I know this has probably been beat to death before but I'm going to ask anyway. I know that if you finance a boat and it quallifies for a second home you can deduct the interest. Here's my question. If the sales tax was not financed into the loan, can any portion of the sales tax be deducted like closing costs on a home morgage or property taxes on a primary or secondary home? Part two of my question is how about slip rentals? Can any of that be deducted?

Thanks

You can deduct all your sales tax on everything on your federal income taxes instead of using your state income tax deduction.

Slip rental?????? Not that I know of, unless it related to a business expense.

But it is in-lieu of a standard deduction that you are granted for Sales Tax - so it depends on how much you have "bought" throughout the year....

I know that for me, it wasn't worth it last year, but I didn't have any big purchases throughout the year....

Quote:

Originally Posted by Griff

You can deduct all your sales tax on everything on your federal income taxes instead of using your state income tax deduction.

Can you elaborate a littler more on the federal deduction part?

That is incorrect. Sales tax for "Major purchases" are added to the standard sales tax deduction. Boat's, cars, and RV's qualify as "major purchases" (i.e. you get the standard sales tax deduction PLUS sales tax paid on "major purchases")

I'll tell you what, this is a learning experience for me. I have never heard or even thought of trying to deduct the sales tax off one of my cars or trucks. How many years back can I go? Further more, what sort of paper work do I need to do this on my boat that I"m going to buy?

AH....didn't know that.

There is a reason I am not a tax accountant....

For paperwork you just need a copy of your purchase agreement to get the amount of tax paid and the deduction goes on your schedule A. For how far back, I believe the tax code was changed around 5 years ago.

Its on the Schedule A Itemized Deductions. You can choose to either deduct your state income tax paid or use the general sales tax you paid.

Line 5 http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f1040sab.pdf