My Classic is officially a Classic Now

I just returned from the tag agency with my new antique vessel registration. It was painless. A copy of the form and the new registration went in the mail today to Tallahassee for my decal. This was so simple! My good friend who is the original owner of a 1969 20SF is sending his in as well. He is mad because he could have done this I guess ten years ago but did not know!

Thank you Fellow-ship, et al!!

[jason555]

Another point of interest to take note of is the sales tax you pay when you purchase a boat. In Florida if you purchase a boat with an outboard motor you only have to pay sales tax on the value of the hull because the motor is not a permanent part of the boat. So you can therefore get a bill of sale from the owner and breakdown the large components. For example if you pay $10,000 for a boat, you cn breakdown the bill of sale to say $2000 for hull, and $8000 for outboard motor (assuming the value of the motor is close to this amount). Your sales tax will be based on hull value only. You can also break out electronics and trailer value from that gross purchase price. This is great info if you are trying to sell your boat and the buyer has a hard time coming up with sales tax money, or you are buying a boat and can save a bunch of sales tax dollars come registration time. This only works in private sales. If you buy from a dealer they will charge you full sale tax on purchase price only. I did this last year when I purchased my 23 from a private party. One other fact about the antique decal. If you rgistered or renwed your reg this year and your boat qualified for the antique vessel program, you can go to the tax office and get an abatement form, fill it out and request a refund of the registration $ you paid and they will refund the regisration amount less the antique vessel fee to you. They will only go back on the current year. I found out about this and tried to go back three years but they would only go back the one year. Problem is most of the clerks do not k now about these laws until you make them do some research then they find them and apply them to you.

Great point. I'm headed back in for my abatement form tomorrow!!

[Bushwacker]

Got my antique sticker in mail yesterday; was able to renew online today at the new lower rate . . . $13.20 for 2 years!

Thanks again to Fellowship, No Bones and all those that provided the info! Denny

Got my antique sticker in the mail today. The whole registration process took 17 days, start to finish!

[Bushwacker]

. . . The whole registration process took 17 days, start to finish!

I got the antique sticker about a week after mailing application; renewed on line and got new registration sticker about 4-5 days later, so about 11-12 days total. I was amazed that Tallahassee could move that fast! They still didn't correct the 20'8" hull length, but can't complain about their response time!

[zach]

I wanted to bump this thread as I just went through the process successfully, thanks to you guys.

It was a little weird paying more to register my trailer than my boat.

[eggsuckindog]

On another note - this will follow to a new owner as well, we switched the boat to Susans name this year and it still came in at $5.25. Nifty detail as I forgot to check it until she already did it and was worried she paid the full pop.