By Chris Jones
In theory, everything with a motor or sails that
goes on the water has to be registered. Again, in theory, if you
have residence qualifications in Spain, you must, by law, register
your boat in Spain. In order to do so, apart from the registration
fees, which depend on the size of the boat, the owner is required
to pay a 14% tax on the value of the boat - which explains why a
lot of owners get round the law by registering their craft in a
company name. This is perfectly legal, in the same way that tax
avoidance is legal but tax evasion is not.
The Spanish authorities also insist that, if a boat
has an onboard tender, that must be registered separately, whereas
other countries consider the smaller craft to be an integral part
of the whole and do not require separate payment.
If the owner has a permanent, legal, address in his/her country
of origin, the simplest method of registration is to do it in that
country. But the address must be legal - you cannot use a relative's
address and claim it as your own. Any owner can, naturally, set
up an offshore company in any of the tax havens which proliferate
throughout the world. For foreigners resident in Andalucia, the
obvious choice is Gibraltar, where there is a number of specialist
companies who can facilitate all the paperwork and ensure that the
legal avenues are properly followed.
Back to top
|
