Crewed Yachts Aid To Safety Measures

Revisions in federal law have all but done away with the Crewed Charter Yachts as a business expense. Now the new administration is proposing federal user fees for recreational boaters. That gleaming $100,000 Crewed Charter Yachts you bought four years ago has turned into millstone around your neck. It costs $5,00 a year for dockage, maintenance and insurance. The twin-V8 gas engine burns 20 gallons an hour. It costs money to leave the boat at the dock and more money to take her out.

When you burble up Spa Creek into Annapolis to impress the tourists on a summer Sunday, they no longer say,"Gosh, Mabel, look at that." They throw tomatoes and call you un-American. Time for a new diversion? Okay, let's sell.

Oddly it's not impossible yet, but it's hard. There remains a market for big boats among the exceedingly wealthy, who don't care what fuel costs. But it takes time.

Realistically with the market what it is, you hope to get $80,000. You turn it over to a broker who takes nine months to find a buyer. Meantime your stuck with $3,500 in expenses. The broker finally gets $75,000 and takes 10 percent, so your $80,000 becomes $64,000.

Better you should give the boat away and take a fat tax break. You could come out ahead and save the aggravation.

The ad in this month's Yachting magazine reads this way: "Cash Plus Donation. Nonprofit, educational institution has a use for your boat. The donation can be more rewarding than an outright sale. We will advance a substantial amount of cash plus your tax donation credit on larger vessels as an IRS-designed Bargain Sale Donation."

The ad was placed by an outfit called Ocean Science Development in Fort Lauderdale. Bob Wickman, a marine surveyor who works there, said the company has acted as intermediary for the donation of about 150 yachts in seven years, with the boats going mostly to two nonprofit organiations, the South Florida Institute of Marine Science, and Ocean Learning Institute.

Here's the donation scenario: take the same $100,000 boat, get it appraised for $100,000 by a marine surveyor and donate it through OSD to one of the two nonprofit organizations. The charity would be willing to advance perhaps $10,000 cash, making the transaction an IRS-approved "bargain sale" to a charity. You walk away with the $10,000.The remaining $90,000 is your tax credit.

Assuming you are in the top tax bracket, 67 percent, the $90,000 donation is worth $60,000 off your taxes. So you end up with $70,000 total, and no hassle. The charity has paid $10,000 to you, plus a similar commission to the intermediary. It has a $75,000 boat which it can use while and then sell. Everybody wins, right?

Yacht Charter