I. Purchasing a yacht is pure emotion!
However...
II. Purchasing a yacht has significant legal prerequisites and consequences.
Set the course by planning carefully...
In many other countries, corresponding registers are maintained with public confidence. Thus, a large ship is like a swimming property with entry in land register and serves the public as defined by property law: The nationality of a ship as well as ist legal transactions and right on the entered ships, acquisition and loss of ownership, ship mortgages, life estate etc. are regulated and documented.
III. The succession of a yacht in professional hands.
The consequences of succession law and mainly succession duties which play a very important role in estate planning of a large yacht are also associated with nationality.
We offer you an urgently required professional layout.
A lot can be organised by selecting nationality as well as the person who would own the ship – e.g. founding a holding company.
IV. Hardly any yacht purchase without tax questions
Germany has a maritime shipping register (second register) since 1989 which allows carrying a German flag, but the crew should not be appointed as per German Labour Law.
It is a very important planning factor for an owner with larger crew. Whereas, according to German Commercial Code, a ship owner is a person who owns a ship which is earning him income in seafaring (which is not the case of a yacht meant for sheer private use), the Social Security Code IV defines a ship owner as owner of ocean vessels and mariners as employees who are working on board of ocean vessels within the scope of ship operation during the journey, with the exception of pilots.
These provisions of social law are also applicable to the employment on a private and not commercially operated yacht. As per labour law, the Law on Protection Against Dismissal is applicable to employment contracts on ocean vessels.
An expensive experience instead of timely, advantageous formation of purchase cases...