A new regulation by the Greek tax authorities is currently causing great uncertainty. In June, newspaper articles pointed out that the Greek state is now also demanding an income tax return from foreign owners who have a permanent berth in Greece.
For this, owners should submit a corresponding application and be assigned a tax number. The tax officials then check the "value" of the ship and use tax tables based on the size and age of the boat to calculate how much taxes are due. The procedure sounds unusual for Germans and is most likely comparable to the local property tax that is levied on houses. After the first indications of this new regulation, the cruiser department of the DSV turned to the German-Greek Chamber of Commerce to inquire whether this regulation had actually come into force. The sobering answer: The law is legal and from 2006 theoretically binding for German owners. This means that newer ships are threatened with fees over ten meters high, which, according to initial sample calculations, could even exceed the 1000 euro mark. In the worst case, if you ignore the tax liability, the yacht will be confiscated. However, it is still unclear whether the law might not take the typically Greek route: it may never be implemented in practice or tacitly agreed not to control it. This "outsider tactic" has been practiced in many similar cases. Nevertheless, it is worrying enough that the tax liability is legally in force, so owners can never be entirely sure whether the regulation will be implemented soon or whether they will encounter a particularly zealous customs officer or port captain who requests the tax number. More about the details of the calculation of the tax can be found on the homepage of the Kreuzer department at www.kreuzer-abteilung.org.