Excise tax on your car, property tax on your house, there's no way out, every year the assessor sends a bill and every year you have to pay.
But our investigation of excise taxes on boats found a shocking secret.
While boat owners in some towns get the bills state law requires. Thousands of others are never being charged the annual tax!
Boat owner"That's totally unfair."
Leominster told us: "we do not levy excise". Worcester told us: "Worcester does not assess any boat tax."
Boat owner"That's unfair."
And our analysis of state boat registrations found that means more than 20,000 boat owners may not pay a penny of tax.
Experts say: that's ridiculous.
Hank Phillippi Ryan "Is collecting excise tax optional?"
Mike Widmer, Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation "No, of course not."
In Plymouth, where boats fill the harbor every boat owner gets a bill. But in next door Carver–with boat-friendly Sampson's Pond and the states registry showing 350 boats, the current assessor has never billed the boat tax.
Hank Phillippi Ryan "So people who live here are not paying the tax that the next town is paying. Is that fair?"
Ellen Blanchard, Tax assessor, Town of Carver "I agree that's not fair."
This boat is in Cambridge and this one and this one. The states list of of registered boats shows 263 total here.
Hank Phillippi Ryan "There are boats in Cambridge you know that–"
Robert Reardon, City of Cambridge, Tax Assessor"That's correct."
But the total boat tax collected in Cambridge last year: zero.
Hank Phillippi Ryan "It wasn't done in 2007, or 2006, or 2005, or 2004?"
Robert Reardon, City of Cambridge, Tax Assessor"No. It has not been done."
Hank Phillippi Ryan "It has not been done?
Robert Reardon, City of Cambridge, Tax Assessor"Right."
Hank Phillippi Ryan "What do you think about that?"
Robert Reardon, City of Cambridge, Tax Assessor"It's a problem."
In Boston, boat owners do get the mandatory excise bills and Quincy and Brockton and Taunton. Millions of dollars collected statewide, that pays for things like local police and pot holes and salaries and to keep up waterways.
But In Revere, Somerville, Lynn, Concord, Malden, in Amherst and Georgetown and Marlborough and Brookline there are hundreds of boats in lakes and ponds and parked in driveways and zero dollars collected.
Town officials admit tax collection is not optional, but insisted they'd spend more than they'd get.
Hank Phillippi Ryan "So you've just decided that it's not worth it to collect the tax?"
Ellen Blanchard, Tax assessor, Town of Carver "It would cost more to do the preparation work and send out the bills and mail them than it would be the revenue that we receive."
The Department of Revenue and the Attorney General's office each told us they have "no enforcement role" in excise tax collection, so this state law will continue to be broken, leaving some boat owners as victims.
Michael Widmer, Mass Taxpayers Foundation"Fair is fair and a very important part of a tax system is that it will be equally administered and enforced."Cambridge officials now tell us they're going to start collecting the tax as the law requires. But other places say state law or not, they have no plans to do so.
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