South Carolina Property Tax May Affect Cruisers
Salty Southeast Cruisers Net

By Claiborne Young
Posted Friday, November 2, 2007

 
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Owners of Vessels Berthed in South Carolina for 60 to 90 Days Can Be Hit With South
Carolina Property Tax

Hello Fellow Cruisers:

For a little better than a week now, there has been a furious buzz on several of the cruising oriented mailing lists about the new South Carolina Property Tax bill as it applies to cruising craft. Some of our fellow cruisers have claimed that you can be hit with a 6% tax on your vessel's value if it is docked in SC for as little as 30 days. Others have said, "no, you can keep your boat in SC for up to six months without any tax penalties."

So, rather than just copy all of these various messages on the "South Carolina" page of the Cruiser's Net, we went to an authoratative source to find out what tax regulations really do apply to cruising vessels whose owners are not citizens of South Carolina! Pursuant to this goal, I first contacted Mr. Rick Griffin, co-owner of the Downtown Beaufort Marina (and A SALTY SOUTHEAST CRUISERS' NET SPONSOR). Rick is also the current president of the South Carolina Marine Association. Rick immediately contacted their organization's Executive Director, Ms. Suzi DuRant. We have just posted the definitive e-mail response from Ms. Durant, along with extensive comments from yours truly, on the "South Carolina" page of the Salty Southeast Cruisers' Net, and, yes, sorry to say, there IS cause for concern on the part of the cruising community.

I urge all my fellow cruisers who have any thoughts of keeping their vessels on South Carolina waters for longer than 60 days to read this important info without delay. To access this data, go to http://www.CruisersNet.net, and then peruse the navigational buttons along the left side of the page. Located the "Cruising News From" section, and then click on the "South Carolina" link/button. The property tax message is currently found atop the "South Carolina" page, though that will change as new postings are received.

Please help us pass the word about this definitive info to our fellow cruisers who are not members of this alert list. Those of you are are members of the GL, AGLCA and the MTOA lists, please consider copying this message on your lists. With the fall, 2007 snowbird ICW migration in full swing, it's IMPORTANT that this data become widely known in the cruising community without delay!