Rich excape Cal Sales Tax - and Arnold will not fix

[papau]

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-yacht30jun30.story

Rich excape Cal Sales Tax - and Arnold will not fix

Loophole You Can Sail a Yacht Through Offshore purchases let wealthy Californians escape paying millions in sales taxes.
(by buying off-shore and 90 wait before putting into Cal waters) By Evan Halper and Richard Marosi
Time Staff Writers

June 30, 2004

SACRAMENTO — Amid spending projections and tax proposals being exchanged in Sacramento, a surprising document recently cropped up: "The 90 Day Yacht Club Guide to Ensenada."

It's a guide to a California sales tax loophole that hundreds of yachts sail through every year, costing the state as much as $55 million.

And it is one of a handful of issues still on the table as lawmakers rush to reach agreement on a $103-billion state budget by the end of the fiscal year at midnight tonight.

Democrats want to kill the loophole to raise money for social services. Republicans want to save it, saying it keeps boating industry jobs in California. <snip>


State Board of Equalization Chairwoman Carole Migden, a Democrat, says she finds it all appalling. "People who buy these yachts bring them in the dead of night and park them in Mexico," she said. "The rest of us poor schleps have to pay up. We don't have the option of coming up with these schemes to escape paying sales tax." <snip>

[havocmom]

1. The words of Leona Helmsley are truer now

than when she uttered them

[mstrsplinter326]

2. "You pay for what you get"

- Dave Matthews

You pay for who you vote for

- Me

[Melsky]

3. Sickening

Just like that SUV tax loophole.

[fdr_hst_fan]

4. What do you expect

from a Rich Repuke? I won't even watch his movies anymore, I'm so disgusted wih Ah-nold; wish he'd go back to Austria, where he belongs!

[aden_nak]

5. Hmmmmm.

Arnold is extremely rich. Aronld won't close a loophole for the extremely rich to avoid paying taxes. Let me see if I can puzzle this one out.