Boat Registration - Locations & Tax

[Adam T]

May be a silly question..but what are the benefits, or pitfalls, say of registering your boat in the isle of man, or monaco, or Cayman islands?

What are the rules regards location etc?

[ALawson]

From memory vessels can be registered out of the UK to avoid VAT being paid on them.

However, this means that they can only be used in UK water for a certain number of weeks a year.

[village idiot]

escaping VAT-liability is more down to the ownership structure rather than the registration.

there are a number of significant benefits to choosing the right 'flag'.

one of the main benefits is that of eligibility. if you are an EU citizen with no 'representative' or 'address' in the UK, you cannot register a yacht on the mainland part 1. british ships registry... the isle of mann registry however will allow this.

in addition to this, your flag dictates a whole host of regulations and requirements, many of which are a little more 'workable' with a red ensign fluttering on the stern than with other nation flags.

i personally find the guernsey registry the easiest to work with. i have often managed to push part 1 registry through via guernsey when those lovely ladies in cardiff (where the mainland registry is based) would refuse to come to the party.

once you are on the part 1 british registry, you 'should' be able to switch between outer-lying british registries with relative easy (ie. BVI, IOM, Channel Islands and so on)

[bga]

ALawson said:

From memory vessels can be registered out of the UK to avoid VAT being paid on them.

However, this means that they can only be used in UK water for a certain number of weeks a year.

Very common with new boats to keep them abroad for 2 years then when the owners want them back in the UK get pay the VAT on their revalued figure