Temporary admission of yachts, positive news on pleasure boat charters and refitting

Confindustria Nautica is pleased with the Circular n.11/2026 of the Customs and Monopolies Agency just published (Friday 15 May) which offers Important clarifications on pleasure craft registered in a non-EU country entering the European Union, both regarding the certification/renewal of the regime and the possibility of carrying out rental/charter activities in Italian waters under 'temporary admission'. The document ADM follows Circulars no. 8/2025 and no. 20/2022.

"First and foremost, I express my deep appreciation for the sensitivity of the Customs and Monopolies Agency, Director Claudio Oliviero, and his entire team. For several years now, the Genoa Boat Show has been a forum for dialogue with the National Association of Marine Industry, addressing the issues facing a vital Made in Italy sector and preserving its competitiveness," commented Piero Formenti, President of Confindustria Nautica. "The important clarifications provided by the Circular identify concrete solutions to the critical issues faced by the world's leading recreational boating industry and its supply chain, supporting it at a time of evident geoeconomic difficulty. At the same time, we are working productively with the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport to revise the Recreational Boat Safety Decree, following the approval of the Sea Valorization Law, another important step in Confindustria Nautica's comprehensive efforts to protect the sector."

Constraint and verification of the private use unit regime

The Customs and Monopolies Agency reminds that in order to be placed under the temporary importation regime, means of transport must be registered outside the Union, in the name of a person established outside the Union, or, if not registered, must be owned by a person established outside the customs territory of the Union and must be used by a person established outside the Union.

As previously confirmed, units registered in a third country entering the territory of the Union, like other means of transport, benefit from a form of simplification under which Simply crossing the border allows the goods to be placed under the temporary admission customs regime. Therefore, for pleasure craft, entry into Italian territorial waters is, in principle, sufficient to bind the asset to this regime.

The interested party may, however, choose not to avail of the aforementioned simplification and resort to the "verbal declaration" of commitment to the regime, submitting the appropriate form (Annex 71-01 RD) which allows certification of the date of arrival of the unit in the Union territory for the purposes of compliance with the maximum deadlines established for the discharge of the regime. The Agency also indicates a further alternative for certifying the arrival date, which is to go to the Port Authority Office..

The time of entry into the European Union of the privately used vessel, coming from a third country, is particularly important for the purposes of calculating the period of stay in the Union territory, which can be, at most, 18 months.

The Circular specifies that in the case of pleasure craft undergoing extraordinary maintenance/refitting to be adopted under the inward processing regime, since this regime differs from temporary admission (both for the subjects holding the two regimes relating to the same asset, and for the purposes for which the asset is tied to them), for the purposes of calculating the maximum period of stay under temporary admission, only the periods in which the vessel is tied to this regime by the same subject, owner of the vessel, must be considered. In other words, it is clarified that the period in which the unit remains under active refinement will not be counted., closing the competitiveness gap of Italian refitting shipyards compared to foreign operators.

The Circular contains a further important clarification regarding the procedures for determining and therefore renewing the terms of permanence of a third country's unit in the Union territory, which is also in line with the recent ruling of the Ligurian Second Instance Tax Court of Justice, specifying that "the procedures for establishing the temporary admission regime for means of transport for private use, and in particular for boats" (to be understood in the general sense) "provides that the regime is considered established upon the vessel's exit from EU territorial waters. This exit can also be demonstrated by satellite detection systems of the vessel's arrival in international waters, via the AIS system. (Automatic Identification System). Alternatively, proof of departure from the Union may be provided through documentation certifying arrival at a third-party port or certifying bunkering carried out abroad; proof of departure may also be provided through entries in the ship's log.

Yachts registered in a third country under temporary admission and used for chartering in Italian waters

With reference to commercial yachtThe Customs and Monopolies Agency specifies that, in the presence of a commercial contract for consideration (e.g. rental), these cannot be considered means of maritime transport for private use and that, therefore, the terms of discharge are those indicated in Article 217, letter b), RD (EU Delegated Regulation 2015/2446 of the Commission of 28 July 2015), according to which means of transport used for commercial purposes can remain in the territory of the Union for the time necessary to carry out the transport operations.

However, a commercial yacht registered in a third country and whose users (crew and guests) are established in a third country, if there is no commercial contract for consideration (e.g. rental) at the time of entry into the Union territory may however enter territorial waters on temporary admission for private use, under the same conditions as a pleasure yacht.

If the commercial yacht During the stay in Italian territory, if it is then the subject of a contract for consideration, the same must exit the customs territory of the Union, proving the exit according to the indications previously illustrated, which will allow the temporary admission regime for private use to be closed (discharge). Subsequently, the yacht may re-enter the EU customs territory, in this case, in the presence of a charter contract, under the temporary admission regime for commercial use.

Il commercial yacht Under the temporary admission regime covered by the charter contract, where all persons on board, crew and guests, are all established in a third country, the vessel may remain in Italian/EU territorial waters for the period indicated in the contract and for the itinerary foreseen therein. Once the contractually agreed-upon activity has been completed, the yacht must leave territorial waters, providing evidence of this exit in the manner described above.

ADM with the Circular specifies that in order to allow the control of the activities carried out during the period of permanence in national territorial waters, the commercial yacht Upon entry into the Union, the vessel must submit Annex 71-01, along with the commercial contract and a record of the activities carried out during its stay in the Union in the onboard logs, which must be produced in the event of a customs inspection.

This important clarification allows today a commercial yacht of a non-EU country to be temporarily employed in chartering activities under the temporary admission regime, as already permitted in France, which for some years had had in this an important attraction for the permanence of ships in its ports.

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