Not sure if this is new since I haven't bought a boat with an outboard in a while but when I met the seller of my new boat to transfer the title the clerk explained that we needed to reach an agreement on the price of the vessel and a price for the motor since only the vessel is taxed. Needless to say, I just bought a pretty expensive outboard and a cheap vessel

Must be only with used boats...never heard of that even when I sold my Concept.

I never heard of it either.

Might be different in Ohio but last year I paid sales tax.
I am looking at the Memorandum Titles and they broke them down so I paid tax on the boat and then each of the 2 outboards had seperate titles also.

On I/Os here the boat and motor(s) are all on one.

Cordell

Gator....thats the way it works in Florida....sales tax on the boat only. Supposed to be on outboards, but I got away with listing the hull separately from the 2 i/o engines and saved a helluva lot on taxes. Obviously the engines were expensive and the hull cheap.

Wait a second...are you saying that used outboards in Florida are not subject to state sales tax?

I'm asking because I just bought a used 300x from a Mercury dealer and was charged tax. I questioned the dealer at the time and was told all used outboards were taxable in Florida.

Thanks for the help-

Let me guess.......... their area code is either 305 or 954?

I think that you may have been exposed to the "South Florida Shuffle".

Just found this...

"When you purchase the vessel, motor and trailer together from an individual, you will not have to pay sales tax on the outboard motor if you can provide an itemized and notarized bill of sale signed by the seller. You will pay sales tax on the vessel and trailer. (This exemption does not apply to inboard motors or if you have purchased the motor from a dealer of store.)"

I guess the dealer was correct in charging sales tax.

All the sudden I might be in the market for a used outboard cat

It was a complete surprise to me but a good one. She actually handed us a generic bill of sale, we filled it out and she notarized it. Saved me alot of $$