2020 Boat Registration Changes

[Bud Kennedy]

Effective Jan 1, 2020 Boat registration will begin to transition to a county responsibility with fee collection part of personal property taxes.  If you already have stickers valid during 2020, 2021 or 2022 they will be continue to be valid and you will see the changes in your tax bill at that time.  Bottom line is SCDNR is getting out of the fee collection business.  At this time the fee remains at $10.00 per year.

[mrstangblb]

Saw that change the other day, so hopefully I'm good till 2022 or so. We will see.


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[Bud Kennedy]

Yeah me too.  Just renewed mine in December.  It is good untill 2022 as well I hope it works out that way.  The story I read said that they expected to improve collections by $52M as a result of this change.  here is the story from Columbia WIS

By Patrick Phillips | December 27, 2019 at 3:18 PM EST - Updated December 28 at 10:10 AM
COLUMBIA, S.C. (WCSC) - The South Carolina Department of Natural Resources says changes are coming for how often you'll have to register your boat.
Starting Jan. 1, registration for your boat will change from every three years to annually. The cost will be $10.
The changes to the registration process will be phased in over the next three years as current registrations expire. If your registration is set to expire in 2021 or 2022, your decal will be valid until that date.
Officials say this change will align registration with annual tax collections.
Once fully implemented, the annual registration fee will be included on and paid via the boat owner's county property tax bill, just like SCDMV vehicle registration fees are paid, which should be more convenient for boat owners than getting a separate bill, according to SCDNR's website.
They say this will help boaters reduce the chances of having unpaid taxes on newly purchased boats.
Another change is that under the new law, property taxes for boats will be collected by counties in advance for the coming year. Under the old system, property taxes for boats were collected "in arrears," or for the previous year. Once the property taxes and registration renewal fee for the coming year have been paid by the owner, the county will notify SCDNR to issue a new registration card and decal for that vessel.