Buying a Boat in Florida and Keeping It Somewhere Else
Florida has more boats for sale than anywhere in America. Getting one out of the state without paying twice is a documented process, not a favour.
By Boatmere Brokerage Desk · Updated · 8 min read
Florida has more boats for sale than any other state in America, and a large share of the buyers do not live there. If you are one of them, the question is not whether you can buy in Florida. It is whether you can get the boat out without paying Florida 6% and then paying your own state again.
You can. The mechanism is a removal decal, the deadline is real, and the paperwork is the whole game.
Can a non-resident buy a boat in Florida without paying sales tax?
Yes. A non-resident purchaser can take delivery in Florida without paying Florida sales tax, provided the vessel leaves Florida waters within the allowed period and the departure is documented. The standard allowance is 90 days from the date of purchase under a temporary decal issued at closing. Without a decal, the window shrinks to roughly 20 days.
Miss it and Florida's 6% attaches, capped at $18,000 under Statute 212.05. There is no retroactive fix.
What the removal process actually looks like
The steps are mechanical, and every one of them produces a piece of paper you will want three years from now.
- 01Declare non-residency at closing. You sign an affidavit stating you are not a Florida resident and that the vessel will be removed. Lying here is not a tax dispute, it is fraud.
- 02Buy the decal. The selling dealer or broker obtains the temporary decal. It costs very little and it is the difference between 90 days and 20.
- 03Do the work you need done. Time at a Florida repair facility that is registered with the Department of Revenue can be excluded from the clock, but the yard must file for it. Ask before the boat is hauled, not after.
- 04Leave, and prove it. Fuel receipts, a transient slip invoice in Georgia or the Bahamas, a bridge log, an AIS track. Anything with a date and a position.
- 05Register at home promptly. Your destination state's registration is the cleanest single piece of evidence that the boat is based elsewhere.
- 06Keep the file for three years. Florida commonly audits by pulling marina tenant lists and cross-referencing hull numbers. The audit arrives long after you have forgotten the transaction.
The trap nobody mentions: coming back
The removal rule is about the initial purchase. It says nothing about visiting. But Florida also taxes vessels that are used or stored in the state beyond a threshold period, and a boat that returns for a five-month winter season is, for practical purposes, a Florida boat.
Buyers get caught by their own cruising plans. They remove the boat in March, register it in Maryland, then bring it south in November and leave it at a Stuart marina until April. That pattern, repeated, invites a use tax assessment.
If your intention all along is to winter in Florida, the honest and usually cheaper answer is to pay the Florida tax at closing and take the $18,000 cap. It is a ceiling, not a rate, and on a large boat it is often the lowest number available anywhere.
What your home state will want
Every state that charges sales tax also charges use tax, and registration is the trigger. Expect the following when you register:
| Destination | Use tax basis | Practical effect on a $500,000 boat |
|---|---|---|
| North Carolina | 3% capped $1,500 | $1,500 |
| South Carolina | 5% capped $500 | $500, plus annual county property tax |
| Maryland | 5% excise capped $15,900 | $15,900 |
| Georgia | State and local, no marine cap | roughly $20,000 to $40,000 |
| New Jersey | 3.3125% | about $16,563 |
| Michigan | 6%, no cap | $30,000 |
If Florida collected nothing because you removed the boat correctly, there is no credit to apply and your home state charges its full amount. The removal only helps you when the destination is cheaper than Florida's cap. For a Michigan buyer of a $500,000 boat, removing to Michigan costs $30,000 against Florida's $18,000. Staying and paying would have been better.
That arithmetic surprises people every single season.
Delivery, and who takes the risk
Two ways the boat leaves: on its own bottom, or on a truck.
Running it out is cheaper and it starts the sea trial and shakedown early, which has real value on a used hull. It also means a delivery captain, an insurance rider with the right navigational limits, and weather risk on a deadline that the state will not extend. Hurricane season complicates this from June through November, and no auditor has ever accepted a tropical storm as a reason for a late departure.
Trucking runs roughly $8 to $14 per mile for a beamy hull once permits and escorts are counted, so Fort Lauderdale to Annapolis lands somewhere near $12,000. It is predictable, and predictability is worth paying for when a tax deadline is attached.
One thing worth checking before you commit either way: your insurer's navigational limits. A policy written for the destination state may not cover a Florida departure, and the gap tends to surface at the least convenient moment.
Is it worth the trouble?
Honestly, for boats under about $150,000, usually not. Florida's 6% on a $120,000 boat is $7,200. A removal that costs $9,000 in trucking to save $7,200 is a bad trade, and the paperwork risk is the same as it is on a million-dollar hull.
The programme earns its keep in two situations. First, expensive boats headed to a capped state — a $900,000 hull going to South Carolina genuinely saves close to $17,500. Second, boats leaving the country entirely, where no US use tax follows.
Everywhere in between, the sensible move is to price the tax into the offer and stop trying to engineer around it.
The one-page version
Ask the broker for the decal at closing. Get the departure affidavit signed. Keep every receipt that shows the boat outside Florida. Register at home inside 30 days. And before any of it, run the arithmetic for your actual destination — because for a good number of buyers, Florida's $18,000 ceiling is the cheapest outcome on the board.
Frequently asked questions
- Can a non-resident buy a boat in Florida without paying sales tax?
- Yes, if the boat leaves Florida waters within the removal window and the paperwork proves it. Florida issues a temporary decal — commonly 90 days for a non-resident purchaser — during which the vessel may remain in state. Miss the deadline and the full 6% becomes due, capped at $18,000.
- How long can I keep the boat in Florida after buying it?
- Under the non-resident decal programme the usual allowance is 90 days from the date of purchase, with a shorter 20-day window if no decal is obtained. Extensions exist for repairs at a registered facility, but they must be applied for before the original period expires.
- What proof does Florida want that the boat left?
- Typically a departure affidavit, fuel and dockage receipts showing the vessel outside Florida, and evidence of registration in the destination state. Keep everything for at least three years, because Florida audits marina tenant records well after the fact.
- Will my home state charge me tax anyway?
- Almost certainly, as use tax when you register the boat there. Most states credit tax legitimately paid to another state, so you pay the difference rather than the full amount twice. If Florida charged nothing, your home state charges its full rate.
- Does a repair yard stay extend the removal window?
- It can. Time spent at a Florida repair facility registered with the Department of Revenue may be excluded from the removal clock, but the yard has to file the correct forms and you need the work order. Do not rely on a verbal assurance from the service manager.
