Posted on 07/25/2010 8:47:16 AM PDT by Bon mots
John Kerry was busted for trying to evade high Massachusetts taxes for his new luxury yacht by berthing it in Newport, RI - very far from any of his residences, and surely a tax cheating ploy by this tax & spend Democratic sanctimonious hypocrite.
The part of this story that people seem to have missed, comes when his Chief of Staff, David Wade denied that the old poodle was berthing his boat out of state to avoid paying his own taxes to his own tax-ridden state.
“The boat was designed by and purchased from a company in Rhode Island, and it’s based in Newport at the Newport Shipyard for long-term maintenance, upkeep and charter purposes, not tax reasons,”
The fact that he plans on chartering a foreign built boat out in US waters now makes him clearly in violation of the "Jones Act" and "Passenger Services Act" which require that any boat that takes on charter passengers in US waters be built in the USA.
LINK TO ARTICLE (opens in new window)
Kerry was obviously looking to avoid paying about $500,000.00 in sales and property taxes that the Democrats imposed on us little people. His spokesperson has lied to get him out of one boiling pot and placed him squarely into another. So which law is he flouting -
(Excerpt) Read more at bostonherald.com ...
Awsome. Can I wear my 20 year old, rusted cleated Foot Joy golf shoes and my greay mechanics overalls? ( I have a Gilligan Captains hat already..)
I’ll bring the Natural Ice and PBR beer!
.....long-term maintenance, upkeep....”
You mean to tell me there are no “long term and upkeep” type of companies in his home state?
“Exemptions are available for boats that carry less than 6 and 12 passengers. Highly unlikely for a multi-million dollar 75 footer.
My case is about the Jones Act angle, not the tax angle. “
This sail boat is very un-likely to carry 12 passengers, except on day trips. there isn’t enough room on board for enough staterooms.
I can tell you that foreign built boats are chartered in US waters all of the time, and a 75 foot boat with Captain and crew is not particularly large or at all unusual in the charter business. I seriously doubt that chartering this boat will constitute a Jones Act violation.
I have no doubt that Kerry is trying to avoid the Massachusetts sales and excise tax, but he is by no means assured of success. In my home state of Maryland, a similar situation exists with respect to the State of Delaware. Delaware has no sales tax, and somebody buying a boat in Maryland can save the excise tax (which was 5 percent when I bought my boat but I think is now 6 percent) by buying the boat in Delaware and using a Delaware hail port in her documentation. However, Maryland is very aggressive about going after these boat owners if the boat shows up in Maryland waters with any regularity. The Maryland taxing authorities regularly send investigators to marinas to check the names and hail ports of boats docked there. They pay particular attention to boats from Delaware that have no Maryland stickers. Massachusetts undoubtedly does the same sort of thing with respect to Rhode Island. If the boat begins to show up in Nantucket, Kerry will get a tax bill.
I can tell you that foreign built boats are chartered in US waters all of the time, and a 75 foot boat with Captain and crew is not particularly large or at all unusual in the charter business. I seriously doubt that chartering this boat will constitute a Jones Act violation.
I have no doubt that Kerry is trying to avoid the Massachusetts sales and excise tax, but he is by no means assured of success. In my home state of Maryland, a similar situation exists with respect to the State of Delaware. Delaware has no sales tax, and somebody buying a boat in Maryland can save the excise tax (which was 5 percent when I bought my boat but I think is now 6 percent) by buying the boat in Delaware and using a Delaware hail port in her documentation. However, Maryland is very aggressive about going after these boat owners if the boat shows up in Maryland waters with any regularity. The Maryland taxing authorities regularly send investigators to marinas to check the names and hail ports of boats docked there. They pay particular attention to boats from Delaware that have no Maryland stickers. Massachusetts undoubtedly does the same sort of thing with respect to Rhode Island. If the boat begins to show up in Nantucket, Kerry will get a tax bill.
Yes, interesting. Only Dems? Or are there a few Pubbie ‘heros’ out there too? Here is a bit about Juan McLame...
“In all the tales of wartime courage peppering John McCain’s presidential campaign trail, perhaps the most outstanding example of selfless heroism involves not the candidate but a humble Vietnamese peasant.
On October 26, 1967, Mai Van On ran from the safety of a bomb shelter at the height of an air raid and swam out into the lake where Lieutenant Commander McCain was drowning, tangled in his parachute cord after ejecting when his Skyhawk bomber was hit by a missile.
In an extraordinary act of compassion at a time when Vietnamese citizens were being killed by US aerial bombardments, he pulled a barely conscious McCain to the lake surface and, with the help of a neighbour, dragged him towards the shore.
And when a furious mob at the water’s edge began to beat and stab the captured pilot, Mr On drove them back. Nearly three decades later, a Vietnamese government commission confirmed he was indeed the rescuer and, in a 1996 meeting in Hanoi, McCain embraced and thanked Mr On and presented him with a Senate memento.
From that brief encounter to his death at the age of 88 two years ago, Mr On never heard from the senator again, and three years after their meeting, McCain published an autobiography that makes no mention of his apparent debt to Mr On. It is a snub Mr On took to his death. His widow, Bui Thi Lien, 71, said: ?In his last years, my husband was very sad sometimes. He would say, ‘Mr McCain has forgotten me. Mr McCain would be dead if it weren’t for my husband.’”
More, from http://educate-yourself.org/cn/earlhopperinterview08feb08.shtml
“The impression that McCain and the media has attempted to portray of McCain’s 5 1/2 years as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam is about as far from the truth that one could possible go. McCain, from the first moments of his capture, had behaved as a COLLOBORATOR and propaganda tool for his North Vietnamese captors. McCain had engaged in no less than 30, and likely as many as 38 anti-American propaganda broadcasts for Radio Hanoi during the period of his captivity. Far from the image of a dedicated American “hero” sweating it out in a North Vietnamese prisoner’s “hotbox” for 5 1/2 years, McCain was often given “special” treatment by his captors, who were fully aware of his father’s and grandfather’s 4 star admiral positions with the Navy. No one has ever witnessed McCain’s supposed “torture” at the hands of his jailers. The consensus opinion of other POWs in McCain’s camps was that McCain was NEVER tortured by the North Vietnamese. McCain’s disgraceful and wholly reprehensible conduct (along with John Kerry) during the 1991-93 Senate Committee on POW/MIAs leaves no doubt that McCain is a traitor to this country and its veterans and especially to the families of POWs and MIAs...”
It was posted as a question.
Obama was spouting off about how important the Jones Act was to his administration and in fact, it delayed action on the Gulf disaster... so I posed it as a question...
I threw it out there, and if he ever charters it to a party of 13... I hope he gets nailed for it. Time to hold the elites to the same rules that they stick us with.
Which you immediately follow with your own opinions and anecdote. No sources cited. Nice work!
What am I, a turnip? Like the NVA didn't have .......radar? Like, they, the Russians, didn't know American Air Forces theory and target selection? And......maybe notice a ....'Pattern'? You know, like, "Hey, they bomb bridges. We have bridges. I bet they bomb the bridges". And so forth.
Dreck. I stopped after that stupid, statement.
Based on the history of Massachusetts voters, I wouldn't hold out much hope for that happening.
So an "average" captain makes about five hundred bucks? :=)
Why don’t we charter it for an afternoon and pee on the captain’s chair?
Because the poor schmuck tasked with piloting Kerry's yacht probably doesn't deserve it. Find the easy chair designed for Thurston Howell III.
“Did you know he was a war hero In Viet Nam?”
I heard he got a Purple Heart or two. Wow!
I say he "could" have a problem, because, from the articles I have read, it is possible the Massachusetts law may have a significant loophole. The artcles seem to say that he can avoid the Massachusetts tax by keeping the boat in Rhode Island for 6 months and then bringing it to Massachusetts. This would be unusual. Normally what happens when you bring a boat (or car) to a new state is that you have to pay the excise tax but get a credit for whatever sales or excise tax you paid in the previous state. This would mean Kerry would have to pay the whole tax, since he paid zero in Rhode Island. If Massachusetts really lets you bring a boat in tax-free after 6 months, that is a gaping loophole. My guess is that the articles are simply poorly written and that this is not the case, but I don't know whether that is so.
“Boat hull, superstructure made in China( ? ). Check.
Finished in New Zealand( maybe ). Check”
Not far from the truth. The Obama years have brought on the near destruction of a once dominant and thriving marine industry in the USA. Many manufacturers have shut their plants down and the brokerage business is near dormant. Many boats between 50-100’ are now built in Asia.
I saw ‘made in China’ on a box of rolls of plastic bags.
Plastic bag manufacture is near nigh no worker automated. So it means under any circumstance we can not compete even with no workers. This means it is the back office expenses and or taxes.
I see a lot of prepared food coming in from China too.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.