The tax office wants to cash on the supeyachts

In the Balearic nautical sector one fright is followed by another. After the setback earlier this year with the increase of the lighthouse tax (also known as T0), which could easily add up to five million euros on the islands only, the tax office has now set the sights on the megayachts. The Balearic Islands figure as an international benchmark in this sector, but is now at risk of losing competitiveness and productivity in short term because of the latest interventions by the department lead by Cristóbal Montoro.

Little does it matter to be rid of the matriculation tax for the charter yachts, as the sector is now facing a new obstacle. The legal uncertainty provoked by the attempts to "cash on the megayachts" by the Palma Customs, as informed by the president of the Nautical Trade Association in the Balearic Islands (AENIB), Margarita Dahlberg:According to the complaint by AENIB, the Customs is charging a VAT of 21% of the value of a megayacht with a non-European flag that arrive in Palma from a non-European country of departure.

The Customs considers these arrivals as "irregular import, as their departure from or entrance to EU is not documented", and attempts to charge the VAT of 21% on the import of the vessel, warns Miguel Angel Serra, a member of the Garrigues law firm and an expert in fiscal issues, whose help the nautical sector has enlisted in trying to solve the problem.

The complete article in El Mundo.