Teachable Moment: John Kerry Slips Yacht in Low Tax Haven Lesson for Progressives: High Taxes Chases Money Away

The object lesson here is that higher state taxes forces people to move and hold assets and businesses out of state, even out of the country.

Sen. John Kerry, who has repeatedly voted to raise taxes while in Congress, dodged a whopping six-figure state tax bill on his new multimillion-dollar yacht by mooring her in Newport, R.I.


Isabel - Kerry’s luxe, 76-foot New Zealand-built Friendship sloop with an Edwardian-style, glossy varnished teak interior, two VIP main cabins and a pilothouse fitted with a wet bar and cold wine storage - was designed by Rhode Island boat designer Ted Fontaine.


But instead of berthing the vessel in Nantucket, where the senator summers with the missus, Teresa Heinz, Isabel’s hailing port is listed as “Newport” on her stern.




Could the reason be that the Ocean State repealed its Boat Sales and Use Tax back in 1993, making the tiny state to the south a haven - like the Cayman Islands, Bermuda and Nassau - for tax-skirting luxury yacht owners?


Cash-strapped Massachusetts still collects a 6.25 percent sales tax and an annual excise tax on yachts. Sources say Isabel sold for something in the neighborhood of $7 million, meaning Kerry saved approximately $437,500 in sales tax and an annual excise tax of about $70,000.

Source: Inside Track
Hat Tip: Drudge Report
Yacht Builder: Friendship Yachts of New Zealand

Commentary

I also note that the Kerrys use a holding company, Great Point LLC of Pittsburgh, to hold ownership of the 75 ft long yacht. That allows them to save paying even more in taxes to the Massachusetts State Treasury. He also avoided the higher taxes on the construction of his yacht by having it built overseas in New Zealand. It is funny that his votes to raise taxes on the rich have hurt and mostly destroyed the luxury yacht-building industry in the United States, and have sent American jobs, and the money of rich Americans (like John Kerry) overseas.


I suppose this makes US Senator John Kerry a hypocrite, one of those people who tells us to do as he says, not as he does. His berthing of the $7 million-dollar yacht in a low-tax state not only saves him money, but hurts the people who work in Massachusetts. The only people who suffer are the working people and small business owners in the shipyards and ports of Massachusetts. They suffer from the ruinously high tax-rate that forces even billionaires like the Kerrys to place assets in a low tax haven like Rhode Island. The workers, and the treasury, of Rhode Island certainly benefits from having lower taxes, now don't they?


I love the hypocrisy of the left!!! They claim to be for 'the little man', but I can't tell. All I see is that they are chasing money from their states and the country with their insane tax policies.