About 100,000 owners of small and medium-sized recreational yachts have to pay a second-class boat tax of 100 to 200 euros, according to the provisions of Article 12 of Law No. 27/1975.

According to ERT, in order to certify and pay the tax, each boat owner must have submitted a declaration of tax on second-class boats in a special electronic application of TAXISnet. Once the tax has been assessed, it must be paid in two installments, either in one lump sum by the end of September.

The submission of these declarations should have been made by the liable owners by 26/07/24, according to article 17 of the law. 27/1975, as amended in March last year by Article 46 of Law 27/1975. 5036/2023. However, given that many of the boat owners were not aware of this obligation, and missed the deadline by a decision of the governor of the AADE G. Pitsilis and the Deputy Minister of National Economy and Finance Chr. Dimas, the deadline for these declarations was extended until 26 September.

The obligation to pay this tax is provided for in Article 12 of Law. 25/1975 as amended by Law 25/1975. 4646/2019. According to the article, all small and medium-sized sea vessels and ships, whether commercial or private – with the exception of only fishing vessels and tugs whose time spent in maritime transport services does not exceed 50% of their total time of activity – are required to pay each year a second-class ship tax, which amounts to 100 euros if the length of the vessel does not exceed 7 meters and 200 euros if the length exceeds 7 meters and reaches up to 12 meters.

This obligation also applies to taxpaying individuals who own private recreational yachts (simple boats, inflatable boats, speedboats, etc.). Until 2022, the tax was to be assessed by the AADE on the basis of data available to it.

This procedure, however, did not ensure the collection of tax from all taxpayers, as the AADE was not able to identify them. As of March 2023, Article 46 of Law No. 5036/2023, a new procedure was introduced for the collection of the tax, according to which all owners of yachts and all other shipowners – individuals or companies – who are registered on the first of January of each year in the relevant register or boathouse/ Small Vessel Registration Book (SBRB), must submit an electronic second class ship tax return to the tax authority responsible for the ship, for the previous year in question, so that the tax can be determined (certified) immediately upon submission of the return.

The same obligation to submit a second class ship tax return is also imposed on charterers or chartering companies of a ship under bare charter, as well as on lessees or leasing companies of a ship under financial leasing.