Miguel Ángel Serra is a lawyer, economist and founder of Legalley+

Earlier this month, a British national, resident and established in the UK, brought his UK-flagged yacht on freight to the waters of Mallorca for a family holiday, something quite common. He applied to the authorities for the Temporary Admission (TA), the EU Customs and tax regime that allows ‘pleasure’ registered yachts outside the Union Customs Territory (UCT), owned or used by persons also established outside the UCT, to sail in EU waters free of import duties and VAT for up to 18 months.

In this case, the structure was simple, without yacht-owning companies in between, so that the individual directly owned the yacht and the owner and his family were all resident and established in the UK, where they work, pay taxes and maintain their family home. But the owner seems to have been caught in the Golden Visa trap.

The Palma customs administration refused the TA application based on the fact that the owner was a holder of a so-called Spanish ‘Golden Visa’, an investor visa that, in exchange for investments specified by Spanish Law 14/2013 on support for entrepreneurs and their internationalisation, allowed non-EU foreigners residency in Spain.

This regime was cancelled in early 2025; however, the holders of the ‘Golden Visa’ may continue to hold them, provided that they preserve the investment that gives them the right to obtain said document. Based on the ‘Golden Visa’, the customs authority classified him as a person ‘established in Spain’, denied the TA, sealed the vessel and issued a VAT assessment for VAT on the hull, as they considered it to be a final import in the UCT.

The warning every yacht owner must read

This is a serious case that we believe has been wrongly decided and will be overturned, but it is far more significant than a single Spanish dispute. Many other EU countries approved regimes very similar to the Spanish ‘Golden Visa’, and the customs authority’s interpretation will be equally applicable to any similar ‘residence authorisation’ issued by an EU member state. The holder will be equally considered as a person ‘established’ in the UCT, no matter if they are British or Australian. Spanish Customs understands that holding any of those cards implies being an ‘EU established’ person, no matter where they have their real tax residency or where they are really established.

For Spanish TA purposes, any non-EU national holding any form of ‘residence authorisation’ issued by any EU member state will therefore be considered as ‘established’ in the UCT, regardless of where they are tax residents, live, work and pay their taxes. And customs authorities in Palma do not accept any evidence to the contrary.

Under this interpretation, thousands of non-EU nationals who have obtained any kind of European ‘residence authorisation’ are potentially disqualified from using the TA in Spain and exposed to import VAT charges worth more than a fifth of their vessel’s value the moment they enter EU waters. And we are still unsure about the eventual penalties for VAT on import liability.

A ‘residence authorisation’ issued in Lisbon, Berlin, Athens or Amsterdam carries exactly the same implication under the Palma Customs logic as one issued in Madrid. Owners who have structured their affairs in the reasonable belief that their actual domicile, residency and establishment is in the UK, the US, Australia or anywhere else outside the UCT, and that the UCT governs their TA eligibility, should be aware that at least one Spanish customs authority disagrees and is prepared to act on that disagreement by sealing their vessel and issuing six-figure tax demands.

A legally flawed Interpretation

‘Established’ in EU customs law has a precise and well-settled meaning. It requires real and stable links to a territory: a genuine place of business or habitual residence, the actual exercise of economic or personal activity, human and material presence. A bank deposit held as a passive financial investment does not meet, by far, that threshold. Nor does a residence permit obtained under an investment scheme – particularly one, like Spain's now-abolished ‘Golden Visa’ programme, that was explicitly designed for non-resident foreign investors who had no intention of relocating to Spain but eliminates all the visa procedures, which are always cumbersome.

The evidence presented to the customs administration at a formal meeting was overwhelming: HMRC residence certificates, employer letters confirming full-time employment in London, utility bills and official UK government tax account records – all pointing to the client’s actual establishment – were received with indifference. For them, holding a ‘Golden Visa’ is equivalent to be ‘established’ in Spain, and they do not admit evidence to the contrary; they treat it as an irrebuttable presumption.

Spain has only one customs authority in law, but in practice, its regional delegations operate as autonomous fiefdoms, applying their own interpretations without coordination, consistency or oversight from the national administration. The Palma Customs’ reading of ‘establishment’ is, to our knowledge, not shared by other Spanish customs offices. There is no mechanism by which uniform national criteria are imposed, and no culture of seeking them. This creates a huge legal uncertainty that damages the Spanish yachting industry.

This means that, in a case such as the one at hand, the case will take years in Court and, in the meantime, the vessel remains sealed and the family loses the holiday they planned and are obliged to guarantee the VAT tax liability to allow the yacht to be unsealed and marina fees continue to accrue.

The practical consequences

The immediate message for anyone planning to bring a privately owned vessel into Spanish waters, and particularly into the Balearic Islands, under the TA regime, is that if you hold any form of ‘residence authorisation’  or ‘residence permit’ issued by any EU member state, you should take specialist legal advice before your vessel enters the UCT.

Do not assume that your actual domicile, your tax residence or your employment in a non-EU country will protect you. At least one Spanish customs office will look past all of that and focus on the ‘Golden Visa’ or similar documents issued by any other EU country.

The broader message is one for the European Commission and for the national customs administrations of every EU member state: the absence of uniform, binding guidance on what ‘established’ means for TA purposes is creating a legal vacuum that regional customs offices are filling with interpretations that are legally wrong, commercially destructive, and deeply damaging for the industry in all of Europe. As well as for the reputation as a destination for international maritime leisure.

Spain actively marketed its own ‘Golden Visa’ programme to high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs) across the world. It cannot simultaneously use participation in that programme as a weapon against the very people who responded to the invitation.

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