Floaters
Much as the Kerry campaign was wont to flog the fact that the Bush economy has been bleeding jobs, there are signs that the economy in some sectors is actually very robust. Look no further than the bare-boat charter industry, a collection of plucky entrepreneurs who, given a fighting chance at operating competitive businesses by an adroit web of state and federal tax incentives, have deployed an enticing fleet of vessels for rent to an adoring public.
The Seattle P-I has published a series of stories about how buyers and sellers of luxury yachts use a combination of sweetheart tax laws and criminally lax enforcement to avoid millions of dollars in federal and state tax. Chief among the dodges are:
- the monstrous Section 179 depreciation deduction allowed on federal income tax (like, 1/2 of the boat’s purchase price in the year of acquisition) for purchasing business assets. We’ve mostly heard how this break helps low-lifes finance SUV’s on a December shopping spree, but it’s also applicable to yachts costing millions of dollars.
- they play a multi-state ruse in order to avoid paying sales tax on the boats’ purchase, while the rest of us land-bound tools have no choice but to pay taxes on our modest purchases.
These guys say that the tax breaks help them stimulate job growth as they pursue their humanitarian mission of cruising and befouling the state’s waterways. Thank god somebody’s looking out for the working guy.
