I didn't follow the advice I always give to others and start with Google. I'm rather startled by what I've found when I finally did. This tax situation has been well covered and I don't know why I haven't heard about it. Either the Portland paper hasn't paid much attention to it or I missed seeing the issues that did.
There appears indeed to be some substance to reports that Maine tax people have been rowing around harbors in boats with cameras, examining marina records (sometimes with subpoenas) and then sending letters to boats from non-tax states, primarily RI and NH, demanding that owners submit all sorts of documentation to show that they are not subject to use tax by virtue of either having used the boat for more than a year in their home state or having spent less than 30 days in Maine during that first year of ownership.
Since the Compliance Review Unit did not bother to check with another state agency to discover that I was previously ME state registered in my case, I doubt that the are doing any coordination with other states. I strongly suspect that they are just shot gunning letters out to every RI and NH registered vessel they can prove was in Maine to see what falls out of the sky.
I’ve assembled the links Google turned up here:
http://www.rogerlongboats.com/CruisingLinks.htm (Bottom of Page)
http://www.rogerlongboats.com/CruisingLinks.com
This has been surprisingly well covered already for something I just recently heard about. I’ve been asked to write an article about it for my magazine although it now may turn out to be too big, complex, and old a story for them. I’m going to keep looking into it and will let you all know if I learn anything interesting.
[FONT="]In the mean time, if you have been hassled by the Maine tax folks, please get in touch with me directly roger@rogerlongboats.com . I’m also interested in stories from other states as this is evidently a spreading plague.[/FONT]
There appears indeed to be some substance to reports that Maine tax people have been rowing around harbors in boats with cameras, examining marina records (sometimes with subpoenas) and then sending letters to boats from non-tax states, primarily RI and NH, demanding that owners submit all sorts of documentation to show that they are not subject to use tax by virtue of either having used the boat for more than a year in their home state or having spent less than 30 days in Maine during that first year of ownership.
Since the Compliance Review Unit did not bother to check with another state agency to discover that I was previously ME state registered in my case, I doubt that the are doing any coordination with other states. I strongly suspect that they are just shot gunning letters out to every RI and NH registered vessel they can prove was in Maine to see what falls out of the sky.
I’ve assembled the links Google turned up here:
http://www.rogerlongboats.com/CruisingLinks.htm (Bottom of Page)
http://www.rogerlongboats.com/CruisingLinks.com
This has been surprisingly well covered already for something I just recently heard about. I’ve been asked to write an article about it for my magazine although it now may turn out to be too big, complex, and old a story for them. I’m going to keep looking into it and will let you all know if I learn anything interesting.
[FONT="]In the mean time, if you have been hassled by the Maine tax folks, please get in touch with me directly roger@rogerlongboats.com . I’m also interested in stories from other states as this is evidently a spreading plague.[/FONT]
