Recently, I wrote about all the problems I was having registering my boat trailer. GRRRRR! FINALLY got it registered and for the cherry on top, an apology letter arrived from the DMV after they read about it on this blog (people are reading it- evil laugh inserted here).

Now to register our 18′ Nitro boat. Technically, you are supposed to register your boat in LA shortly after you move here or get your license or something like that. But, when you paid for a multi-year registration in another state, who wants to waste money! Our registration officially expired June 30, so we had plenty of time if we started in May – NOT!!!! Here goes…

***Honey, here is ALL the paperwork. ALL the forms are filled out and EVERY piece of documentation (and then some) is in order!

***Husband leaves the tax office with a big grrrrr! They held a meeting while he was in there (DMV flashbacks) about whether OK excise tax could be the same thing as sales tax. They told him he would have to pay taxes again as excise tax COULD NOT BE COUNTED as sales tax. He decided to pay it and wait for a refund as we needed to get the boat registered as it was already the end of May. We paid $700 in taxes AGAIN!!!

***The Department of Wildlife and Fisheries only has a Baton Rouge office, and DOES NOT, I REPEAT, DOES NOT ANSWER THEIR PHONE OR THEIR E-MAIL. So we took the plunge and Fed-Ex’d all our ORIGINAL documents to them (I hate doing that).

***A week later we got a letter that said we did not do something properly. It was hard to figure out where we screwed up from the letter. I CALLED AND I CALLED for a whole week to try and speak to someone at Wildlife & Fisheries and finally called the webmaster (sneaky devil me) who connected me to a real live person (possibly the only one that works there). The person told me I needed a Parish signature and that if I brought them the copy of the tax form, they should be able to sign it for me. I was told it was boat season and they were very busy. HALF HOUR CHUNKS AT A TIME – what a joke – nobody was picking up their phones. And why have an e-mail if NOBODY will answer it?

***Drove out to the Covington Court House to pay my St Tammany Parish tax for the boat. I called the day before to make sure they would sign a “copy” of my tax form. “Not a problem,” said the person on the phone (and no I didn’t get a name). I got there and, “We can’t sign a copy of this. Let me call my supervisor because I am pretty sure the state of Louisiana screwed up your tax processing. Yes, as a matter of fact they did screw it up and we won’t sign the paperwork until you file for an amendment and bring us the original that you need to get back from Wildlife & Fisheries (like I could ever get hold of them). Have a nice day.” Really nice lady btw.

***Called the Baton Rouge office and explained the dilemma to 3 different people I explained there was no point in going back to the New Orleans office if they were not educated in the fact that excise tax = sales tax in OK!!! The last person went to speak to her supervisor and put me on hold for 15 minutes – I finally hung up.

***Called the New Orleans tax office where we started this whole thing. Finally got the supervisor who told me I had to either come in person or fax every document. I stayed sweet and persistent and then she realized she had every document scanned into the system. She wanted to review everything and get back to me (damn right I got her extension and full name).

***She called me back and we reviewed the documents over the phone. She still couldn’t understand that it was JUST VERBAGE!!! Excise tax in OK is the term they use in lieu of sales tax (it says that on their website). She claimed that they were not in the business of looking up other state laws (wth??). HELLO – I’ve moved all over the US and had to register everything in new states – no big whoop! It is their business to understand what they are collecting (or did I miss something here).

Here I am staring at the document and she finally agreed to let me e-mail her the link. Of course I highlighted the info for her too. She will now discuss this with her superior in Baton Rouge and get back to me by the end of the day. No, she did not get back to me.

*** Hopefully Wednesday AM she will have accomplished her mission, we will go into the office and sign the amendment, she will give us a NEW original tax copy that I can bring to Covington to send to Wildlife and Fisheries and THEN I CAN GET A FREAKING BOAT STICKER!!!!! Because you all know by now that we get pulled over one to two times a boat excursion on the Tchefuncte (because of the OK sticker).

*** Glad we aren’t moving again and glad I won’t have to jump through any more registration hoops. Even though I am sharing this with you, I am not complaining as I can’t, I am the freaking Princess of Positive.

Bobby Jindal, your office will be hearing from me about this when I have my registration in my hand.

***Oh ya, our boat is called the, “KISS MY GUMBO.” We really need to get name decals for it. Any good places for that?

*This post can be read on NOLA.com and my personal blog.

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