I have friends in No Va. who thought the same, that it exempts you. It may take a while but they will catch up with you. When they do...it can be expensive.

I live in Stafford va. and the boat tax is insane. Out of 8 years I have been caught twice and hit with over 15k in taxes. The first time they got me was because of my trailer, they found out somehow what was on it, my 42 Sonic. Then I got my 50 NT and didnt reg. the trailer at my house and every thing was cool for about 3 years then when I renewed my USCG doc. they now send the info of the boat to the county you live in.

I told them both times that the boats are only in the county for 4-5 months a year but I had no proof of that because it was at my sister inlaws house in FL. and since Stafford is my primary address I had to pay. So now I doc. them at my Prince William county address and the USCG send the paper work and info there where there is no tax. The way it works if the boat is in Stafford on Jan.1 you pay the tax. witch my boat never was but fighting them is point less.

When I get another boat I will buy or rent a boatell rack in S FL. so I can prove where it is and Doc. it there. The other nice thing Stafford started doing to get their $$$$ is it used to be what you paid for the boat was what they went off of, now you have to show them your paper work of what you paid and then they look up the blue book witch ever # is higher is the one they use.

There have been many fights with marina owners and boat owners over this maybe someday it will change the other countys around stafford either have no tax or a $2500 limit or much less %, and Stafford has the least amount of water.

Other than this I like living here but the boat tax thing is crazy. When I asked why so high the told me the roads I trailer it on.
I live on the water the only time my boat is on Stafford roads is about 30 mins a year when I take it down to FL. or bring it back.

That being said I still saved about 15k in the years they didn't know about but it is a stressfull pain in the a$$ dealing with them.

Wow, that is alot of taxes. I bought a documented boat in Chesterfield in June. Here in Iowa I had to pay 5% on purchase price of boat, 5% on the trailer & reg. which is good for 3 years. just have to pay for reg. ever 3 years that is only a few hundred so I saw no need to pay for documenting it.

I've witnessed a couple other successful schemes.

1 - rent a slip full time in a county without PP tax. You can make a deal with the Marina that you will essentially rent a "transient" slip for some nominal fee.
2 - Find out when a marina does their annual recording of what boats are on the premises and get yours OFF.
3 - Make friends with someone in a no-tax locality and "keep" the boat there.
4 - Start a Company in Delaware and "keep" it there.

I stated eariler that you have more options depending on where you store the boat. Mine stays in a garage behind the house and is "out of sight". It has DEL registration numbers for a reason.....although .INC cost in DEL is getting much higher than it used to be, it's still better than PP taxes.

While we are on the subject of it I don't think a 26' PQ is eligible for documentation. I believe there is a footage requirement of 30'.

SO - you are probably going to run into some unpleasant tax consequences.

OR - just don't register it, don't put any stickers on it, play dumb, and pay the tickets when you get them!!!!

Or just live in PWC. or Fredricksburg. Stafford isn't that big. I wanted waterfront property and there isn't that much around here that was what I needed. I could have got 20 acres off the water for what I spent on 1.5 on the water.

personal tax,boat tax,its all the same.just another way to get into the working mans pocket.the county i live in wanted almost 800.00 dollars more than the county i moved it to,and it only moved 60 miles away.i think it all depends on how hungry they are....and ther all hungy.what county or city has the cheapest rates in va?anybody know?

Hampton VA is free.

Poquoson is 1% I believe.

York County is 1% if you are over 5Net Tons.