While standing on the deck of a friend’s yacht last week in Bermuda, Gov. Jeff Landry praised a new Louisiana tax break on boat purchases in a short video he shared to social media.
“Louisiana’s been known as a sportsman’s paradise, but it’s not always treated our sportsmen friendly,” Landry said in the recording posted July 3.
“This year, we made Louisiana sportsman-friendly by capping the amount of taxes you pay when you buy you a new boat or register your boat in Louisiana,” the governor said as the wake of the multimillion-dollar vessel churned behind him.
What the governor didn’t mention is the tax break, which took effect July 1, only applies to boats worth $200,000 or more.
The yacht owner hosting Landry, Shane Guidry, is the governor’s close friend, political adviser and top campaign donor. Guidry told the Illuminator he personally suggested the tax break for luxury boats to the governor.
“I recommended to him a year ago that he should look at them,” he said in a phone interview from the 82-foot Viking yacht he took to Bermuda this month.
Guidry said he owns nine fishing and pleasure boats, including three yachts he estimated are worth a combined $50 million.
He is the head of Harvey Gulf International Marine, a billion-dollar marine transportation company that services the offshore energy sector. The business is based in New Orleans, but Guidry also spends several weeks a year on his passion project: Team Harvey Fishing, which competes in international tournaments for prize money.
A Metairie resident, Guidry registered his yachts in Palm Beach, Florida, where boat taxes were, until this month, far lower. Louisiana’s new tax break should entice high-end boat owners to register their watercraft locally, he said, resulting in more tax revenue for Louisiana.
“Something is better than getting zero,” he said.
The governor joined Guidry over the July 4 holiday while Team Harvey Fishing participated in the Bermuda Billfish Blast, the first of three consecutive tournaments in the British territory. This year, the event awarded $1.4 million in prize money.
The governor’s office declined to answer a question about whether the idea for the tax break came from Guidry.
Great news heading into the 4th of July weekend!
— Jeff Landry (@JeffLandry) July 3, 2025
We’ve taken a big step toward making Louisiana even better for our sportsmen. This year, we capped the taxes you pay when buying or registering your boat here in Louisiana—making it more affordable to enjoy the Sportsman’s… pic.twitter.com/AKu5dJRTHG
State officials say tax break will generate more money
In June, the Louisiana Legislature approved a cap of $20,000 on local and state sales taxes applied to boats as long as the taxes are paid within 90 days of a boat’s purchase. The provision was part of a larger omnibus bill sponsored by Rep. Julie Emerson, R-Carencro, that included several other, unrelated tax changes.
The cap will only benefit more expensive boats because the average combined local and state sales tax in Louisiana is 10% – or the equivalent of $20,000 on a $200,000 purchase. This limit will increase in the future; the law requires the $20,000 threshold to be adjusted for inflation every five years starting in 2030.
The break applies to purchases of personal boats and those tourist and fishing charter companies use. Commercial shrimpers and fishers won’t see any benefits because their boats are already exempt from sales tax.
State Revenue Secretary Richard Nelson said the change is meant to encourage Louisiana residents with pricier boats to bring them back home, as Guidry suggested. Many luxury boat owners register in other states to avoid Louisiana’s high taxes, Nelson said.
Florida and Texas, for example, have caps on taxes for most boats of $18,000 and $18,750 respectively, though Texas also applies a separate tax on certain types of boat motors.
“It’s a negligible cost if it costs us anything,” said Nelson, a Landry appointee, of the luxury boat tax break. “[The state] might end up making money.”
Emerson said the adjustment is also part of a wider policy discussion regarding the burden of sales taxes on big-ticket items such as recreational vehicles, high-end cars and boats.
Wealthy people have the ability to dodge Louisiana’s high tax rate on these items if they keep them in other states. Offering more local tax breaks might mean the government can collect at least some revenue on the purchases, she said.
“In my opinion, it is not going to make the state lose money. It’s going to make the state gain money,” Emerson said of the boat tax break.
Charter fishing tour operator Adam Peterson said he believes the tax break will be a boon for his industry. Many people who offer charter experiences lease their vessels from independent owners, but the tax break should result in fewer expenses for the charter companies, he said.
“Whenever we have to re-register [boats], we are going to register it in Louisiana,” said Peterson who owns Gulf of America Outfitters, which runs fishing charters out of Venice, Port Fourchon and Lake Charles.
The tax change comes at a time when most Louisiana residents are paying more in sales taxes however.
Seven months ago, Landry and lawmakers hiked the state sales tax rate across the board from 4.45% to 5% and expanded it to routine purchases, including streaming entertainment services and cable television subscriptions.
The tax increase is meant to partially make up for income and corporate tax cuts enacted at the same time, but it also left Louisiana with the highest average sales tax rate in the country.
“I don’t necessarily blame the boat owners for seeking an exemption, but the better long-term solution is to have a lower sales tax with a broader base,” said Steven Procopio, president of the Public Affairs Research Council of Louisiana, which studies state fiscal policies.
Lawmakers approved tax break quietly
Lawmakers passed the boat tax cap without public debate on the policy change.
The provision was quietly added to the larger sales tax bill June 12 in the final hours of the two-month legislative session. It was inserted through a conference committee, the secretive process in which six lawmakers negotiate and make changes to legislation in private before asking the full legislature to take a vote on a proposal.
Sen. Franklin Foil, R-Baton Rouge, said he wasn’t aware of the boat tax change, even though he was a member of the conference committee and pushed for the bill’s final approval in the Senate. He assumes it was one of several amendments requested by revenue department officials who work for the Landry administration.
“I don’t remember discussing the tax cap on boats during our conference meetings,” Foil said.
The final version of the bill passed overwhelmingly, with a 32-3 vote in the Senate and an 85-11 vote in the House.
“I think it’s a perfect example of our upside-down tax policy,” said Rep. Mandie Landry, D-New Orleans, a legislator who voted against the bill and is a member of the House committee that oversees tax policy.
“We are giving tax breaks to people who own very expensive boats but we can’t give tax breaks to people who own cheap cars or who have expensive insurance policy premiums,” she said.
Guidry’s boats likely to stay in Florida – for now
Assuming Guidry’s three yachts cost $50 million, he would have had to pay approximately $5 million in taxes to register them in Louisiana under the old law. Now, he would pay just $60,000.
But Guidry said he doesn’t plan to move any of the three boats from Florida soon. The transoms of the vessels have already been painted with his fishing team’s name and their home port – Palm Beach. It’s an expensive process he doesn’t want to redo, he said.
The offshore mogul said he might replace his largest yacht, a 130-foot Westport where Landry stayed during the Super Bowl in New Orleans earlier this year. If he upgrades to a 150-foot boat, Guidry said he will consider registering it in Louisiana.
Guidry appears to spare no expense when it comes to his yachts and isn’t shy about showing them off on social media.
The Team Harvey Fishing Instagram account includes several glamour reels of the 82-foot Viking yacht, which was completed for his team in early June.
One post from June highlights tissue boxes and blankets from luxury fashion brands Hermes and Louis Vuitton decorating the boat’s cabin. Another pans to an ottoman, custom-made for the yacht with Himalayan crocodile skin, according to the post caption. The material is famous because it is used in Hermes’ opulent Birkin bags, which sell for over $50,000.
Team Harvey Fishing posts are tagged with hashtags like #luxuryyacht #luxurylifestyle #yachtieworld #luxuryliving and #yachtinglife.
