once upon a time people would avoid paying ad valorem (personal property) taxes on their boats by documenting 'em and using the regional USCG port of Miami as their hailing port (quite legal, btw)...for a number of years, it was just amazing how many owners of boats on Lake Lanier apparently lived in Miami! :dance: But GA got wise to it sometime in the late 80s and passed new laws requiring that all "permanently moored" vessels, whether documented or not, be registered...and once you're registered, the state knows where to send the ad valorem tax bill and how much tax to charge you. They've been known to walk the docks...and if they don't have a record of your HIN, they get it from the marina office! And they're serious about collecting, too! I've seen boats chained to the dock for deliquent taxes and even seen some go to auction. The good news--if there is any--in this is that the boat is taxed in the county in which IT "lives," not the county in which the owner lives...which can be a significant difference...and, only boats moored in GA on Jan 1 are taxable. So if it's not gonna stay in GA for a whole year, you might want to wait till Jan to move the boat. But you'd still have to register it if you stay long enough...and the only thing I can't remember after being away from GA for nearly 10 years is how long a vessel can remain in GA before it's considered "permanently moored' there...I'm thinkin' it's 3 months...but it could be longer, or shorter. You need to check on it. Documented vessels don't have to show state numbers but they do have to show the state decal.
