Quote:
Originally Posted by Descant
The $5 is an "agent's fee", Town clerk, boat yard, whoever. No fee at the state. You can go to DMV or MP HQ. Because of NH Constitution Article 28-a (unfunded mandates) The Town Clerk/Tax Collector also gets $1.00 for collecting the tax/fees.
When you register with a local agent, the tax goes to that town and the reg fee goes to the state. When you register with the state, you save the $5, but your local town gets nothing to support beaches, docks, etc. ...
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It has always seemed to me that the $5 (and perhaps $1 more) are just another "tax" you pay to have the boat tax part kept local. If a town were to forgo the agent fee and tax collection fee as incentive to register locally, there would be a tradeoff between the gain in additional boat tax retained vs the loss of those fees. I wonder if anyone at the local level ever has done a study to compare those gains and losses, to see if providing that incentive would be a clear big gain or loss for the town, or something in between so "iffy" that changing the way things are done isn't worth trying.