which country to register in?

[markiobe]

Sorry if this is dealt with elsewhere, I searched but didn't find, If someone could point me at an existing thread?? 👍.

Otherwise: we are European, will be having a boat built in Thailand and plan to start cruising from there. We have zero intention of sailing the boat back to Europe and have no patriotic need to sail under a particular flag. We expect to be tropics cruisers and over the next decade or so will probably circumnavigate, but we have no set plans, we'll see where we end up going.

Are there any benefits and/or constraints to registering under one flag as opposed to another? If so could someone summarise? The only thing I'm aware of are the different rates of insurance tax in different countries but there must be other reasons... maybe not! Also if anyone knows of a good source of info about this topic I'd appreciate a link.

Thanks in advance!

[slug]

Originally Posted by markiobe

Sorry if this is dealt with elsewhere, I searched but didn't find, If someone could point me at an existing thread?? 👍.

Otherwise: we are European, will be having a boat built in Thailand and plan to start cruising from there. We have zero intention of sailing the boat back to Europe and have no patriotic need to sail under a particular flag. We expect to be tropics cruisers and over the next decade or so will probably circumnavigate, but we have no set plans, we'll see where we end up going.

Are there any benefits and/or constraints to registering under one flag as opposed to another? If so could someone summarise? The only thing I'm aware of are the different rates of insurance tax in different countries but there must be other reasons... maybe not! Also if anyone knows of a good source of info about this topic I'd appreciate a link.

Thanks in advance!

Traditionally the British flag was the best choice

With Brexit this is no longer true

Will you pay VAT

If so Malta could be of interest

[Alistair242]

I’m going through the same process. Take a look at The Cook Islands.

[markiobe]

Originally Posted by Alistair242

I’m going through the same process. Take a look at The Cook Islands.

Thanks, will do. It might be useful to compare notes, maybe offline if we’re both doing the same investigation?

[markiobe]

Originally Posted by slug

Traditionally the British flag was the best choice

With Brexit this is no longer true

Will you pay VAT

If so Malta could be of interest

We won’t be paying VAT on the build in Thailand and, with my limited understanding, I don’t think we’ll pay VAT anywhere as we have no plans to import to anywhere (my understanding could be wrong about how this works though...).

Why do you say that the GB flag was traditionally the best choice? And what do you think makes this no longer true with brexit?

[taxwizz]

Are you considered to import the boat to the flagged country?
Would there be VAT at that point?
Just wondering.

[slug]

Originally Posted by markiobe

We won’t be paying VAT on the build in Thailand and, with my limited understanding, I don’t think we’ll pay VAT anywhere as we have no plans to import to anywhere (my understanding could be wrong about how this works though...).

Why do you say that the GB flag was traditionally the best choice? And what do you think makes this no longer true with brexit?

A non resident can fly the GB flag

The GB flag is on the IMO white list

The GB flag is not expensive

The GB flag gave you access to the European Union

[markiobe]

Originally Posted by taxwizz

Are you considered to import the boat to the flagged country?
Would there be VAT at that point?
Just wondering.

We have no plans to import the boat to any country but in my understanding if you do then you pay VAT on it. No idea as to how they would calculate how much though as presumably the boat will be worth less than what you paid for it so...

[taxwizz]

They might consider the boat worth more than you paid, as you had it built in a very low wage country.

[markiobe]

Originally Posted by slug

A non resident can fly the GB flag

The GB flag is on the IMO white list

The GB flag is not expensive

The GB flag gave you access to the European Union

But that's also true of lots of other places too as far as I understand...?

[markiobe]

Originally Posted by taxwizz

They might consider the boat worth more than you paid, as you had it built in a very low wage country.

Maybe, but won't be a problem for us as we're not importing it anywhere

[taxwizz]

Are you considered to import the boat to the flagged country?
Would that give rise to VAT?

[blubaju]

You didn't mention your country, my yacht was built in Philippines, registered in Austria. No survey, no tax (property), no VAT as long as you don't enter EU waters, registration fee next to nothing, even exemption from CE, but take care about your engines, you might need to provide their EU-compatible pollution certificate I was asked for; no big political enemies in this world. But you must be resident.

[mikedefieslife]

The British is one of the cheapest around.

I fail to see what it has to do with insurance tax unless you choose to get insurance from the same country that the boat is flagged in.

You cannot get a British registration unless you have an address in the country. Of course that is easy to get around.

Someone mentioned Cook Islands. The registration is $800 for a 12m to 24m boat. I'm not sure what benefit there is in paying that.

Better to just choose the cheapest respectable country whos laws you like.

Since you have no interest in visiting the UK or the EU, VAT is of no consequence.

[markiobe]

Originally Posted by taxwizz

Are you considered to import the boat to the flagged country?
Would that give rise to VAT?

we're not planning to import the boat to ANY country!!