LAC 61:V.701 — Guidelines for Ascertaining Fair Market Value of Watercraft

A. General. Watercraft, other than those employed in interstate commerce, are subject to valuation and assessment by parish assessors. Gasoline powered watercraft and vessels employed in fisheries activities for human consumption are exempt from property taxation. As with other forms of personal property, watercraft are to be taxed where situated on January 1. Fair market value is the standard for valuation of watercraft. The procedures for valuation of watercraft follow.
B. Valuation
1. Fair market value is the valuation standard for watercraft. When using the cost approach, the assessor shall estimate the fair market value of each vessel having situs in the assessor’s parish through use of the information provided to the assessor on LAT Form 11. Taxpayers shall report the cost of the vessel.
2. The same procedure shall be used as for other forms of machinery and equipment. That is, cost of the vessel will be brought up to current value through use of the appropriate index and depreciated based on the effective age of the vessel. The appropriate cost index, percent good factors and composite multipliers appear in Tables 703.A.1, 703.B.1 and 705.A.1. The composite multipliers are only to be used when the cost of the vessel is self-reported. When the cost of the vessel is not available, or the assessor finds the information to be unreliable, the assessor may utilize the base cost and depreciation schedules found in Tables 703.A.2, 703.B.2 and 705.A.2. Obsolescence may be applied according to days worked as per Table 706. Consideration of additional obsolescence may be granted upon showing evidence of loss, substantiated by the taxpayer in writing.
3. Consideration of Obsolescence When Using the Cost Approach. Economic and/or functional obsolescence is a loss in value of personal property above and beyond physical deterioration. Upon a showing of evidence of such loss, substantiated by the taxpayer in writing, economic or functional obsolescence shall be given. If economic and/or functional obsolescence is not given when warranted, an appreciated value greater than fair market value may result.
4. Gulf of America Watercraft Fleet. When determining the three approaches to value, the assessor may use a variable annual income approach, as compiled by a certified marine surveyor-appraisal company, at the request of the Louisiana Assessors' Association, for weighting and correlating current market conditions as a part of the fair market valuation process.
C. Vessel Types and Definitions
1. Deck Barge—have both inland and offshore applications and can be used to transport and store materials and liquids at the work site. These are also good for transporting heavy equipment, vehicles, material, rock, sand, building supplies, food, water, etc. Deck barges are also essential for carrying construction-based materials such as cranes, containers, aggregate materials, refinery parts, etc.
2. Dredge Barge—the operation of removing material from one part of the water environment and relocating it to another. In all but a few situations the excavation is undertaken by a specialist floating plant, known as a dredger. Dredging is carried out in many different locations and for many different purposes, but the main objectives are usually to recover material that has some value or use, or to create a greater depth of water. Dredging is mandatory to many rivers and harbors to continue keeping the depth and the opening to allow vessels in and out.
3. Transport Barge—a made-to-order water transportation vessel. These are built mainly for river and canal transport of bulk goods. Owners can add different walls or winches onto the barge to fit the client’s needs.
4. Crane Barge—also known as a crane vessel or floating crane, is a vessel with an attached crane specialized in lifting heavy loads. These come in many sizes with the largest crane vessels being used for offshore construction.
5. Oil Barge—a vessel with tanks (normally integral tanks) for carriage of oil cargo, including bulk crude oil. Most of these barges are ABS classified. Classifications are defined later in this report. Classes of the vessels are based according to its area of operation, the type of operation, and the nature of cargo. ABS equipment requires thicker steel and more rigorous inspections.
6. Spar Barge—a type of floating oil platform typically used in very deep waters and is named for logs used as buoys in shipping that are moored in place vertically. Spar production platforms have been developed as an alternative to conventional platforms. The deep draft design of spars makes them less affected by wind, wave and currents and allows for both dry tree and subsea production.
7. Shugart Barge—raked on one end or can be boxed with connecting angle on all 4 sides. These are used for carrying many different materials. These are used on inland waterways.
8. Spud Barge—a specialized type of vessel used for marine construction operations. Spud barges are also referred to as jack-up barges and are a flat-decked barge with a large area for storing construction supplies and equipment for use during construction. These barges are not tied together or have a need to be tied to a dock, they are held in position by various length steel spuds (beams) in the ground, this spud is pulled up when relocated. These barges can carry many different materials and come in various sizes.
9. Pile Driving Barge—has the ability to assemble Flexifloat® modules into a number of shapes which offers significant advantages in pile-driving operations. For example, it allows a "T"-shaped assemblies permit location for the on-deck machine to get as close to the working edge of the barge as possible while retaining excellent 360-degree stability.
10. Hopper Barge—a non-mechanical vessel that cannot move around by itself, unlike some other types of barges. Hopper barges are designed to carry materials, like rocks, sand, soil and rubbish, for dumping into the ocean, a river or lake for land reclamation. Hopper barges are seen in two distinctive types: raked hopper or box hopper barges. The raked hopper barges move faster than the box hoppers; they are both designed for movement of dry bulky commodities.
11. Tank Barge—as storage vessels generally used to carry bulk liquids. They may consist of one or more storage tanks separated by interior walls. Some tank barges can be more expensive by being “double skinned” -which means two layers of interior steel for protection.
12. Pressure Barge—a container vessel designed to hold gases or liquids at a pressure substantially different from the ambient pressure. Pressure vessels can be dangerous and fatal accidents have occurred in the history of their development and operation. Consequently, pressure vessel design is manufacture and operations are regulated by engineering authorities backed by legislation. For these reasons, the definition of a pressure barge varies from country to country.
13. Keyway Barge—designed with a U shape to it so portable truck-mounted drilling rigs can be backed onto the deck of these barges and up to the edge of the key slot. The barge then can be positioned around inland oil wells to perform a variety of procedures necessary to maintain production of the wells. The barge is then lead in place to work around each location.
14. Industrial Barge—as its name implies, is a flat decked cargo hauler vessel. It is designed to serve as a mobile base of operations for construction or mining projects. It has three advanced constructors that can fabricate any needed materials and its deck is large enough to carry everything in the Industrial Machinery line. The basic model comes rather bare and many galactic survivalists modify it to suit their needs. This vessel can also be called a flat deck barge or material barge, due to these barges carrying containers, rigs, power plants and many other items.
15. Industrial Vessel—a vessel which, by reason of its special outfit, purpose, design, or function engages in certain industrial ventures. This classification includes such vessels as dredges, cable layers, derrick barges, and construction and wrecking barges, but does not include vessels which carry passengers or freight for hire, OSVs, oceanographic research vessels, or vessels engaged in the fisheries.
16. Pontoon Barge—a vessel great for inland applications that can be used to store and transport materials quickly esp. for shallow water. They also are great to transport workers to job sites. These barges can also be convenient to house people working on jobs on unique locations where housing is limited or travel time delays job production.
17. Dry Dock Barge—a narrow basin or vessel that can be flooded to allow a load to be floated in, then drained to allow that load to come to rest on a dry platform. Dry dock barges are used for the construction, maintenance, and repairs of marine transportation and other marine equipment.
18. Quarter Barge—a vessel that is outfitted with living accommodations, galley rooms, shower and restroom facilities. These barges can be pre-made for crews ranging from 50 people up to 300+ people. They can also be customized to meet the customer’s request. They are self-sufficient with generators, potable water and sewage plants
19. Utility Barge—a utility barge is a flat-bottomed vessel that can provide a safe working environment and improve confidence when working on the water esp. when carrying freight, typically on canals and rivers.
20. Utility Vessel—complements a range of heavy-duty workboats and offshore vessels. The UV Series is comprised of several designs that share the same basic principles: the ability to support a wide variety of light duty operations such as buoy laying, survey and research work, diving operations, lighthouse supply, fire-fighting, pollution control, fish farming and maintenance work.
21. Jack Up Vessel—the floating lifting platform, is powered to move around on sea, rivers and canals. When the jack up vessel has reached the desired location, it is then lifted above water level, so the platform is not subjected to the movement of the water. Jack up vessels are mainly used for piling, drilling, building and dredging work. The offshore and maritime sector and the oil and gas industry are the biggest branches in the jack up vessel market. The reason for this is mainly the enormous capacity of the jack up vessels and incredible flexibly.
22. Offshore Support Vessel (OSV/Supply)—an ocean-going vessel used for transporting cargo, goods, supplies, and crew, as well as for carrying out offshore exploration and production across oil platforms. These provide transportation for workers and products to and from drilling locations.
23. Platform Supply Vessel (PSV)—a vessel specially designed to supply offshore oil and gas platforms. These vessels range from 15 to 300 feet in length and accomplish a variety of tasks.
24. Crew Boat—a vessel specialized in the transportation of offshore support personnel, deck cargo, and below-deck cargo such as fuel and potable water to and from offshore installations such as oil platforms, drilling rigs, drill and dive ships and wind farms. Majority of these vessels are used to carry crew members to and from job sites.
25. Dive Vessel—also called diving support vessel is a ship used in professional diving projects as a floating base. Diving vessels are considered a great mode of transportation and can provide valuable deck space in oil and gas production platforms. These vessels work on pipe lay jobs and provide support for deep water jobs.
26. Pollution Control Vessel—can rotate 360 degrees in place and has been specially conceived to operate in small harbor areas, nearby waters, bays and open-seas or offshore activities. Features and options of the Pollution Control, Sea Cleaning Vessel is based on a robust steel catamaran hull.
27. Model Bow Boats—tug vessels with pointed bows. They are also the most diversified of all tugs. Model bow tugs can be used in the inland waters and offshore as well. They can be shallow draft or very deep draft depending on what the need of the job is. This is the vessel most people can visualize when the work tugboat is mentioned.
28. Push Boat—also known as: pusher, pusher craft, pusher boat, pusher tug, or towboat, is a boat designed for pushing barges or car floats. In the United States, the industries that use these vessels refer to them as towboats. These vessels are characterized by a square bow, a shallow draft, and typically have knees, which are large plates mounted to the bow for pushing barges of various heights. These boats usually operate on rivers and inland waterways. Multiple barges lashed together, or a boat and any barges lashed to it, are referred to as a "tow" and can have dozens of barges. Many of these vessels, especially the long distances, or long-haul boats, include living quarters for the crew.
29. Offshore and Inland Tugs—primarily used to tug or pull vessels that cannot move by themselves like disabled ships, oil platforms and barges or those that should not move like a big or loaded ship in a narrow canal or a crowded harbor. In addition to these, tugboats are also used as ice breakers or salvage boats and as they are built with firefighting guns and monitors, they assist in the firefighting duties especially at harbors and when required even at sea. With the continuing developments in the shipping industry the ships are growing larger than they ever have been in the marine history. Since it is much easier to maneuver these large ships at sea, an issue has developed with the exceedingly difficult narrow sea strips and harbors these ships have to travel down but, most all of them have problems with sideways movement- esp. when currents are rapid and river levels are high. This is when the need of tugboats are paired with these large vessels to help navigate the narrow waters. This is known in the industry as tug assist and thus the name of the boats. Most tugboats can also venture out in the ocean but the majority of them are not equipped with strong horsepower like the inland river tugs. The Inland River Tugs are tow boats designed to help out in the rivers and canals. They have a hull design that makes it quite dangerous for these boats to venture into open ocean.
30. Research Vessel (RV or R/V)—a ship or boat designed, modified, and equipped to carry out research at sea. Many government agencies now charter these vessels for fisheries and dredging projects.
31. Skiff—used for several essentially unrelated styles of small boat. Traditionally, these are coastal craft or river craft boats used for leisure, as a utility craft and for fishing, and have a one-person or small crew capacity. Sailing skiffs have developed into high performance competitive classes.
32. Steamboats—a boat that is propelled primarily by steam power, typically driving propellers or paddlewheels. Steamboats sometimes use the prefix designation SS, S.S. or S/S (for 'Screw Steamer') or PS (for 'Paddle Steamer'), however these designations are most often used for steamships. The term steamboat is used to refer to smaller, insular, steam-powered boats working on lakes and rivers, particularly riverboats. As using steam became more reliable, steam power became applied to larger, ocean-going vessels in the marine history. Five major commercial steamboats currently operate on the inland waterways of the United States. The only remaining overnight cruising steamboat is the 432 passenger American Queen, which operates week-long cruises on the Mississippi, Ohio, Cumberland and Tennessee Rivers 11 months out of the year. The others boats only preform day trips: they are the steamers Chautauqua Belle at Chautauqua Lake, New York, Minne Ha-Ha at Lake George, NY, operating on Lake George; the Belle of Louisville in Louisville, Kentucky, operating on the Ohio River; and the Natchez in New Orleans, Louisiana, operating on the Mississippi River.
33. Riverboat Casino—a type of casino on a riverboat found in several states in the United States with frontage on the Mississippi River and its tributaries, or along the Gulf Coast. Several states authorized this type of casino in order to enable gaming but limit the areas where casinos could be constructed; it was a type of legal fiction as the riverboats were seldom if ever taken away from the dock.