By Lucy Chabot Reed

Dozens of yacht owners have been tapped by Italian authorities for not paying Sardinia’s new luxury tax for non-residents.

Checks of the island’s marinas began Aug. 9, the day after a 60-day enactment cushion had expired on the tax charged to yachts over 14m, private planes and second homes within 3km of the sea, according to a report by the Italian news service AGI.

Many yachts paid the tax on the spot, but some refused, saying they stopped for "technical reasons," while others have said they are waiting for the ruling on an appeal by the Constitutional Court of the European Union, AGI reported.

The yachts not paying are being noted and reports are being filed, according to AGI. If the tax is not paid, invoices will be mailed.

Several Sardinian ports, many of which object to the tax, are giving yachts favorable rates for annual contracts. Yachts with annual contracts are exempt from the tax.

Franco Cuccureddu, president of the regional port authorities’ network, invited tourists to come to Sardinia just the same "because we will find a legal way not to pay the regional tax on maxi yachts," according to AGI.

And come, they have. Many megayachts have visited the island this summer, often over the objections of the captain, who is charged with the fiscal responsibility of the yacht.

"I suggested to the owner that we boycott Sardinia due to the extortionate tax charges," said Capt. Glynn Smith, skipper of M/Y CV-9, a 131-foot Delta. "It still does seem busy but I was personally hoping that everyone boycotted Sardinia. Every captain I have spoken to certainly voiced their disgust to the charges."

The tax is in effect from June 1 to Sept. 30. Rates are charged on a graduated scale – the larger the yacht, plane or home, the more tax is owed. For a yacht such as CV-9, the tax amounts to 10,000 euros (almost $13,000).

It is a one-time tax for the entire season, but applies separately to yachts, planes and homes. One yacht owner who flew into Sardinia to meet his yacht paid both the landing tax and the mooring tax, about $27,000 total, according to the captain, who asked that the owner’s yacht not be identified.

Flavio Briatore, manager of Renault’s Formula One racing team and owner of a 63m yacht, hosted a protest party at his popular Sardinia nightclub The Billionaire in August.

He has also placed full-page advertisements in local media condemning the tax, saying it is "bringing development and wealth to France, Greece, Spain, Croatia – but certainly not to Sardinia. Entrepreneurs and tourists invest in places where they are welcomed with open arms, not a closed fist."

"The regional government should consult businesspeople like us before enacting laws more damaging than any in the world," Briatore told The Times in London.

But in a story on ANSA.it, the island’s regional governor, Renato Soru, who added the tax to the budget at the last minute in May, said affluent visitors were being charged "relatively small sums."

Captains pay ‘contribution’

"Those who love this island will be happy to make a financial contribution," he said.

Smith noted that most captains were confused initially about where and to whom to pay the tax, which is due within 24 hours of arrival. Some captains were told to take their 10,000 or 20,000 euros to the post office and get a receipt.

"Can you imagine 20 captains lined up at the post office with a combined $250,000 between them?" Smith said. "I paid the local agent in Sardinia via wire."

At the same time that some yacht captains and owners are fighting Sardinia’s new luxury tax, Italian authorities are proposing similar taxes be implemented in ports around the country.

On Aug. 20, The Sunday Times of London reported that an Italian minister has urged regional governments in Capri and Sicily to copy Sardinia’s tax. In Sicily, the idea already has the support of an Italian consumers association.

"In my opinion, Sardinia is going in the wrong direction with this," Smith said. "Although it is a beautiful part of the world and the Italian people are very friendly, it is overcrowded, overpriced and has so many restricted areas. One is much better off crossing to Corsica to find large protected bays lined with sandy beaches and only a handful of yachts around."

Apparently, many yachts have taken that approach. Reports from Corsica indicate that business is up there this summer. According to one Italian newspaper, a sign has been erected at the entrance to the port of Bonifacio that reads "Merci, Monsieur Soru."

Even mainland Italy has seen
a surge in tourism this summer.
ANSA.it reported that the Ligurian coast in northwest Italy experienced an unexpected 20 percent increase in the number of big yachts mooring at its ports, attributable to Sardinia’s tax.

The mayor of Arzachena, a town at the center of the Emerald Coast on Sardinia, told ANSA.it that, "We’ve based our successful tourism here on the middle to higher classes and this tax against the rich has done nothing but drive them away."

The tax has reportedly caused the number of yachts moored in the island’s harbors to drop 54 percent from June 1 to July 15, compared to the same time last year, according to numbers provided to Italian media by Cuccureddu, the regional port network president.

"Everyone asked regional governor Soru to freeze this measure, but he ignores our requests," Cuccureddu, who is also mayor of Castelsardo on the island’s northwest shore, told AGI. "Even today, the Forest Rangers asked us to provide the whole list of boat owners. We don’t have it, but even if we did we wouldn’t have given it, because of privacy."

Sardinia: Statistics ‘unreliable’

The regional Sardinian government, though, disputes those numbers. In a statement issued Aug. 1, AGI reported the regional government said, "These data have no statistic grounds, they are unreliable" because they were not verified by a third party.

Even if there was a fall in marine traffic, The Times reported Soru as saying it was "not necessarily a bad thing. At times our seas are so crowded they resemble motorways."

"Most rich tourists, in any case, do not spend a single euro in Sardinia," he told the newspaper, which is why he created the tax.

Tom Barrack, a Californian who owns resorts on Costa Smeralda, told The Times there had been no decline in business.

"The hotels and restaurants are all packed and the occupancy rate is 30 per cent up on last year," he told the newspaper.

Cuccureddu has called on the European Commission in Brussels to intervene, The Times reported.

Capt. Smith said the yachting industry should make sure its opinion is heard, as well.

"We need a combined voice from the yachting industry – whether that’s captains, owners, crew, brokers, etc. – to voice concerns."