Tony Cross
Well-Known Member
Re: Greek Cruising Tax update from the CA - Fines on DEKPA
I do have a lot of sympathy with this view. Although I have no contacts at all in the Greek government I do know that for many years the government here has been trying to impose an existing luxury tax on Greek boat owners. Because of the weaknesses in the Greek systems many (most) Greeks have been able to avoid this tax by various questionable but legal means (registering the boat in Delaware is a common one).
It's my opinion that this 'universal' cruising tax (thought that's not what the Greek government call it) was envisaged originally as the only means of implementing a luxury tax on boats that Greek boat owners could not avoid. For all sorts of reasons, including massive pressure from Greek boat owners, various earlier iterations of this tax have been implemented and later abandoned. The Greek government has clearly been determined to implement a 'boating tax' that Greek boat owners cannot avoid because we've seen several different versions of this tax introduced over the years.
In 2012 the Greek government launched a survey of the foreign boats then in Greek waters (we were interviewed in that survey) and I assume this was to establish the levels of foreign owned boats in Greece and thus the likely impact on them of the introduction of a new universal 'boat tax'. The current tax system with a huge jump at 12m resulted from that.
It's my understanding that originally this new tax would only apply to 12m and over vessels but that later on (probably when they realised how many Greeks own under 12m boats) this was extended downwards. The rumour that I heard was that the finance ministry wasn't prepared to pro rata the over 12m tax monthly rates downwards because of the small monthly amounts that would be involved and the relatively high cost of collecting those, so they came up with the fixed yearly rates we have now - including the gross injustice at the 12m level.
That the Greek government are still pressing ahead with this tax, six years after the 2012 survey, suggests to me that they believe the increased income from Greek boat owners will more than offset any loss caused by some foreign boats leaving. I think that because of this the impact on foreign vessels has been largely ignored in the desire to tax Greeks, the incredible difficulties that Chris Robb has faced in his selfless work with the Greek government on behalf of all foreign boat owners in trying to make this tax workable for foreign boats stems from that.
It's my belief that the Greek government sees the increased revenue from foreign boats as an added bonus to a scheme that will raise considerable revenues from Greek boat owners, and for a country in such debt that's not a bad thing from their point of view.
You might argue that things have changed since 2012 in the way foreign boats use Greek waters, and you might be right, but I think that battle has been fought, investigated, and lost. It may well be that this iteration of the tax is also abandoned in the face of strong internal opposition from Greeks, but they have laboured long and hard over this tax and I don't see any way the Greek government is going to abandon the idea without at least having tried it, and I don't think any amount of opposition from foreign boat owners is going to change that.
I do have a lot of sympathy with this view. Although I have no contacts at all in the Greek government I do know that for many years the government here has been trying to impose an existing luxury tax on Greek boat owners. Because of the weaknesses in the Greek systems many (most) Greeks have been able to avoid this tax by various questionable but legal means (registering the boat in Delaware is a common one).
It's my opinion that this 'universal' cruising tax (thought that's not what the Greek government call it) was envisaged originally as the only means of implementing a luxury tax on boats that Greek boat owners could not avoid. For all sorts of reasons, including massive pressure from Greek boat owners, various earlier iterations of this tax have been implemented and later abandoned. The Greek government has clearly been determined to implement a 'boating tax' that Greek boat owners cannot avoid because we've seen several different versions of this tax introduced over the years.
In 2012 the Greek government launched a survey of the foreign boats then in Greek waters (we were interviewed in that survey) and I assume this was to establish the levels of foreign owned boats in Greece and thus the likely impact on them of the introduction of a new universal 'boat tax'. The current tax system with a huge jump at 12m resulted from that.
It's my understanding that originally this new tax would only apply to 12m and over vessels but that later on (probably when they realised how many Greeks own under 12m boats) this was extended downwards. The rumour that I heard was that the finance ministry wasn't prepared to pro rata the over 12m tax monthly rates downwards because of the small monthly amounts that would be involved and the relatively high cost of collecting those, so they came up with the fixed yearly rates we have now - including the gross injustice at the 12m level.
That the Greek government are still pressing ahead with this tax, six years after the 2012 survey, suggests to me that they believe the increased income from Greek boat owners will more than offset any loss caused by some foreign boats leaving. I think that because of this the impact on foreign vessels has been largely ignored in the desire to tax Greeks, the incredible difficulties that Chris Robb has faced in his selfless work with the Greek government on behalf of all foreign boat owners in trying to make this tax workable for foreign boats stems from that.
It's my belief that the Greek government sees the increased revenue from foreign boats as an added bonus to a scheme that will raise considerable revenues from Greek boat owners, and for a country in such debt that's not a bad thing from their point of view.
You might argue that things have changed since 2012 in the way foreign boats use Greek waters, and you might be right, but I think that battle has been fought, investigated, and lost. It may well be that this iteration of the tax is also abandoned in the face of strong internal opposition from Greeks, but they have laboured long and hard over this tax and I don't see any way the Greek government is going to abandon the idea without at least having tried it, and I don't think any amount of opposition from foreign boat owners is going to change that.
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