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Actally, Nursie, my comments were based on 35 years of boating and the purchase and ownership of boats in multiple states over that time. The Massachusetts tax is not unusual. Most states have that sort of provision, and not just for boats. If you buy a car in a low or no tax state and try to get it registered in the high tax state where you live, you are going to have the same experience. And if you don't register it in your home state, you will usually run afoul of a law that makes it illegal to lodge or operate an out-of-state car after x months. Kerry will be within the law if he keeps the boat in Rhode Island. He could have problems if he brings it to Massachusetts.

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.