Foreign-Flagged Yachts in Greek Waters

Why the question arises at all

A guest who has found the yacht they want, on a broker’s list, in the right week, can still be told it may not begin its charter in Greece. That is not an availability problem and no amount of money solves it. It is a licensing rule, and it is the single most useful thing to understand about chartering in Greek waters.

Greece regulates who may take paying guests on a yacht inside its own waters. The governing statute is Law 4926/2022, “Modernisation of the Institutional Framework for the Activity of Pleasure Yachts and Tourist Day-Boats”, published in the Government Gazette on 20 April 2022. It replaced the framework in Law 4256/2014, which had run the previous 8 years.

Underneath it sits a register. The electronic register of professional pleasure craft, held by the Greek revenue authority, records the vessels licensed to trade in Greek waters. A yacht that is not correctly in the register, and has no permission standing in its place, is not correctly chartering.

The two routes

A foreign-flagged commercial yacht has two ways to take a charter that starts or ends in Greece.

The full Greek charter licence. The yacht is entered in the register and licensed to trade in Greek waters over a multi-year term. The condition that shapes everything else is presence: the owner establishes in Greece, which in practice means appointing a Greek charter management company, holding a Greek tax number, and running the yacht’s Greek business through it. This is the route taken by yachts that intend to work Greek waters season after season.

The Specified Period Charter Licence. This is the route for a yacht that does not hold the licence above and does not want a permanent Greek establishment. It is temporary, it is issued charter by charter, and it is narrow.

Who qualifies for the Specified Period Charter Licence

Article 8 of the law sets the conditions, and all of them must hold.

• Not entered in the Greek e-Register, and not under the Greek flag. The route exists for yachts outside the Greek licensed fleet. A yacht already holding the full licence uses that instead.
• A length overall exceeding 35 metres. Length overall, not registered length — the two differ on many yachts, and the distinction has decided eligibility more than once.
• A hull of steel, plastic or aluminium. A wooden hull is excluded, which removes traditional vessels from this route entirely.

Beyond the exclusion of the Greek flag, the flag itself is not the test. EU and non-EU flagged commercial yachts are eligible on the same conditions.

The consequence for a guest is blunt. A foreign-flagged yacht under 35 metres with no full Greek licence has no route to a Greek embarkation. It is not a matter of asking.

The 21 days

The Specified Period Charter Licence is issued electronically through the government’s e-Charter Permission platform, and Article 8 caps it at 21 days per calendar year, extendable by up to 7 more.

Two details make that limit tighter than it first reads.

A separate licence is issued for each charter contract. The 21 days, plus the extension, may be spread across more than one charter, but each charter needs its own permission. The rule is one licence per charter contract.

The permission is approved by a port authority. The port authority of the place where the yacht is delivered and the guests embark approves it, or, where delivery is abroad, the nearest port authority does.

The arithmetic explains a season. A 45-metre yacht on this route can offer roughly three weeks of Greek-embarkation charters in a year, and no more. That is why the yachts a broker can genuinely start in Athens or Corfu in August are a much smaller set than the yachts cruising Greece in August.

What has to be settled before the licence is issued

The conditions are cumulative — each one must be met, not any one of them.

1. A Greek tax identification number (AFM) for the owner, from the competent tax office.
2. A signed charter agreement. The permission attaches to a real contract, not to an intention.
3. The special cruising tax, TEPADAH or TEPADAH Plus, paid in full.
4. Payment up front of 70% of the VAT to the Greek State.
5. No permanent establishment in Greece on the owner’s part. Holding one points the yacht back to the full licence route.
6. A Foreign Commercial Yacht Inspection Certificate (PEXEPA), required for vessels under 500 GT.

The cruising tax

TEPADAH is a special cruising tax introduced by Law 4926/2022 and implemented on 29 December 2023. It is calculated per charter, using formulas set out in article 9 of the law, from the yacht’s length overall, its gross tonnage and the number of days it spends in Greek territorial waters — a base charge of €500 plus a daily rate that rises with the size of the vessel. The liability sits with the shipowner or disponent owner, payment is made through a unique code issued on the e-Charter Permission platform, and the revenue is credited to the Hellenic Coast Guard.

There are two versions of it, and which one applies depends on where the charter begins and ends. TEPADAH applies where a charter both starts and ends in Greece. TEPADAH Plus applies where a charter starts or ends outside Greece — including a charter that runs entirely outside Greek waters — and it is substantially larger.

The scale is worth seeing, because the two versions are not close. For a 40-metre yacht of 494 GT, the worked examples published by the Greek professional yachting bodies in 2024 give TEPADAH of €815 over 7 days and €1,130 over 14. On the same yacht, TEPADAH Plus comes to €6,415 over 7 days and €12,330 over 14. The figures are illustrative of the formula rather than a tariff, and the arithmetic is done per charter.

VAT on the charter

Greek VAT on a crewed charter is charged at a reduced rate of 13%, applied to vessels with crew carrying passengers by sea, under Law 5073/2023 and in force since 11 December 2023.

The rate a guest is actually invoiced is usually lower. Under Decree (POL.) 1156/1997 the taxable value is reduced according to the yacht’s certificate of compliance: a yacht certified for unlimited navigation attracts a 60% reduction, bringing the effective rate to 5.2%, and one with navigational limitations attracts 50%, bringing it to 6.5%. Charters that do not meet the conditions for the reduced treatment are taxed at the standard rate.

The practical reading: the VAT line on a Greek charter quote depends on the individual yacht’s certificate, not on the country. Two yachts on the same itinerary in the same week can carry different rates, and the quote should state which applies.

What this means when choosing a yacht

The rules are the owner’s problem to comply with and the guest’s problem to plan around. Four questions settle it early.

1. Where does this charter start and end? A Greek embarkation is the trigger for everything above. An itinerary that touches Greece but begins elsewhere is a different case.
2. Does the yacht hold a full Greek charter licence, or is it on a specified-period permission? The answer determines whether the dates are genuinely open.
3. If it is on a specified-period permission, how much of the 21 days is already committed? A yacht with 4 days left cannot take a week.
4. What VAT rate applies to this yacht, and on what certificate? The rate belongs on the quote in writing.

Ask them before falling in love with a yacht rather than after. The rules do not bend, and a broker who knows them says so early.