Advice for Boat Registration in BVIs

[lancelots]

Advice for boat registration in BVI’s


Does any one have any advice for Australians wanting to go through and maintain this procedure rather than importing the boat back to Australia from overseas?

[Zanshin]

Changing to a BVI registration is relatively painless - usually all you need to do is get the boat measured by an approved measurer if the boat is not already BVI registered. The red ensign flag is available to Commonwealth (or EU) citizens whereas Americans and others need to open up a BVI registered company and register the boat in the corporation's name. This might be worth doing for you as well. The company costs about $750 per year all told but has some advantages - particularly in terms of avoiding inheritance taxes, since all that would need to be transferred are the "shares" in the company and thus no taxes are due.

Would the boat be physically located in Oz or elsewhere?

[lancelots]

I was actually thinking of extended cruising with short stays in Australia, but wish to avoid the Australian GST (10% Tax) when purchasing a boat ofshore and bringing it back.

I was aware British subjects could register without a company but did not know the rest of the Commonwealth countries could, thanks for the heads up.