I just received a letter from the LA County Assessor's office telling me I have to pay for this tax. I remember back then when we had to pay for luxury tax but this is new to me. This is the first time i've ever received a bill for "Unsecured Personal Property". I've never had to pay for this on my previous boats and just wanted to know if anyone can shed some light for me as to what this is about. Thanks!

a quiok search turned this up... http://ttax.co.la.ca.us/unsecured.htm

cant comment on it though as I live in the bay area and my dad pays for all the boat stuff

I have been charged this tax every year too. This year it went up !!! How can a boat, appreciate in value !!!! ????? So I told the county to go pound sand. Then the county put a lein on my parents house. I have not lived there in over 6 years. I found out what they do is find the closest family member with the same last name and go for them. Since my dads name is the same as mine, they went after him. No distinction with a social or anything like that. I was on the phone with the county for hours, trying to find out why they went after my parents house, and how my boat appreciates in value. They told me I could contest the charges ( of course , after I pay them ) and they would investigate it. Then the person on the phone also told me horror stories of what they have done to people in the past when they contested charges like this ; credit reports messed with, paycheck garnished, utilites turned off - all this for no reason. They do this just because the orange county tax collector has the power. Do not mess with them. I ended up paying $184.00 in taxes on a 1997 bass tracker. I hope someday they get what they deserve.

Yep, I have to pay that on my 14 foot aluminum boat. I payed it for years in Humboldt, and now I pay even more in Sacramento County (funny how that is, I move to a place that is more exspensive to live, so I must pay more for the priveledge to own a boat. And dont even ask about the increase in insurance). When I moved to Sac Co, Humboldt sent me a tax bill for the boat, and the dates on the bill suggested i did not have to pay it when compared to when I moved. I called them, and they gave me some answer that made absolutely no sense, and I mean I tried very hard to understand why I had to pay when the effective dates were for dates when I didnt even live in Humboldt, but I never understood. So I told them to screw themselves. Well, a month later I calmed down a bit and decided 75 bucks wasnt worth the hassle. California is great, if big basses didnt live here I wouldnt either.;(

Hey guys, thanks for the replies! I've never received anything like this before and was wondering what the heck it was. I guess there's really no fighting it and I definately would like to avoid any trouble. I just don't understand why I wasn't billed like this for my previous boats. Oh well, I'm not gonna ask them because they'll probably try to bill me for the past years. Thanks again!