Is VAT charged on a yacht charter from Monaco?

Yes. Monaco levies VAT on the same basis and at the same rates as France, so the standard 20% applies to charter hire. Since 1 November 2020 the hire is in principle taxable in full in France; only the portion genuinely sailed outside EU waters is exempt, and only on proof.

This changed the arithmetic that circulated for years. The old rule allowed a flat reduction on the assumption that part of any Mediterranean charter took place on the high seas, and brokers quoted an effective rate well below the headline. That reduction no longer applies automatically: the default is full French VAT on the hire, and an exemption has to be earned by a route that actually leaves EU waters and documented in the log.

Crossing into Italy does not reduce your French VAT — it introduces Italian VAT on the Italian portion instead, under that country’s own rules. A week that runs Monaco–Sanremo–Portofino is not a tax plan; it is a good itinerary that happens to involve two tax authorities, and the contract should say clearly which hire is taxed where.

Anything involving ownership rather than chartering — importation, the VAT status of a yacht offered for sale, structures for a non-resident buyer — belongs to a specialist adviser, and we will say so rather than improvise. What we do give you before you sign is the VAT line written out, not folded into a single number.

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