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A weekly Greek yacht charter in 2026 carries a 12% VAT on the charter fee. A shorter charter (under seven days) carries 13%. Both are well below the 24% Greek standard VAT rate. On top of the charter VAT, the cruising levy known as TEPAH applies per day at a per-meter rate. On a €400K week aboard a 50m yacht, the charter VAT is €48K and TEPAH for the week is approximately €700 at. This post is about how the post-2022 Greek regime actually works, what TEPAH is, and what to ask the operator before signing.
This is the Greek-specific deep-dive. The broader country read is in the Mediterranean VAT overview. Turkish rules, which matter for any client looking at a Greek-Turkish split itinerary, are in the Turkish charter tax post.
The legal basis
The current Greek charter VAT regime is set by Law 4256/2014, as amended by Law 4926/2022 and subsequent ministerial decisions. The regime reduces VAT on bona fide yacht charters of qualifying length below the standard 24% rate. The 2014 reform created the framework. The 2022 amendment tightened operator licensing and adjusted the reduced rates to the current 12% (weekly) and 13% (sub-weekly) bands.
The historical Greek-flag-only requirement, which constrained the Greek charter market for decades, has been narrowed since 2014. Foreign-flag yachts can obtain a Greek charter license under specified conditions. The license process is paperwork-heavy and operators that run regularly in Greece have it formalized. Operators that occasionally cross from Italy or Croatia into Greek waters need to plan ahead.
What the 12% and 13% actually apply to
The 12% applies to a charter contract of seven days or more. The 13% applies to a charter contract under seven days. The duration is calendar-day inclusive: a six-night charter ending on the seventh day qualifies for the 12% if the contract specifies seven days, including the embarkation and disembarkation days as full days.
This is the cleanest part of the Greek regime. There is no high-seas offset to compute, no deemed-rate proportion to apply. The 12% is the 12%.
The catch is that the regime applies only when the yacht is operating under a Greek commercial charter license. A yacht that crosses into Greek waters from a non-Greek charter contract (for example, a Croatia-embarked yacht that runs a Croatia-Albania-Corfu-Croatia loop) is not under Greek VAT. Conversely, a yacht that embarks in Greece and runs a Greek itinerary is fully under the Greek regime regardless of where it cruises during the week.
TEPAH, the cruising levy
TEPAH (the cruising levy on private and commercial yachts, set under Law 4256/2014 and implementing acts) is charged per day of presence in Greek waters and scales by yacht length. The rate schedule for 2026 approximately:
| Yacht LOA | Daily TEPAH rate |
|---|---|
| 10m to 12m | €100 |
| 12m to 20m | €120 |
| 20m to 30m | €160 |
| 30m to 40m | €200 |
| 40m+ | €240 base, plus per-meter |
For commercial-charter yachts on a valid Greek charter license, TEPAH is paid by the operator and passed through to APA on the client's reconciliation. On a typical weekly charter the per-day TEPAH at the larger yacht sizes adds €1,500 to €2,500 per week, which is meaningful in absolute terms but immaterial against a six-figure weekly fee.
TEPAH is collected electronically and paid in advance for the period of intended use. The operator's compliance is generally clean. The line item is small but should appear on the APA reconciliation. If it does not, ask.
Why the Greek regime is structured the way it is
Two observations about why the regime looks the way it does.
First, Greece has a strong domestic charter industry built around Greek-flag yachts that have, for decades, been the primary inventory. The 2014 reform and the 2022 follow-on were partly motivated by the loss of revenue from foreign-flag yachts that chose Croatia or Turkey to avoid the Greek-flag-only restriction. Opening the license to foreign-flag yachts (under conditions) brought meaningful inventory back into the Greek market.
Second, the 12% and 13% bands are positioned to compete with the Croatian (13% to 22%) and Turkish (effective 0%) regimes. The Greek regime is the second-cheapest Mediterranean charter VAT for an EU-flag-friendly destination, after the Italian deemed-rate regime. This is by design.
The historical Greek-flag-only rule and what remains
Pre-2014, a charter yacht had to fly the Greek flag to charter commercially in Greek waters. The rule originated as a domestic-industry protection. It produced two distortions: meaningful inventory based in adjacent countries that could not legally charter in Greek waters, and a Greek-flag fleet that, on a quality basis, was uneven.
The 2014 reform opened the charter license to EU-flag yachts under conditions. The 2022 amendment broadened this further. As of 2026, foreign-flag yachts above 24m LOA can obtain Greek charter licenses provided they meet operational and documentation requirements. Yachts under 24m face a tighter regime, with Greek-flag preference still operative in practice though not in law.
The result is that the large-yacht charter inventory available in Greece in 2026 is comparable to the Croatian and Turkish markets, with operators based in Athens, Lavrio, Mykonos, and Rhodes. The under-24m segment is still meaningfully Greek-flag dominated.
Charter routes and how VAT applies to them
Three common routes and what they mean for VAT.
Route 1: Athens to Mykonos to Santorini to Athens, 7 days. The yacht is on a Greek charter contract throughout, in Greek waters throughout. The 12% applies on the full charter fee. TEPAH applies for the days the yacht is in Greek waters, which is all seven. Total tax: 12% VAT plus approximately €1,500 TEPAH on a 50m yacht.
Route 2: Athens to Hydra to Aegina to Athens, 5 days. The same Greek charter contract, shorter duration. The 13% applies because the contract is under seven days. TEPAH applies for five days. The 1-percentage-point difference between 12% and 13% on a six-figure fee is real and worth optimizing if the client's schedule allows.
Route 3: Bodrum (Turkey) to Kos (Greece) to Symi to Rhodes to Bodrum, 7 days. A split-jurisdiction charter. The clean structure is one charter contract embarking in Turkey on a transit log (0% Turkish VAT, see the Turkish charter tax post) with Greek waters entry under a separate Greek transit visa. The yacht does not embark or disembark Greek guests in Greek ports under this structure. Greek VAT does not apply. TEPAH applies for the Greek-waters days.
The trap is structuring a two-flag charter incorrectly. If the yacht embarks in Bodrum, takes guests off at Kos, takes new guests on at Symi, and disembarks in Rhodes, the Greek leg becomes a Greek-embarked charter under Greek licensing and VAT rules. This is rarely what the client wants. The contract should specify a single embarkation-disembarkation pair under a single jurisdiction.
What the broker quote should look like
A clean Greek-charter quote in 2026 specifies:
- The charter fee, in the operator's stated currency (typically euros).
- The Greek VAT, at 12% for weekly contracts or 13% for sub-weekly.
- The APA percentage, separately.
- TEPAH treatment, typically described as "TEPAH passed through APA" or as a separate line.
- The yacht's flag state and the Greek charter license reference number.
If the broker quote shows 24% VAT (the standard Greek rate), the operator is either not on a charter license or the broker is confused. Ask for the license number and the rate basis. We have seen at least three broker quotes in 2024-2025 that defaulted to 24% because the broker was unfamiliar with the post-2022 regime.
Mykonos, Santorini, and destination-specific notes
The Greek charter VAT and TEPAH regimes apply uniformly across Greek waters. Mykonos, Santorini, Paros, and the rest of the Cyclades are all subject to the same 12% (weekly) rate. Anchorage permits and marina fees vary substantially by destination but are separate from VAT.
The destination-specific operational notes (anchorages worth using, anchorages to avoid, dockage availability) are covered in our destination posts: Mykonos week charter base, Santorini anchorage truth, Paros Naxos Cyclades week, and Hydra Spetses Saronic week.
What changed in the last 18 months
Two flags for 2026.
First, the Greek tax authority has tightened audit of charter licenses since 2024. Operators that hold a Greek charter license but charter rarely in Greek waters have faced reviews of the bona fide commercial activity test. The practical impact on charter clients is minimal: the operators that show up in Greek inventory through the major brokers are the operators that run regularly and have clean documentation.
Second, the TEPAH rate schedule was last updated and is subject to periodic adjustment. The line-item amounts on TEPAH should be confirmed against the current schedule before contract.
The friction
The Greek regime is one of the cleaner Mediterranean charter VAT structures. The 12%/13% bands are unambiguous, the high-seas offset is not a complication, and the operator-side compliance is well-defined post-2022. The remaining frictions are at the licensing layer and at the destination-management layer.
If we were redesigning the regime, the Greek-flag-only legacy treatment of under-24m yachts would be fully removed. The remaining preference is a vestige of the pre-2014 industry protection and limits inventory in the smaller-yacht segment. The 24m-plus segment is now broadly market-rational.
The other thing we would change is TEPAH's collection mechanism. The per-day rate is small but the administrative load on operators (and the resulting opacity to clients) is disproportionate. A flat per-charter levy that achieves equivalent revenue would be cleaner. This is in the operator's interest more than the client's, but the client experience would improve.
Passed on
We considered including a section on Greek personal yacht-use tax (the rules for non-commercial Greek-flag yacht ownership). That is owner-side and not relevant to charter clients.
We also considered a section on the Greek labor regime for charter crew. Greek-flag yachts running Greek-licensed charters are subject to Greek labor law for crew employment, which affects operator cost structure but not the client's invoice. Worth noting for buyers considering Greek-flag registration; not relevant to charter pricing.
FAQ
Does the 12% apply to one-week charters embarked in Greece and disembarked in Turkey? The Greek 12% applies to the portion of the charter under Greek licensing. A split-port charter is structured as two contracts or as a single contract under one jurisdiction. The cleanest answer is to embark and disembark in Greek ports if the route is Greek-focused, or to embark and disembark in Turkish ports if the route is Turkish-focused, with the other country treated as a port-of-call rather than an embarkation or disembarkation point.
Is APA subject to Greek VAT? Greek charter VAT applies to the charter fee. APA-funded purchases in Greece carry Greek VAT at the rate applicable to each underlying category, typically 24% on fuel and dockage. TEPAH is a separate levy and is not VAT-able.
Can the 12% rate change? The rate is set by parliamentary legislation and can be amended. The 2022 reform set the current bands. There is no announced amendment for 2026 as of. The bands have political support given Greece's positioning against the Turkish 0% effective rate.
Does TEPAH apply to a yacht just transiting Greek waters? TEPAH applies to yachts present in Greek waters, including transit. Operators paying TEPAH on a transit basis are common. The amount is small.
Does the Greek regime have a high-seas offset like France and Italy? No. Greece applies the 12% or 13% on the full charter fee without an offshore-proportion offset. The reduced rates are themselves the substitute for an offset.