New toon horror

[dubob]

[quote 1sthound]Went to register my 1st ever toon in Carbon County, 3 trips and as many hours later I at last got a registration so I could use my electric trolling motor all legal like.
What a nightmare that mess was!
When I succeeded I was in for quite a shock here's the breakdown of the fees.

county fee $55.00
state fee $42.75
sales tax $2.43

total 100.18

Can this possibly be correct if so it's outrageous! more than twice as much as my boats. And they needed my drivers licence number? for a lousy inflatable?

Anybody else suffered such an insult? or am I just lucky. Sorry for the rant .[/quote][font "Times New Roman"] [/font]
[font "Comic Sans MS"][#800000]You got ripped off by an incompetent government official that didn't know what they were doing. The fee you call the 'County Fee' is actually one of two fees imposed by the state; 1) Uniform Age-based Fee, OR 2) Uniform Fee-in-lieu of Property Tax. In your case it was the first one, Uniform Age-based Fee.[/#800000][/font]
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[font "Comic Sans MS"][#800000]From Utah Code, 73-18-2, Definitions, you have a "Vessel", which means every type of watercraft, other than a seaplane on the water, used or capable of being used as a means of transportation on water.[/#800000][/font]
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[font "Comic Sans MS"][#800000]Furthermore, from Utah Code, Title 59 Chapter 2 Part 4 Section 405.2 (3) (h): $10 regardless of the age of the vessel if the vessel is:[/#800000][/font][/url][font "Comic Sans MS"][#800000] (i) less than 15 feet in length.[/#800000][/font]
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[font "Comic Sans MS"][#800000]I’m assuming that your ‘vessel’ (pontoon) is LESS than 15 feet in length. If it is 15 to 19 feet long, the fee would have been $15. The uninformed state employee that charged you $55, classified your pontoon a ‘Personal Watercraft’ under 3 years old – which it CLEARLY is not. ‘Personal Watercraft’ under 3 years old are the ONLY item that carries a $55 Uniform Age-based Fee.[/#800000][/font]
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[font "Comic Sans MS"][#800000]I would STRONGLY urge you to return to that DMV office and speak with a supervisor/manager and demand that your pontoon ‘Vessel’ be re-classified correctly as a ‘Vessel’ at the appropriate length.[/#800000][/font]
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[font "Comic Sans MS"][#800000]Print out copies of the complete references I mentioned above and take them along with you and show them that you have a ‘Vessel’, NOT a ‘Personal Watercraft’.[/#800000][/font]
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[font "Comic Sans MS"][#800000]And for the person that indicated that County fee was somehow associated with Carbon County, that is not correct. While the fee does go to the county, the amount is the same for every county. The county does not determine the fee; the state does.[/#800000][/font]
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[font "Comic Sans MS"][#800000]As to the registration fee, that sounds about right based on what I pay for all my registrations for boats and RVs. Not sure why they charged you sales tax, as that is normally paid when you purchase the item. If it bought on-line or from another state without paying a sales tax, then Utah would charge you a sales tax based on what you paid for the pontoon and $2.43 doesn’t compute for what your toon is worth.[/#800000][/font]
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[font "Comic Sans MS"][#800000][size 3]As I see it, they over charged you $40 or $45 on the Uniform Age-based Fee. Go make them give it back now, because if you don’t, you’ll continue to pay the wrong fee every time you renew in the future.[/size][/#800000][/font]
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