Quote:
Originally Posted by Black Eagle
There are two different arguments:
"Occasionaly" charter, and "regular" charter.
"Occasionaly" charter is governed by the rules of every single country ( and not under EU rules), and they are valid for boats with the flag of that country only, and with boarding and landing passengers in the waters of that country only!
"Regular" charter is also governed by the rules of every single country (but it also meets the European rules), and if one likes to do that it's better find the best EU country where open the company, so if you have a charter company with tax domicile in any of the EU countries (and this means that the boat must be register under that company, and so of course, with an EU flag), you can do charter in all EU countries without problems.
I'm not an accountant (so I may be wrong), but I think the best place to open a charter company in EU are Malta, Luxembourg, Estonia
Surely not Italy, too much taxes, but mostly too much bureaucracy
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Unfortunately this is not true.. first all, let's agree on the term of chartering as different people may have different understanding. Chartering is a
commercial activity when someone or a certain company rent his boat to a third person for a period of time, against certain amount of
money. If the owner (or his representative is on board , it's a skippered charter , otherwise, it's a
bareboat charter. There is no such a "occasional" or "regular" chartering; chartering is charthering.
In many countries, at least in
Turkey and in
Greece, probably also in
Croatia, the
boats are registered either
commercial or private. They are subject to different
taxes and conditions. Moreover, privately registered boats are not allowed to carry out any commercial activities, thus, chartering.
EU rules unfortunately doesn't
work here, you cannot charter in
Turkey, in
Croatia or in
Greece with any flag other than the country's flag where you operate. One UK flagged boat has been fined 5.000 € for illegal chartering in Greece. In Croatia, it's the same. In Turkey , this was allowed, but this year they inserted a serious taxes and starting from next year , it will be completely banned.
This is (probably) based on cabotage laws which reads : "
The report published today, titled Cabotage Laws of the World, has identified for the first time ninety-one member states of the United Nations that have cabotage laws restricting foreign activity in their domestic coastal trades."
Chartering is considered as a "foreign activity (read it foreign flagged boat) in their domestic coastal waters (read it chartering) have restrictions.
Cheers
Yeloya