HOUSE DOCKET, NO. 2829        FILED ON: 1/17/2019

HOUSE  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  No. 2461

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts

_________________

PRESENTED BY:

Ann-Margaret Ferrante

_________________

To the Honorable Senate and House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in General
Court assembled:

The undersigned legislators and/or citizens respectfully petition for the adoption of the accompanying bill:

An Act relative to the fairness of marine vessel reporting and fishermen exemptions.

_______________

PETITION OF:

HOUSE DOCKET, NO. 2829        FILED ON: 1/17/2019

HOUSE  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  No. 2461

[SIMILAR MATTER FILED IN PREVIOUS SESSION
SEE HOUSE, NO. 2592 OF 2017-2018.]

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts

_______________

In the One Hundred and Ninety-First General Court
(2019-2020)

_______________

An Act relative to the fairness of marine vessel reporting and fishermen exemptions.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:
 

SECTION 1. Chapter 60B of the General Laws, as appearing in the 2014 Official Edition, is hereby amended in Section 1 by inserting the following in line 4:-

“Director”, the director of the division of law enforcement of the department of fisheries, wildlife and environmental law enforcement.  

SECTION 2.  Chapter 60B of the General Laws, as appearing in the 2014 official edition, is hereby amended in Section 2 (b) by striking in line 8 the word “August” and replacing it with the word “September”.                                                                                                                          

SECTION 3. Chapter 60B of the General Laws, as appearing in the 2014 official edition, is hereby amended in Section 2 (g) by adding at the end thereof in line 45 the following:

“No abatement under this section shall reduce any excise to less than 5 dollars; no abatement shall be granted in an amount less than 5 dollars and no refund shall be paid in an amount less than 5 dollars.”

SECTION 3. Chapter 60B of the General Laws, as appearing in the 2014 official edition, is hereby amended in Section 2 (h) in line 47 after the word “otherwise” the following:- “and the registration of such vessel is surrendered,”

SECTION 4.  Chapter 60B of the General Laws, as appearing in the 2014 official edition, is hereby amended in Section 3 by striking the text in its entirety and replacing it with the following new section:-

“Section 3. The excise imposed by this chapter shall not apply to vessels described in section 8 of chapter 59 and in section 67 of chapter 63; to vessels owned by the commonwealth or any political subdivision thereof; to law enforcement vessels; to vessels under construction; to ferries; to boats, fishing gear and nets, with a value of 50 thousand dollars or less, owned and actually used by the owner in the prosecution of his business if engaged in commercial fishing and if no less than 50 per cent of his income is from commercial fishing; nor to other vessels with a value of 1 thousand dollars or less. Said exemptions shall not subject said vessels and their equipment to any other tax under chapter 59.”

SECTION 5. Chapter 60B of the General Laws, as appearing in the 2014 official edition, by inserting after Section 5 the following new section:- 

Section 5A. No owner of a vessel shall be issued a registration decal or certificate of number, or renewal of such decal or certificate, under sections 2A and 3 of chapter 90B unless the owner has included with the application for such decal or certificate proof of payment of the full amount of the excise assessed for the prior fiscal year for any vessel for which the owner has a decal or certificate on July 1 of such year. Upon failure of the applicant to provide such proof of payment, or receipt of such other notice of non-payment made by the local tax collector that the director may determine, the director shall place the matter on record and not issue or renew a registration decal or certificate of number for any vessel owned by the person to whom the unpaid excise tax was assessed until after notice from the local tax collector that the matter has been disposed of in accordance with law. The provisions of section 2A of chapter 60A shall apply to any notifications of non-payment made by the local tax collector.

SECTION 6.  Chapter 60B of the General Laws, as appearing in the 2014 official edition, by inserting after Section 6 by striking the words in their entirety and replacing it with the following new section:- 

Section 6. The director shall annually, on or before October 1, transmit to the board of assessors of each city and town a list of all ships or vessels which were documented or registered on the immediately preceding July 1. The list shall include for each vessel, the name and residential address of the registered owner, if an individual, or name and principal place of business, if a corporation, partnership or other entity, the city or town in which the vessel is habitually moored or docked, the name of the manufacturer, the year of manufacture as designated by the manufacturer, the model type, the length, the horsepower of the engine or motor used to propel the vessel, the document number or certificate of number and the value as determined by the commissioner. The director may require from the owner such information as may be necessary for purposes of this chapter.

SECTION 7. Chapter 90B of the General Laws, as appearing in the 2014 Official Edition, is hereby amended by inserting after section 2 in the following section:-

Section 2A. The owner of a vessel, which has a valid marine document issued by the Bureau of Customs of the United States or any federal agency successor thereto and is homeported in the commonwealth or maintained in commonwealth waters by a resident of the commonwealth, shall apply to the director on a form prescribed him for a registration decal or renewal thereof. The application shall be signed by the owner of the vessel and submitted to the director together with a fee, as determined annually by the commissioner of administration under the provision of section 3B of chapter 7.

SECTION 8. Section 3 of Chapter 90B of the General Laws, as appearing in the 2014 Official Edition, is hereby amended by adding the following subsection:-

(l) Registration information for such motorboats shall be maintained by the department and transmitted to the board of assessors of each city and town for the purposes of assessing the excise imposed by chapter 60B.

SECTION 9. This act shall apply to excises assessed for any fiscal year beginning on or after July 1, 2019.