Yeah I don't know much about it to be honest. I always thought that people owned them but I'm starting to think that a lot of people actually just rent them out, which probably makes more sense really. They are so expensive to take out with cost of the crews and fuel and all that. It's crazy.
Most of them are nothing more than instruments for lowering taxes.
That's interesting. How does that work?
Renting them out is called chartering! They are owned through companies and often VAT can be reclaimed and there are many tax deductables in the running costs, including the crews. A company that can afford to buy a yacht must be making vast taxable profits and the yacht is a way to eat into the profits.
Although they can be chartered out as they are actually a business, there is huge, manufactured, over supply which means it rarely happens so again, they are making a loss, again reducing tax liability.
There are teams of specialist accountants and brokers behind each super yacht as well as crew recruiters and management companies controlling operations. It's a very expensive business and their shelf life is surprisingly short, often going in for multi-mullion refits that can take up to 2 years, every 5 to 10 years or when they get sold on.
That's really interesting. Sounds like you know a lot about yachts. Its understandable that they would have such large teams. Thanks for sharing 😁
Wow this is very interesting information.