IVA on port moorings

Chris from Almerimar was telling me about a fight boat owners in the port are having over how much IVA should be charged on port moorings, known in Spanish as amarres (read his post on the matter here).

It appears that up to now, 16% was being charged on the annual rent of a mooring.

But as from the 1st of April 2010, the port authority dropped it to 7%, admitting that the 16% policy was wrong.

Boat owners have been asking for a refund on past years, but have been (im) politely shown the door. After all, the tax was paid to the tax office, which accepted it, so you’d have to submit a claims back to Hacienda.

I quickly looked into this, and discovered much the same thing has happened in Garrucha (on the family yatch, no less!) – and just about every other marina in Spain!

The change came about after ANAVRE, the sporting boat owners association, referred the case to Hacienda and got a firm answer back for this fiscal year.

Professional use moorings are 16%
Sporting moorings are 7%
If you are a member of a club nautico, no IVA is charged, as you are making use of your sporting clubs installations (and not renting anything directly).

Meanwhile, almost all other services provided (water, electric, cleaning, etc) will be charged at 16% IVA.

The confusion appears to have arisen as IVA was traditionally charged at a flat 16% rate on all moorings. However, a change in the tax law a few years ago was never applied by the vast majority of port authorities, and I include in this government run ports.

So well done the ANAVRE for A) finding this out, B) doing something about it.

ANAVRE press release on IVA on port moorings (in Spanish). They also link to a discussion form and a document explaining the changes and citing the tax office explanation.

So there you are. If you’re still being charged 16% on your amarre, challenge it, and send me a cut of the 100€ a year you’ll be saving on a typical rent!