Yacht purchase and sale: legal and tax aspects

What the course covers

The course follows the order of an actual transaction. It begins with due diligence on the two registers that exist: the Sección de Buques del Registro de Bienes Muebles (Ships Section of the Movable Property Register), which records title, mortgages and encumbrances, and the Registro de Buques y Empresas Navieras (Register of Ships and Shipping Companies), administrative in character and run by the Capitanías Marítimas, with list six for commercial operation and list seven for private use.

The MYBA Memorandum of Agreement is examined as the sale contract: seller's representations, deposit held in escrow, out-of-water survey and sea trial, grounds for acceptance or rejection, place of delivery and the delivery and acceptance protocol. Governing law is determined by article 4(1)(a) of Regulation (EC) 593/2008, Rome I, which points to the law of the seller's habitual residence.

Registration is worked through article 73 of Ley 14/2014 de Navegación Marítima, which admits a public deed, a policy attested by a registered commercial broker, a final court order or an administrative document, together with article 77 on the unenforceability against third parties of unregistered matters. Finance is covered through the ship mortgage in article 128 LNM, which admits a public deed, a notary-attested policy or a private document.

The tax block starts from article 66.1 of Ley 38/1992, which exempts from registration tax vessels put to effective and exclusive use in chartering, with no length threshold since Ley 16/2013, the exemption being forfeited by the owner's own use. On VAT, the course addresses EU VAT paid status: the Canary Islands sit outside the EU VAT territory, so clearing there confers no such status and later entry into mainland Spain is an importation taxed at 21%.

Who it is for

Buyers and sellers of yachts, asset-holding companies, brokers and yacht agents, finance providers, marine underwriters, and lawyers and tax advisers.

No prior legal training is required. Sessions work on registry extracts, the MYBA form and worked cases of undisclosed encumbrances.

Why it matters

A yacht may reach the table with a registered mortgage, on an administrative list that does not match its intended use, or with a tax history that does not evidence EU VAT paid status. Each of those is detected before signing and addressed by a different clause.

REBECA is not a route for a pleasure yacht: it excludes pleasure craft and requires a merchant vessel of 100 GT. Starting from that avoids building a transaction on a regime that does not apply.

Programme

• Registry due diligence: Ships Section of the Movable Property Register and the Register of Ships and Shipping Companies
• The MYBA Memorandum of Agreement: deposit, survey, sea trial and delivery
• Governing law: article 4(1)(a) Rome I and the seller's habitual residence
• Registration of title: article 73 LNM and unenforceability under article 77 LNM
• Ship mortgage under article 128 LNM and acquisition finance
• Tax: registration tax under article 66.1 of Ley 38/1992, EU VAT paid status and the Canary Islands