New tax for foreign yachts based in Greece from 1st January 2014????

[duncan99210]

@Glyka (or to anybody else who can answer the questions ;-))

I have an old DEKPA (2012) with no exit stamp from Greece. Considering the circular you posted, do you think I can use it next summer to enter Greece (without problems with PP)?Moreover, do I have to show the Dekpa and have it stamped by the PP at my port of entry?

Or would it be better if I ask yhem for a new Dekpa (with all the fuss and the cost)?
Please, enlighten me (I am starting to feel confused)...
THKS

The DEPKA hasn't changed as far as I'm aware. We left Greece in spring 2012 without getting an exit stamp from the PP (tried to do so but the Gouvia office was shut). I was apprehensive about re-entering and was resigned to being told to go and get a new one when we turned last year. The old DEPKA was happily stamped up by the PP in Nidri with no comment as to any lack of stamps. I wouldn't worry, just present your old DEPKA provided it has spaces left to be stamped.

 

[Bertramdriver]

@Glyka (or to anybody else who can answer the questions ;-))

I have an old DEKPA (2012) with no exit stamp from Greece. Considering the circular you posted, do you think I can use it next summer to enter Greece (without problems with PP)?Moreover, do I have to show the Dekpa and have it stamped by the PP at my port of entry?
Or would it be better if I ask yhem for a new Dekpa (with all the fuss and the cost)?
Please, enlighten me (I am starting to feel confused)...
THKS

You've got a problem? My DEKPA is dated 2004 and after ten years of swanning around the aegean still only has eight stamps in it. When the PP have finally persuaded me into an office, the lack of stamps seem to be a source of amusement rather than grief.

 

[Peio64]

You've got a problem? My DEKPA is dated 2004 and after ten years of swanning around the aegean still only has eight stamps in it. When the PP have finally persuaded me into an office, the lack of stamps seem to be a source of amusement rather than grief.

My DEKPA is dated 2001. No stamp (except the first one) before 2009 because I could'nt remember where I had put it away

Now, it should have only a tenth of stamps because I supply it only on demand, never spontaneously (last year, only one stamp during a 5 months cruise).

Peio
Haize Egoa

 

[NornaBiron]

You've got a problem? My DEKPA is dated 2004 and after ten years of swanning around the aegean still only has eight stamps in it. When the PP have finally persuaded me into an office, the lack of stamps seem to be a source of amusement rather than grief.

So we're not the only ones then - one stamp a year for the last six years!

I'm pretty sure we were told when we got our DEKPA in 2008 that it remained valid as long as there was space to stamp.

 

[Norman_E]

All this talk about the DEKPA leaves me a bit confused. I have been in and out of Greece a few times in the eight years since I bought my boat. I have a big thick paper or thin card folded sheet for entry and exit stamps, which I obtained the first time I entered Greece. It has space for plenty of stamps. I cannot look at it as it is on the boat. Is that the DEKPA? What does DEKPA mean?

 

[NornaBiron]

All this talk about the DEKPA leaves me a bit confused. I have been in and out of Greece a few times in the eight years since I bought my boat. I have a big thick paper or thin card folded sheet for entry and exit stamps, which I obtained the first time I entered Greece. It has space for plenty of stamps. I cannot look at it as it is on the boat. Is that the DEKPA? What does DEKPA mean?

Yes that's it. The translation of DEKPA is Private Pleasure Maritime Traffic Document

 

[Cardo]

All this talk about the DEKPA leaves me a bit confused. I have been in and out of Greece a few times in the eight years since I bought my boat. I have a big thick paper or thin card folded sheet for entry and exit stamps, which I obtained the first time I entered Greece. It has space for plenty of stamps. I cannot look at it as it is on the boat. Is that the DEKPA? What does DEKPA mean?

That's the DEKPA. It's the initials of the name on the front of the document, written in Greek. Well, it's actually D K P A. But I guess that's harder to pronounce.

 

[jimbaerselman]

That's the DEKPA. It's the initials of the name on the front of the document, written in Greek. Well, it's actually D K P A. But I guess that's harder to pronounce.

Even worse is trying to pronounce ΔΕΚΠΑ!

As further news dribbles in, the Cruising Association keeps www.cruising.org.uk/news/greektax up to date.

 

[Sybaris]

What you forgot to say (or to ask for Greek authorities) is what would happen to you if you refuse to pay the tax. Should the boat be immobilized ? Seized ? Do they plan to place you under arrest ?

Sarcasm Warning!!!!

Oh that's an easy one, you are all yachties who have chosen a free lifestyle without rules and regulations so it is simply up to you to decide if you want to pay it or not.

Pretty much as most yachties have always done in Greece with the port dues, i.e. simply claim the pp is not interested and give them the finger.

This of course even more true if you are a EU citizen meaning you are personally more or less financing Greece as a country already.

Per

 

[Toys_with_Time]

I actually tried to pay the 88 cents when I checked in to Kalymnos but the PP said to forget about it.
When I checked out from Kalymnos 5 days later the (different) PP girl said "why havent you paid this tax ?"
I was chilled out enough to just roll with it and go to the tax office in Kos
Thats why we love Greece isnt it Chris

On my 2nd circumnavigation of Kalymnos last summer the pp asked me to pay the tax. I asked if it was a new tax as hadn't paid it 2 weeks earlier but they told me no, has been on the books for years but Athens had asked them to start enforcing it. I proffered a Euro but they said no, cant pay it here (even though they could take the VAT on the port dues), I had to go to the tax office on the other side of town and that would be 10 Euro taxi each way and the office wouldn't be open on the weekend. As I was leaving that day, Sunday, they said I could sign an IOU for the tax and pay it within 3 days at any tax office. I asked whether there was another tax office on Kalymnos as I would be sailing along it's coast but there wasn't so I asked how they could suggest I pay it. Easy they said - go to the local travel agent pay them the fee plus commission = total of 1 Euro and bring back the receipt as they can take taxes. Went to travel agent, paid Euro and asked for receipt. They handed me their complete old fashioned tax ledger and I had to take that up to the pp. PP completed stamping +/- 10 pieces of paper and everyone was happy. I asked why it wasn't computerised seeing they had a computer in the office and was told that was only used to Google information and had no role in their paperwork system. Took tax ledger back to travel agent and left Kalymnos. Result: Greek Government 88 cents richer?; travel agent 12 cents richer; several trees cut down; one bemused sailor. Postscript: On the other side of the island a few days later the pp did a raid on all boats in the harbour. I could hand them my freshly minted paperwork and look smug - others had to take a taxi back to town to pay the tax. Moral of the story - go with the flow in Greece.

TwT

 

[macd]

On my 2nd circumnavigation...

May I suggest you delete your post and sell it to Terry Gilliam before someone else does?

 

[truscott]

May I suggest you delete your post and sell it to Terry Gilliam before someone else does?

I think the movie was called Brazil as Grease had already been made (Yes, I know....droll).

 

[Birvidik_Bob]

Try this...

On my 2nd circumnavigation of Kalymnos last summer the pp asked me to pay the tax. I asked if it was a new tax as hadn't paid it 2 weeks earlier but they told me no, has been on the books for years but Athens had asked them to start enforcing it. I proffered a Euro but they said no, cant pay it here (even though they could take the VAT on the port dues), I had to go to the tax office on the other side of town and that would be 10 Euro taxi each way and the office wouldn't be open on the weekend. As I was leaving that day, Sunday, they said I could sign an IOU for the tax and pay it within 3 days at any tax office. I asked whether there was another tax office on Kalymnos as I would be sailing along it's coast but there wasn't so I asked how they could suggest I pay it. Easy they said - go to the local travel agent pay them the fee plus commission = total of 1 Euro and bring back the receipt as they can take taxes. Went to travel agent, paid Euro and asked for receipt. They handed me their complete old fashioned tax ledger and I had to take that up to the pp. PP completed stamping +/- 10 pieces of paper and everyone was happy. I asked why it wasn't computerised seeing they had a computer in the office and was told that was only used to Google information and had no role in their paperwork system. Took tax ledger back to travel agent and left Kalymnos. Result: Greek Government 88 cents richer?; travel agent 12 cents richer; several trees cut down; one bemused sailor. Postscript: On the other side of the island a few days later the pp did a raid on all boats in the harbour. I could hand them my freshly minted paperwork and look smug - others had to take a taxi back to town to pay the tax. Moral of the story - go with the flow in Greece.

TwT

http://www.sailblogs.com/member/birvidik/?xjMsgID=96711

 

[telford_mike]

http://www.sailblogs.com/member/birvidik/?xjMsgID=96711

Priceless

 

[affinite]

Priceless

No, 88 cents
I think I met the same clerk in the KOS tax office last week.

 

[Chris_Robb]

http://www.sailblogs.com/member/birvidik/?xjMsgID=96711

Ha ha - glad your still around - have you still got Birvidik?

 

[charles_reed]

http://www.sailblogs.com/member/birvidik/?xjMsgID=96711

Ah! The complexities of Mediterranean officialdom. An excellent description!!

I once tried to pay a parking fine in Maddalena Post Office - after several requests to show the impossible, I ritually tore up the document and stuffed it into the wastebin - (resulting in a round of applause from the assembled queuers).
There was another negotiation with parking authorities in Marsala - finally dealt a death-blow by asking them the IBAN of the bank into which they'd require the £sterling value of the fine to be paid.

It's my opinion that, unused to the ovine behaviour of N European and Anglo-Saxon taxpayers compared to their own countrymen, Mediterranean and especially Greek bureaucrats are interested oin seeing how many "running" experiences they can put us through. (I did quite a few experiments with rat-learning during my undergraduate days).
Currently PP registration procedures appear to fall into many categories, mostly involving a final visit 2 hours before leaving - I've told the PP here in Limenas that climbing their stairs again is too much for my arthritis and if they'd like to come and collect they're most welcome but that we're leaving on Wednesday and their offices are definitely in breach of EC regulations for access by handicapped persons.

In all this I'm thankful that I am under the DEKRA limen.

 

[duncan99210]

When we left Greece in 2012, we visited the PP office in Gouvia to book out. It was shut. We shrugged our shoulders and left as planned. About a year later, we approached Greek waters in some trepidation and we're resigned to going through the dance that is getting a new DEKPA. We needn't have worried: we called in at the PP office in Nidri, where a nice young man asked use where we'd come from (Italy) and stamped our old DEKPA quite happily, helped us fill out a new crew list and waved us on our way. All took about ten minutes.

We've only ever once been asked for the 88 cents tax: that was in Athens. They were switched on there: a photocopies map showed where the tax office was on the reverse of the bit of paper demanding the tax. However, the young man gleefully informed us that the tax office was shut due to a strike and that we should pay the tax next time we visited Athens......

 

[macd]

Even worse is trying to pronounce ΔΕΚΠΑ!

As further news dribbles in, the Cruising Association keeps www.cruising.org.uk/news/greektax up to date.

Jim, I see from that link that: "New arrivals in Greece no longer have to use a port of entry, but must notify PP."
Does that also apply to checking out of Greece?

 

[Appleyard]

Yes