Mail and domicile for liveaboards

When you move onto a boat, two questions I think about are: where does your mail go, and which state do you legally live in? They sound like paperwork. They affect your taxes, your driver’s license, your health insurance, your voting and your car. We haven’t settled all of this yet. This guide covers what we’ve decided, what we’re weighing, and what we’ve learned so far. We’ll update it when we choose.

What we’ve already decided

The boat is documented with the Coast Guard and registered in Virginia. Our home port is the Tidewater area of Virginia. We compared registration in Virginia and North Carolina, and Virginia made more sense for us. A Coast Guard-documented vessel doesn’t pay Virginia’s watercraft sales and use tax; the ongoing cost is the local personal property tax where the boat is kept. Rates vary a lot between Tidewater cities, so it’s worth comparing.

A hailing port is just a decal or paint (decal for us). The city painted on the transom has no tax or residency effect. Where the boat is registered and where you’re domiciled are what count.

Know the tax rules where you buy. We bought our boat in Florida. A private sale delivered in Florida is subject to Florida’s sales tax (6%), and the nonresident exemption only applies when the sale goes through a registered dealer or broker; private sales get screwed…yes, I think that is a scam. A documented boat registered in another state also has a grace period in Florida before use tax applies. Check these rules before you close, not after. We were unpleasantly surprised by the private-sale sales tax scam. Yep, scam…sorry, it’s not logical.

Domicile: the choice we’re weighing

Domicile is the one state you call home for legal purposes. You can only have one. Full-time cruisers usually choose between keeping their current state and moving to a state friendly to full-time travelers.

Keeping our current state. It’s the simplest choice: same driver’s licenses, same doctors, same car registration. The trade-off is state income tax, and possibly a stronger claim by our home county on the boat for property tax.

Florida, Texas or South Dakota. These three are popular with full-time RVers and boaters. None has a state income tax, and each accepts a mail-forwarding address as a residence. Mail services set up for full-timers help with the paperwork. The trade-offs we’re looking at:

• Health insurance. Choices depend on your domicile state. Cruisers under 65 report fewer options in South Dakota; Florida tends to have more.
• Driver’s licenses and vehicles. You’ll need to visit the state at least occasionally to renew licenses, and your vehicle registration and insurance follow your domicile.
• Real ties. Changing domicile means actually cutting ties to the old state. People who keep a house, a car and accounts in their old state can still owe its income tax.

This is a legal and tax decision, and we are still deciding the approach.

Mail while cruising

A mail-forwarding service gives you a real street address. It receives your mail, scans the envelopes so you can see what arrived, and ships it wherever you ask. St. Brendan’s Isle in Florida is the name we hear most often from cruisers; it has served boaters for decades and also helps with Florida residency. Escapees offers similar services in Texas, Florida and South Dakota.

Getting a package to the boat takes planning:

• Marinas will usually hold mail and packages for boats with a reservation. Call ahead and ask how to address it.
• Harbor hosts. The Great Loop association’s (AGLCA) local volunteers can help with deliveries along the route…fantastic resources for local info as well.
• Not every marina accepts packages. Some state harbors on the Great Lakes don’t. Ask before you ship.

Prescriptions can follow the boat. Cruisers on the Loop use Amazon Pharmacy or the big pharmacy chains’ apps, shipping to a marina or a harbor host.

Our business address

Our YouTube channel and small (and new) e-shop run through a small LLC, which has its own address and filing requirements. When we leave the house, the LLC needs a mailing address and a registered agent that don’t depend on us being home. We’ll set that up before we leave.

What’s still open for us

• Which domicile we’ll keep
• Which mail-forwarding service we’ll use
• Health insurance for the years we’re cruising, including coverage in Canada and the Bahamas, and medical evacuation coverage

We’ll write up our decisions here once they’re made.