NY / NJ State Sales Tax Issue / Question

A boat with home port in FL pays FL tax and a boat with home port in NY pays NY tax. I believe this is fairly straight forward and you should not have difficulty sorting this out nor lose too much sleep over it.

sorry - I meant NJ v NY. But in any event, you are looking at a 1.625% difference, which = $1625/$100K of boat.

sorry to belabor but here is addtl info:

For sales or long-term leases of motor vehicles and certain boats, the
point of delivery does not necessarily determine the rate of sales tax to
be collected.
Sales of motor vehicles and boats to individuals
If the purchaser or lessee is an individual who is a resident of New York
State and the individual takes delivery of a motor vehicle or boat within
New York State, sales tax is to be collected at the rate in effect in the
local jurisdiction where the individual is a resident. If the individual is a
resident of New York State and has one or more residences outside of
New York State, sales tax is to be collected at the rate in effect in the
local jurisdiction where the individual is a New York State resident.
If an individual is a resident of more than one local taxing jurisdiction
within New York State (whether or not the individual has one or more
residences outside of New York State), sales tax is to be collected at
the rate in effect in the local jurisdiction within New York State where
the vehicle is principally garaged or the boat is principally stored. The
storage of a boat also includes mooring.
If the purchaser or lessee is an individual who is not a resident of
New York State, generally, no sales tax is imposed unless the vehicle or
boat is registered in New York State. If the vehicle or boat is registered in New York State,
sales tax is to be collected at the rate in effect in the jurisdiction where
the vehicle or boat was delivered to the purchaser.

I believe putting your father first on the note was a BIG mistake. Although you didn't say, I'm guessing that the documentation then went under his name but listed your address. That's an old ploy for dodging NY sales tax. People used to do their shopping on 5th Ave. and ship things to their kids address across the river. They've slammed that door shut. IF the documentation lists him as 1st owner he needs to own a residence in NJ at the time of purchase. You need a very good tax man.

Captjohnny: you might also inquire as to the degree of reciprocity NY enjoys with NJ, and I'll wager there's a lot.
Generally, as I understand it, states enquire of other states (reciprocal) whether a boatowner paid sales tax in that other state, i.e., if you paid your 'pound of flesh' somewhere, they might just be interested in the difference.
Here in FL, the Dept. of Revenue 'talks' to TX, for example. You bought the boat here, but paid the sales tax in TX, and then came back here...no problemo, sez the State...just as long as you paid somewhere in a US taxing jurisdiction (Bahamas doesn't count, or at least it didn't used to).