An amended bill to the Greek circulation tax is likely to become law following discussions between the Greek Marina Association and parliament, reports the Cruising Association. This could mean that boat owners will only be charged when they leave port but nothing is certain yet.

Published 6 years ago, updated 5 years ago

THIS REPORT IS NOW OUT OF DATE. LATEST UPDATE HERE.

November 2017

See the latest update by the Cruising Association at:

https://www.theca.org.uk/news/greek_tax_update_nov_2017

15 June, 2016

From the Cruising Association website: http://www.theca.org.uk/greek-tax-2016

The Greek Government brought out the new TPP (Cruising) tax 18 months ago which imposed a new duty on all private and commercial craft using Greek waters – but the system of paying the tax was never properly introduced.

At that time the CA negotiated significant changes to the bill and managed to change the way Port Police interacted with yachtsmen – removing the need to report to Port Police except once a year.

The gist of the new legislation is similar to the original TPP but has gone back to the basic premise of an annual tax payable from January to December from where the TPP stated.

Chris Robb, a CA member who has sailed in Greek waters for many years, said:

‘Now this new tax has been announced we intend to try to work with the current Greek Government to make sure the rates of tax are fair and that the method of collection is simple and easy for us to comply with.

‘But the first point of contention is that in the rates they have announced, you will see a huge jump between an 11.9-metre boat and a 12.1-metre boat.  This rate jump is in my view unacceptable.

‘The Cruising association, as we did last time, will endeavour to co-operate with the Greek Government to produce a fair and easy to pay tax.  From the draft bill, it appears that everything that we managed to agree last time has been forgotten – with one exception, that under 12-metre boats can pay by the month. There are a lot of unknowns in the draft bill which we will seek to get answers to.  We assume that they will try to have this Tax inaction by the New Year.’

This is a rough translation of the bill. It is article 52 of the new draft law of the ministry of shipping which you can find at http://www.opengov.gr/ythynal/?p=583 (in Greek).

This article is replacing the TPP (law 4211/2013 government gazette No 256 A)

The new “duty” is imposed on all private pleasure and commercial boats irrespective of their flag which are within the Greek territorial waters. Idle boats are exempted provided that the documents have been surrendered to the port police office.

The new “duty” is calculated on current annual or current monthly basis as follows:

LOA upto 8 mtrs: EUR 20 per month

LOA over 8 mtrs and up to 10 mtrs: EUR 30 per month

LOA over 10 mtrs and up to 12 mtrs: EUR 40 per month

LOA over 12 mtrs: EUR 10 per mtr per month (as of the first metre, i.e. a boat of 13 mtrs is paying EUR 130 per month). It is possible by joint ministerial decision (Finance and Shipping) to grant a discount of 30% max for those over 12 mtrs permanently staying in Greek ports.

Also:

Discount 50% for the commercial boats and cruise ships subject to exclusive commercial use.

Discount 10% if the “duty” is paid on December or January for 1 whole year

The “duty” is payable at the port police office or the tax office or the customs office. There is also a provision for payment by electronic means, but it is not clear when this will be effective.

If the “duty” is not paid, the above-mentioned authorities prohibit sailing and impose a fine as follows:

LOA over 7 mtrs and up to 8 mtrs: EUR 240

LOA over 8 mtrs and up to 10 mtrs: EUR 360

LOA over 10 mtrs and up to 12 mtrs: EUR 480

LOA over 12 mtrs: EUR 1500

The paid “duty” is valid for multiple entrances during the period paid.

There will be updates on this on the CA news http://www.theca.org.uk/news as and when there is anything more to report.