John Kerry Bails on Massachusetts Sales Tax: Kerry Takes New Yacht to Rhode Island

Super gazillionaire Teresa Heinz and also extraordinarily wealthy hubby Senator John Kerry have a new yacht which berths in Newport, Rhode Island, not Nantucket, Mass where the couple summers. The craft is fabulously expensive and would have cost the Kerry's a six-figure sales tax hit had they berthed the "Isabel" at their summering spot in Nantucket.

John Kerry's fabulously expensive yacht, The Isabel

If the Kerry's keep the yacht away from Massachusetts for more than six months, they will avoid the state sales tax, AND and annual excise tax estimated at about $70,000.00 - annually:

Cash-strapped Massachusetts still collects a 6.25 percent sales tax and an annual excise tax on yachts. Sources say Isabel sold for something in the neighborhood of $7 million, meaning Kerry saved approximately $437,500 in sales tax and an annual excise tax of about $70,000.

An ANNUAL excise tax? Oh well, they can afford it (that's the Liberal view when it's a conservative being taxed) but dang! that's unAmerican (that's the conservative viewpoint no matter who is buying).

Isabel - Kerry’s luxe, 76-foot New Zealand-built Friendship sloop with an Edwardian-style, glossy varnished teak interior, two VIP main cabins and a pilothouse fitted with a wet bar and cold wine storage - was designed by Rhode Island boat designer Ted Fontaine.