The Superyacht Owner’s Summit, taking place between 4 and 6 May 2016 in London, as part of Prestige London and The London Yacht, Jet & Prestige Car Show will provide an unprecedented evaluation of superyacht ownership in the context of asset acquisition and management. This comes at time of unprecedented governance of the sector, as highlighted by an insightful piece recently published on SuperyachtNews.com by Abacus.

Within the body of the article, the author warned, ‘There… still remains some individuals, inexperienced in the ownership and operation of a yacht, who are of the opinion that if a yacht is owned through a VAT registered company, they can recover any and all VAT incurred on the cost of purchasing and running of the yacht by merely chartering it out a few times a year to friends or family members.

‘The reality is that tax authorities have now tightened up on rules and inspections so that only bona fide charter businesses can actually make this work.’

Superyacht clients should instead be seeking out yacht-specific ownership structures that address its idiosyncrasies, such as Oceanskies’ ‘Cayman Yacht Under Construction Package’, which establishes a tax-neutral structure until the vessel is delivered and an operational plan has been established.

Oceanskies’ co-founder, Duncan Swanson believes it is important for a new build client to establish a number of financial buffers when entering a new build contract. Speaking exclusively to SuperyachtNews.com, Swanson said:

“Where possible, and at the earliest stage we like to register a new build project as a ship under construction - in the Cayman Islands. In an ideal world the purchaser would only want to pay for a vessel when finished and sea trialled to their satisfaction. However, the realities of a superyacht build project, in terms of costs and time frame, mean there would be few, if any yards that would be willing or financially able to enter into a build without the promise of funds spread over the life of construction.”

Swanson explained that financial instalments should, therefore, be structured around performance milestones. “Clearly these milestones must be recorded in the build contract”, he continued, “and the contract must provide the purchaser with the ability to send in their own representative to the yard to verify these milestones have been reached.”

Ownership best practice and prudent asset management will be top of the agenda at The Superyacht Owner’s Summit. A limited number of partnership and delegate opportunities do still exist for this event. To find out more please click here.

Profile links

London Yacht Jet & Prestige Car Show

The Superyacht Owner''s Summit 2016

Abacus

Oceanskies

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