any one got a boat on uk charter - registration & vat help pls

[jema]

seems to be loads of threads re- uk owners with european charter vessels - ( ie the vat man can assume you use it loads your self... as miles away)
anyone out there with uk charter vessels - would be gratefull to find out more on initial vat reclaim on vessel purchase...

also keep coming accross details on how registering as boat of different country has tax advantages.... i just dont understand that... any one point in right direction..
thanks J. /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

 

[Sailfree]

I attach part of an earlier posting I made on charter ownership.

With regard to your specific question on VAT. In the UK you can reclaim VAT if you register but the IR now have a special unit to deal with Yacht charter and they don't make it easy but my understanding is that if you are genuinely intending to charter you can get VATregistration. Our last boat we sold as a going concern with the VAT registration and I registered the new boat as a separate entity. If you are intending to charter abroad you may be better buying in that country but you will be subject to that countries attitude to VAT and Chartering. I believe the IR are difficult over VAT registration as a number of people believe they can buy a boat, claim back the VAT, stick 1 advert in YM and use the boat themselves claiming that the chartering was not sucessful!!

Afraid I can not help you regarding aspects of owning a charter boat abroad, hope others are more knowledgable.

Over last 7 years I have owned 3 charter boats on South Coast. PM me if you want to discuss.

I have heard all the arguments and some people do some creative accountancy but if you do it legally you are really just reducing the cost of yacht ownership and losing the pride of ownership. Some people have their own car and are proud of it ,some have a company car, and some drive a "pool" car. Owning a charter yacht is having a "pool" yacht.

There are risks as charter companies rarely take on repair costs (they arrange the necessary repairs but don't pay for them! - other than those they can recoup from the charterer) and a number of charterers hide anything they break that may not be obvious. If the boat is reliable (I found out the hard way that Volvo Penta were not!) and fairly robust (it may go aground!) you can seriously reduce the cost of ownership but don't look at it as an investment. If it was such a good investment Charter companies would not be chartering your boat out but their own ones to make more money! The repair risk is a double wammy as you not only pay for the repair but loose the income during the repair. While a security deposit is normally required it covers the insurance excess but not the loss of no claim bonus at next years renewal.

If you ever want to buy a new boat you won't get better unbiased advice than from a charter company that is not linked by cheap purchase deals to certain makes on which boats are reliable and take the heavy wear of chartering. It certainly ruled out one make of boat during our last purchase.

There are a few companies that own a few of their own yachts in addition to chartering out other peoples. I was tempted by one such company and cold called them as a perspective charter and was informed that boat B was a better boat to hire than boat D while I knew that boat D was a better sailing boat and had better equipment. Boat D was privately owned and boat B was owned by them.