State Fees from "2019 Boat registrations"

[Descant]

This started in a boating thread, but a started off course a little, so I thought maybe a new thread was in order. Discussion was about why we pay a Town Clerk $5 to register a boat ad only $2 to register a car.

Originally Posted by TiltonBB

In New Hampshire you can't register your car by going directly to the DMV. You have to start at the City or Town and pay the town fees and taxes. The City permit fee for registration is based on the vehicle model year, the original factory list price of the vehicle, and the expiration date. In addition to the other costs the Town Clerk also charges a $2 fee. This fee covers the general administrative costs of preparing an auto registration permit. The fee is charged for every vehicle registration.

The City's municipal fees for MOS/MILLS on your vehicle registration are the only portions that are tax deductible on Internal Revenue Service Schedules A and B on Form 1040. These line items are a deduction for personal property taxes. The State of NH portion of your registration is not deductible

From Derscant:
Thanks for good info. It has been a while since I personally registered a car. Still wonder why it is $2 for a car and $5 for a boat. And why it is $50 for a driver's license and $10 for a non-driver ID. I seem to recall that on the back of the old boat registrations it mentioned $1.00 for the tax collector, I believe for them to sort out the surcharges for lake protection/milfoil.

If I register my car/boat in my hometown, I'm already paying local prop[erty tax to pay the Town Clerk's salary and overhead. Seems like a double charge, sort of like paying a gas tax for the roads, and then paying a toll to maintain the turnpike.

I love this one: I pay $75 a year to file a non-tax return for a small non-profit organization For the Feds, I file an "e postcard" as long as revenues are less than $50K. If I have a small business that doesn't make any money, I file a tax return, but no fee. I understand that NH gets a lot of its revenue from fees, but I don't understand some of the inconsistencies.