REGISTRATION
GENERAL CONSULATE OF PANAMA IN
MARSEILLE The Consulate of Panama in Marseille offers around the clock and personalised customer service for the registry of your yacht, superyacht, megayacht or any sailing ship in Panama as fast and smooth as possible. The Panama Ship Registry just introduced its new and advanced digital registration platform which integrates and simplifies the procedures for a more user friendly experience. Panama offers one of the most competitive tax rates in the world for yacht registration. By registering your pleasure yacht under the Panamanian flag, you pay a bi-annual tax, paid every two years. This tax excludes the payment of any other tax and not liable to VAT. For more details Tel: +33 (0)491900584 or visit
www.consulatgeneraldepanamamarseille.com
LUXEMBOURG Luxembourg is known to be a friendly place to do business as it offers the lowest VAT rates in the EU (15%). It also has a fast- growing registry that is proving popular with some superyacht owners. During the 1980s the tiny Luxembourg inland navigation sector expanded its activities towards the seas and the need arose for a maritime legislation was established. For a landlocked country like Luxembourg, the main purpose of introducing marine legislation was to develop a jurisdiction of choice for maritime business and to encourage the development of spin-off activities related to that sector.
It seems to have worked. The Luxembourg based and fully independent law firm, Etude André Harpes (EAH) was founded in 2001 and specialises in looking after owners seek to flag out in Luxembourg. Over the years since then, EAH has successfully built a network of partners on both a local and international level, in order to best serve all of its clients’ needs including registering superyachts. It remains strongly committed to the national public ship register and especially to the evolution of the opportunity provided by the Red Lion Flag rendering superyachts eligible to enter the merchant marine register.
André Harpes says, “Our full services range from your first planning to the choice of flag, the financing and registration of your yacht including mortgage registration if necessary. We provide yacht owners with property and operating structures in terms of corporate and tax compliance, both with respect to direct taxes as VAT aspects,
reflecting the most balanced solution to their very personal interests.” With offices located in the heart of Luxembourg City, within walking distance of the new Court houses and main government agencies, the firm defines success in meeting their clients’ objectives as efficiently and effectively as possible.
TUVALU Perhaps one of the more exciting and certainly one of the most proactive registries in this sector is that of the Tuvalu Ship Registry run by Jonathan Leach out of offices in the UK.
Made up of nine atolls scattered over a million square kilometres across the western Pacific Ocean, it lies just south of the equator. With its northern most and southern most islands separated in between them by about 600 nautical miles of ocean, Tuvalu gained its independence in 1978, after more than eighty years of British colonial rule. It is now an independent Constitutional Monarchy.
The Tuvalu Ship Registry opened its doors to foreign ownership through the adoption of the Open Ship Registry Bill in 2004. The Government of Tuvalu appointed the Tuvalu Ship Registry as the Authority to issue all certificates necessary for a yacht to sail and trade under the Tuvalu flag.
Jonathan Leach told me, “We do not do ships. We are yacht people, dealing with other yacht people.” He added, “Ours is a ‘one stop’ service. We do everything, any size, any age, any location, including yacht conversions from commercial vessels. We
arrange the surveys and do not require the yacht to be classed or even used for commercial purposes, provided it is in good condition and well managed.”
“Significantly we have had wooden yachts over 100 years old operating commercially without problems and with over 30 years of yacht survey experience we do not run away from these yachts. The beauty of our relatively small registry is that we can offer discretion, privacy and security. We get to know all our points of contacts like captains, managers and (where appropriate) owners. We do everything, from pre-completing the application forms to carrying out any of the surveys and issuing electronic certificates. The client deals with one UK office for everything.”
Here is one registry that can truly claim to ‘have gone the extra mile’ for a client. Jonathan explains, “I once had a panic request from the captain of a large charter yacht operating in the Eastern Mediterranean when his First Officer suddenly received National Service call up papers at the beginning of the peak season. We sent a detailed and friendly letter explaining that he was needed to safely manage the yacht and suggested he could attend at the end of the season, which was accepted. His mother was very pleased!”
Jonathan was the quickest to respond to the request of my Captain Colleague Richard Claymore who was seeking information about registering a yacht.
For that, Tuvalu gets a gold star in my book.
ONBOARD | AUTUMN 2020 | 73
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