Cheapest country for a live aboard?

[boatman61]

Originally Posted by EinarNor

What if you leave your boat there and went home by plane for 183 days, for example and then return. How would that work?

It won't.. your allowed 90 days in then 90 days out.
So basically you leave every 3months for 3months.. but your boat is good for 18months a time then you'd have to sail to Morocco for a night, get a marina receipt to prove then the boats good for another 18months.

[tcpbob]

official in canaries..? 90 days, unofficial? don't care as long as you stay out of trouble. canaries are part of EU so part of spain but even mainland spain has lax reputation for longer stay. it is worth noting too that french territories are also part of EU... kinda... but have their own visa qualifications. you can get a one year visa in french Polynesia.


for canaries best to ask around when you get there from those who know.... and get the real up to date skinny. my info is 3 years old.

[jmc42]

Digital Nomad Visa

These are popping up all over Europe. I believe Spain now has one good for one year but there are income requirements. You may need to set up a company to pay you for some period of time before applying. Assuming you have the money to live on a boat full time, you should be able to make this work.

I do not know how this interacts with Schengen. For example, if you are in Spain with the Nomad visa for 7 months and have 5 months left and you travel to France, have you exceeded your Schengen time, even though authorized to do so in France?

[tcpbob]

to be a bit more detailed, what i found is that checking in is ... well.. not policed. I was anchored in several places, like Playa Blanca in Lanzaroti and spent time in Arricife at the marina there. i would ask about checking in and the response i got was mainly annoyance... i got a wave of the hand to the north. later i finally did inspect some government buildings at the far north of the harbour. no one spoke english and my espanol is crap. it took two trips, a lot of walking, and found the port captain. annoyance.... but he got the message to me that i should check out in 90 days from that day. i had already been there for a month. i made no secret of that as far as i could tell. i later talked to sailors anchored in las palmas. they paid a nominal rent to the marina next door that was collecting on behalf of the government. they had been there for 8 months and were seriously considering checking in so they could check out and show the exit on their passport.

This is not advice, but a report of experience. it appears that island possessions are not bound very heavily to shengen mainlands. what i got from my experience indicates that they like you there spending money as long as you don't create trouble. and As i said, French territories in the pacific will grant a one year visa but you must apply offshore and provide proof of insurance for health, covid thing. their embassy in panama does that. Allow 4 to 6 weeks to get it.

cheers

[massnspace]

North Korea

[jeanathon]

Originally Posted by massnspace

North Korea

methinks North Korea could be very expensive! A little chilly too.

[Kettlewell]

Whats the cheapest country that i can live on a sailboat?
I'm going to be solo so i'm looking for somewhere i can park my dingy to load up provisions. My thoughts where ... philippines .. peru ... ecuador ..
I'm wanting to keep the costs under $800 usd

"Cheapest" and easiest are often incompatible. I have talked to many dreamers about stuff like this at boat shows and my advice is always to skip living aboard if you are simply looking to save money. Being on a boat is ultimately about enjoying being on a boat, and not saving money. Sure, you can save money over living on land, but if you aren't doing it for the love of boating it isn't worth the hassle and downsides.

[TomCio]

Originally Posted by EinarNor

What if you leave your boat there and went home by plane for 183 days, for example and then return. How would that work?

I am not sure - there are lots of loopholes in Spanish tax law that are interpreted freely by the authorities.

[Joh.Ghurt]

Originally Posted by tcpbob

official in canaries..? 90 days, unofficial?

The main problem is that they really try to fix that. See the digital stuff needed from 2024 on and other things. Sure, you’ll be able to get away with a lot in the next year too, but there will be people caught. On the internet the best advice is to stay legal.

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by tcpbob

official in canaries..? 90 days, unofficial? don't care as long as you stay out of trouble. canaries are part of EU so part of spain but even mainland spain has lax reputation for longer stay. it is worth noting too that french territories are also part of EU... kinda... but have their own visa qualifications. you can get a one year visa in french Polynesia.


for canaries best to ask around when you get there from those who know.... and get the real up to date skinny. my info is 3 years old.

That's about to change radically with introduction of the ETIAS system.

[Arlen Van Os]

Originally Posted by wavetwister

Its $800 per month and the plan is to live live on a boat vs getting an apartment. I hear that $800 is hard to live on in the USA. I have family by the philippeans and i assume i would have to live on a boat if i moved by them.

Hello,
I am very familiar with the Cebu, Philippines area.
With your 800 per month, you could live very well indeed
The Philippines is safe and English is commonly spoken
A beautiful country and friendly people

Take Care

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by Arlen Van Os

Hello,
I am very familiar with the Cebu, Philippines area.
With your 800 per month, you could live very well indeed
The Philippines is safe and English is commonly spoken
A beautiful country and friendly people

Take Care

Funny, I just came from there. Lovely country with great places to sail.

Most countries in SE Asia are very cheap to live in. $800 would be extremely challenging to live on, however, even there. To old farts like us $800 might SOUND like a modest but something bit of money, but that's only $215 in 1980 dollars. I remember living on $500 a month about that time. It was possible -- and I was young and happy -- but it was an extremely ascetic lifestyle. $215 would have been impossible -- just groceries for one cost $100 back then and even then only with extreme penny-pinching.

And how do you fix the boat? Replace stuff which gets broken? Even buy a new piece of rope to make a new sheet or something? Buy a tank of diesel? Paint the bottom? SE Asia is a high fouling area; you will need to do a lot of bottom maintenance.

A member on here called "SailorBoy" did a great analysis of his costs cruising on a very modest budget over a number of years -- worth studying.

[TomCio]

Originally Posted by jmc42

Digital Nomad Visa

These are popping up all over Europe. I believe Spain now has one good for one year but there are income requirements. You may need to set up a company to pay you for some period of time before applying. Assuming you have the money to live on a boat full time, you should be able to make this work.

I do not know how this interacts with Schengen. For example, if you are in Spain with the Nomad visa for 7 months and have 5 months left and you travel to France, have you exceeded your Schengen time, even though authorized to do so in France?

Three years ago we were seriously planning to settle in The Canaries, hired a local lawyer, got our NIE (tax identification number), and almost registered a Ltd company to buy the yacht. Fortunately, the lawyer went on holiday and I started reading the regulations by myself. It turns out that Spain is extremely restrictive with respect to foreign yachts staying in its waters, regardless if you or the boat are EU/Schengen citizen or not, after 183 days they impose 12% matriculation tax (apparently illegal in the EU, but the procedure of EC against Spain is still in progress) over the value of the boat assessed by the official. Moreover, after 183 days you become Spanish resident, not only from the point of view of the taxation of your worldwide income, but also your legal obligations, such as the necessity to possess eg Spanish driving licence and sailing qualifications certificate (rather complicated). If you fail to have them and sail your yacht, the penalty is... confiscation of the boat. There is a way of legalisation of your foreign sailing and other certificates, but haven't found out how to do it in reality in Tenerife nor in Gran Canaria, I even tried to take the relevant exams, but apparently there was no training centre. If you register a company or a proprietorship (individual business), you become Spanish resident with immediate effect. When you become one, you have 100 days to bring in your belongings tax free, but this does not release your yacht that you possessed earlier or bought later as Spanish resident from VAT and the said matriculation tax. To make it only more confusing, each autonomous region of Spain has its own policies and the interpretation of the law is really in the hands of the local officials. On those premises, we have completely abandoned the plan to settle there and moved elsewhere with our project. I know people who run their sailing (charter) businesses in The Canaries and use their foreign driving licences for years without fulfilling those requirements, but it is their choice to take such a risk. I have checked the legal situation in Spain in November last year and it was unchanged.

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by Kettlewell

"Cheapest" and easiest are often incompatible. I have talked to many dreamers about stuff like this at boat shows and my advice is always to skip living aboard if you are simply looking to save money. Being on a boat is ultimately about enjoying being on a boat, and not saving money. Sure, you can save money over living on land, but if you aren't doing it for the love of boating it isn't worth the hassle and downsides.

I agree. A super cheap lifestyle is better done in an ashram in India, or on a bit of farmland, or maybe in a cheap apartment on the outskirts of Bangkok, or in Mexico somewhere. Nothing at all wrong with it if you can make it work as a lifestyle that lets you do the things you want to do.

I think it would be miserable trying to live on $800 on a boat. Boat bums don't do a lot of boating in my experience.

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by TomCio

Three years ago we were seriously planning to settle in The Canaries, hired a local lawyer, got our NIE (tax identification number), and almost registered a Ltd company to buy the yacht. Fortunately, the lawyer went on holiday and I started reading the regulations by myself. It turns out that Spain is extremely restrictive with respect to foreign yachts staying in its waters, regardless if you or the boat are EU/Schengen citizen or not, after 183 days they impose 12% matriculation tax (apparently illegal in the EU, but the procedure of EC against Spain is still in progress) over the value of the boat assessed by the official. Moreover, after 183 days you become Spanish resident, not only from the point of view of the taxation of your worldwide income, but also your legal obligations, such as the necessity to possess eg Spanish driving licence and sailing qualifications certificate (rather complicated). If you fail to have them and sail your yacht, the penalty is... confiscation of the boat. There is a way of legalisation of your foreign sailing and other certificates, but haven't found out how to do it in reality in Tenerife nor in Gran Canaria, I even tried to take the relevant exams, but apparently there was no training centre. If you register a company or a proprietorship (individual business), you become Spanish resident with immediate effect. When you become one, you have 100 days to bring in your belongings tax free, but this does not release your yacht that you possessed earlier or bought later as Spanish resident from VAT and the said matriculation tax. To make it only more confusing, each autonomous region of Spain has its own policies and the interpretation of the law is really in the hands of the local officials. On those premises, we have completely abandoned the plan to settle there and moved elsewhere with our project. I know people who run their sailing (charter) businesses in The Canaries and use their foreign driving licences for years without fulfilling those requirements, but it is their choice to take such a risk. I have checked the legal situation in Spain in November last year and it was unchanged.

For anyone considering relocating abroad to one particular country (rather than moving around) -- these rules are quite typical. Just about every country in the world starts imposing taxes on you once you are physically present for more than half a year out of any year, requires you to have residence permit, re-register your car and boat, local driver's license, etc. etc. etc.


The advantage of a boat is you can up sticks before passing half a year, and live somewhere else for a while.