Free Maine Boat Bill of Sale

A Maine boat bill of sale records a watercraft changing hands, and it is the document your town office works from.

Registration runs through the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, but the transaction happens locally. Residents register and pay excise tax to the town where they live. Non-residents and corporations register and pay in the town where the watercraft is primarily moored, docked, or located.

New registrations must be completed in person and require proof that sales tax has been paid, so this is not a task to leave until the morning you want to launch.

Town clerks ask for a clear description, so write your Maine boat bill of sale with that in mind.

• Year, make, and model
• Length and boat type
• Horsepower — Maine registration classes are set by motor horsepower, so this one matters
• The hull identification number
• The Maine registration number, if the boat already carries one
• The amount paid and the date of sale, with the seller’s signature

The person named as buyer on the bill of sale is the person who registers the boat, so get the name exactly right.

Tip: Ask which town the seller lived in. Clerks routinely need that detail to complete the paperwork, and it is far easier to ask at the dock than to track down afterwards.

Maine puts a step in front of registration that catches newcomers out.

Excise tax is paid to your own town first. Register a watercraft in a town other than the one where you owe excise tax, and you must pay that tax to your own town beforehand, the two towns must already have an agreement in place, and you need a receipt to prove payment.

In practice, that means starting at your own town office rather than the one nearest the water.

Registrations run by calendar year and expire on December 31 whenever they were issued, so a boat bought in September still needs renewing a few months later.

Maine takes its lakes seriously, and a new owner inherits that responsibility.

Maine-registered watercraft receive the Lake and River Protection sticker together with the registration. A boat registered in another state needs its own separate sticker before using inland waters, which can be bought online in advance.

A properly registered out-of-state boat displaying a valid registration does not need Maine registration, provided it is not kept in Maine for more than 60 consecutive days after a change in the state of principal use.

Cleaning and drying a hull between waterbodies is the practical part of that responsibility. Fees and sticker prices change, so confirm current figures with your town office. Start your Maine boat bill of sale now and take it to the clerk with the horsepower already written down.