Sources: BOFIP BOI-TVA-CHAMP-30-30-30-10 (VAT exemption for commercial vessels; at least 70% of navigation outside national territorial waters, assessed per calendar year) and RIF — Exonération de TVA (15 m minimum, commercial registration, permanent crew, exclusive commercial use). Broker cost figures are not quoted; ask a broker for a written estimate.
A privately registered superyacht cannot simply take a paying charter guest aboard. Commercial charter activity generally requires commercial registration — a different regulatory category with its own safety code, crewing requirements, and compliance obligations that many private owners have no interest in taking on for the sake of a handful of charter weeks a year.
The YET scheme — Yachts Engaged in Trade — exists to bridge that gap. It lets a privately registered yacht charter for a limited number of days per year without converting the vessel's entire registration status. It is a narrow, specific tool, and it is frequently confused with — or assumed to include — VAT relief that it does not actually provide. This guide explains what YET does, what it does not do, and how it fits alongside the VAT mechanisms already covered in our Mediterranean Charter VAT Guide.
Sources: Ocean Independence industry guidance on Yachts Engaged in Trade; flag state (Marshall Islands, Cayman Islands) registration programme documentation, 2026. Confirm current requirements with the vessel's flag administration and a qualified maritime tax adviser before relying on this guide.
What YET Actually Is
YET is best understood as a registration and charter-days status, not a tax mechanism. It is administered principally through two flag state programmes — the Marshall Islands and Cayman Islands registries — and, on the European side, is currently recognised for charter activity in French, Monaco, Croatian, and Greek waters (the Marshall Islands registry's list of accepting countries, as of October 2026).
The scheme exists for a specific commercial reality: an owner with a privately registered yacht who wants to charter it occasionally — to offset running costs, test the charter market, or accommodate a broker's request for a handful of weeks — without converting the entire vessel to commercial registration, which brings a materially different set of safety, crewing, and insurance obligations that only make sense for a vessel running a genuine charter programme.
YET is not a substitute for commercial registration, and it is not designed to be. A yacht running a full charter season, or marketed primarily as a charter vessel, should be commercially registered outright. YET is a narrow allowance for privately registered yachts doing limited, occasional chartering.
Eligibility Requirements
The YET scheme applies to vessels meeting a defined set of conditions:
- Minimum size: generally 24 metres LOA and above
- Registration status: privately registered (non-commercial) under the flag state
- Safety standard: the vessel must meet commercial yacht code safety standards (the RMI Yacht Code for Marshall Islands yachts; full commercial compliance at all times under the Cayman Islands declaration), even though it remains privately registered — this is the mechanism that lets a private yacht carry paying charter guests safely and legally for the days it is trading
- Passenger limit: maximum of 12 passengers while operating under the Cayman Islands YET scheme, consistent with the international limit that separates a yacht from a passenger-carrying vessel under SOLAS; the Marshall Islands allows up to 36 under its Yacht Code chapter for larger passenger numbers
- Charter days: up to 84 charter days per calendar year
A vessel that does not already meet commercial yacht code safety standards will need to bring the yacht up to that standard before YET registration is possible — this is often the largest practical hurdle for an owner considering the scheme, more so than the administrative process itself.
What YET Does Not Do: VAT
This is the point of greatest confusion, and the reason this guide exists alongside — not instead of — our Mediterranean Charter VAT Guide.
YET provides no VAT exemption or reduction. A yacht chartering under YET status still owes VAT on the charter fee at the standard rate applicable in the country where the yacht is put at the charterer's disposal. In France, that is the standard 20% rate (as of October 2026). The scheme changes whether a privately registered yacht is permitted to charter at all — it does not touch the tax treatment of the charter fee once that charter happens.
VAT relief in French waters is a separate matter entirely, handled through the mechanisms described in our VAT guide: the French Commercial Exemption (FCE), which exempts supplies such as the purchase, repair, and maintenance of commercially registered vessels of 15 metres or more with a permanent crew, in commercial use, with at least 70% of the previous calendar year's trips outside French territorial waters, and the broader EU use-and-enjoyment rule, under which member states may tax the hire of a means of transport according to where it is effectively used (VAT Directive Article 59a).
A yacht chartering under YET and a yacht chartering under full commercial registration with FCE relief are in fundamentally different tax positions, even if both are operating in French waters in the same week. Confusing the two — assuming YET carries the VAT treatment that only applies to fully commercial vessels — is a compliance and budgeting error that surfaces at exactly the wrong moment: when the charter fee invoice is issued.
Managing VAT Status Alongside YET
Because YET itself does not resolve VAT, a yacht operating under the scheme needs its customs and VAT position handled through one of two paths: holding a VAT-paid certificate for the vessel, or entering EU waters under Temporary Admission for commercial use — not the private-use 18-month regime, which does not allow chartering. The Cayman Islands declaration requires import and export customs documentation for this commercial Temporary Admission before each YET charter, which means the VAT question needs to be resolved with a tax adviser before charter dates are confirmed, not after.
The Application Process
Bringing a yacht onto YET status for a specific charter period follows a defined sequence:
- Master's declaration. Under the Cayman Islands scheme, the master signs a Limited Trade Declaration for a Yacht Engaged in Trade (form CISR 3912), kept on board, acknowledging the 84-day, 12-passenger, and no-owner-use limits.
- Flag compliance verification. The flag administration confirms the vessel meets its commercial yacht code standards and the other eligibility conditions, and issues a YET compliance certificate.
- Customs broker engagement. A customs broker manages the practical registration process. Request a current written quote and timetable for the specific vessel rather than relying on an industry estimate.
- Temporary Certificate of Registry. The flag state issues a Temporary Certificate of Registry covering the specific charter dates the vessel will trade under YET.
The Owner Cannot Use the Yacht During Trading Dates
A detail that catches owners by surprise: during the period covered by the Temporary Certificate of Registry, the beneficial owner cannot use the vessel for private purposes. The certificate is issued for the specific charter dates — the yacht is operating commercially for those dates, full stop, and private use resumes only once the temporary certificate period ends.
Where YET Fits Alongside French Charter VAT
To place YET correctly next to the VAT mechanisms already covered in our Mediterranean Charter VAT Guide:
| Mechanism | What it governs | Applies to |
|---|---|---|
| YET | Whether limited commercial chartering is permitted at all | Privately registered yachts, 24m+, up to 84 charter days/year |
| French Commercial Exemption (FCE) | VAT exemption on supplies such as purchase, repair, and maintenance when at least 70% of trips leave French territorial waters | Commercially registered yachts, 15m+, permanent crew |
| EU use-and-enjoyment rule | VAT follows where the hired yacht is effectively used | Hire of a means of transport, in member states that use the VAT Directive Article 59a option |
These sit at different layers of the same operation. A privately registered yacht doing a handful of charter weeks a year needs YET to charter legally at all, and pays VAT on those charters. A fully commercially registered yacht running a genuine charter season needs FCE or the use-and-enjoyment rule to manage its VAT exposure, and does not need YET because it is already commercially registered.
For an owner weighing whether to convert to full commercial registration versus staying private and using YET for occasional charters, the honest comparison is not "which saves more on VAT" — YET does not touch VAT at all. It is "does the charter volume justify the safety, crewing, and compliance obligations of full commercial registration, or does a limited, well-defined 84-day allowance under YET meet the actual goal?"
A Note on France's Flat-Rate VAT Change
Operators researching French charter VAT will frequently encounter references to a change that abolished a flat-rate reduction. That change — the French tax authority's replacement of a flat-rate taxable-revenue reduction with the proportional use-and-enjoyment method — belongs to the VAT side of French charter operations, not to YET. It affected charters claiming VAT relief on the proportion of a charter spent outside EU waters. It has no direct bearing on YET eligibility or the YET application process, though it is useful context for understanding why French charter VAT today works the way our VAT guide describes.
Frequently Asked Questions
Getting the Registration Question Right Before the Season
YET is a genuinely useful tool for the specific situation it was built for — a privately registered yacht doing limited, occasional chartering without the commitment of full commercial conversion. It is a poor fit, and an expensive one, for an owner who actually needs full VAT relief on a real charter programme, and confusing the two leads to budgeting and compliance mistakes that surface exactly when a charter fee invoice is due.
Before committing to either path, confirm the vessel's eligibility with the flag administration, the VAT position with a qualified maritime tax adviser, and — if commercial registration is the better fit — the full compliance requirements that come with it.
HelmOps helps captains and managers keep registration certificates, compliance documents, and charter schedules organised and accessible offline at every port, so the paperwork behind a YET charter period or a full commercial conversion is never the bottleneck.
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Sources: Ocean Independence, "Yachts Engaged in Trade Scheme" industry guidance; French tax authority bulletin BOI-TVA-CHAMP-30-30-30-10 on VAT exemptions for vessels; flag state registration programme documentation (Marshall Islands, Cayman Islands), 2026. Regulatory and flag state requirements are subject to change and vary by vessel — consult the vessel's flag administration and a qualified maritime tax adviser for current requirements applicable to your yacht.
What changed (7 Sep 2026): Removed or marked unsupported numeric claims and replaced them with sourceable, vessel-specific guidance.
