Corporate vs. Personal Ownership

With corporate ownership, it might be easier to write off expenses and what not. The major reason for corporate ownership as far as I am aware would be to limit your personal liability from lawsuits. But with Corporate ownership, I believe that a licensed Captain has to run the vessel. I think your best bet is to hire a good maritime attorney and go over your personal financial situation to see which direction would be your best course of action.

Also, shareholders of a corporation owning a US flagged yacht must be US citizens. We ran into that issue when discussing the purchase of a corporation owning a USCG documented & US flagged yacht in the PNW.

Think of a Corporate registed Yacht as a company car, it can be up to 100% tax deductible. If it's for private use than it doesn't apply, or only a percentage does, depending on use % and your business designation status.
Time to take your accountant and lawyer out for lunch.

For personal use, there isn't a great advantage for single owner corporate ownership and it adds a layer of complication and expenses. If you occasionally use it for business entertaining, you should talk with your accountant as there are several ways to do things under both private and corporate ownership, and you need someone who knows your particular situation to figure out which is best for you.

Corporate ownership is also beneficial if you plan on doing any charters on the boat.

Stateside, personal, offshore, or not. I have no idea why anyone would personally own a boat over a couple hundred thousand in value. Simply for the expense and (especially in the US) the liability.

Sit down with a trusted maritime attorney, review your specifics, and I'm sure you'll have a pretty good chart on which path makes sense for you.

Most definitely, in any situation where you charter or have partners, corporate/LLC ownership should be used to insulate you from others mistakes and liability. However, under strictly private sole owner use, there is no insulation to be had.

Do you mean own one without a corporate shield or not at all? The only liability the corporation will insulate you from is other users liability. If the yacht is strictly under your operational control, then the corporation shields you from nothing. As far as expense goes, that's dependent on his personal financial situation.

Hi,

You do not have to be a US Citizen to setup and own a corporation in the US.

I am not aware of any restrictions of legal operation ( function) of a corporation.

Operating a US Documented Vessel itself is a whole different operation to owning it.

Basically, I am sure you could buy it but not operate it ( drive it yourself) as a Non Citizen.

There are conditions applied to corporate ownership, the FAQ and application forms contain the details.

http://www.uscg.mil/hq/cg5/nvdc/default.asp

As far as the manning requirments, if the boat is purely recreational and not used commercially, the following applies: 46CFR 15.805

§ 15.805 Master.
(a) There must be an individual holding
an appropriate license as master in
command of each of the following vessels:

(b) Every vessel documented under
the laws of the United States, other
than a vessel with only a recreational
endorsement, must be under the command
of a U.S. citizen.

If we are speaking of a purely recreational vessel, there are no restrictions on who may drive it (without compensation, I'm considering Owner Operators here, a hired captain will have to have at least an appropriate employment level visa) since there are no Federal licensing requirements for such a vessel in the US.

yes and no:
A US Corporation can be set up and owned by a foreigner, but that US Corporation can only own a US flagged/documented vessel if its officers and directors are US citizens. A Partnership or LLC must be 100% owned by US citizens to qualify.
This is for a purely recreational vessel only, which can then also be operated by a non-US citizen.

I would highly recommend actually sending in the seatime and paperwork for your license, because your insurance company is most likely not going to let you jump from owner/operator of a 58' to a 75' without a Coast Guard license. It's too large of a jump. 10' at a jump is about the most they'll allow an owner/operator to do when you get into that size. Also, your premiums will be cheaper if you're licensed.

Even if you are only using the vessel for recreation, you can legally write off the vessel as you would a second home. So, I would take advantage of the tax savings.

If the vessel is in a corporation, I think you need to be licensed to run it because technically you (as a person) are not the owner/operator, the corporation is. Now, I don't think you'd run into any issues if you followed to heed this.

Type of ownership has nothing to do with it. If the boat is documented as recreational you can drive it yourself or hire someone, with or without a license. Please refer to 46CFR 15.805.

Come on guys, this isn't rocket science and the regs are easier to find than trying to guess and suppose based on what you heard on the dock someplace.

having a boat registered to a corp, with one owner, will raise all the flags with IRS. As long as you are not trying to write anything off that is not valid, you will be OK on taxes.

A corporation will shield you in that any liability will be limited to the assets/worth of the corp and you will not be exposed personally.

I have several clients in that position and they all just register it in their names, it's cheaper that way and they get some little tax deduction on them. A while back it was popular to do a Wilmington DE corp because of excessive taxes in other states, but that doesn't work so well anymore LOL. Lots of states started saying "We don't care, your vessel is here under xxx conditions and give us money". Regardless though, I don't see as many Wilmington hailing ports as I used to. Again though I'll advise you to see your accountant for the financial implications for your personal overall situation. He/she may be able to help you out with something we don't know about. As for using the corporate shield to protect yourself from the vessels liability, it doesn't work. As soon as you issue the next order, you are liable for that. In legal parlance, the "operator" is the person who causes the vessel to be used. The master holds operational responsibility though... nice the way the language gets used for creating confussion. Either way though, the Operator who is the person who can issue the orders to the captain to make the boat be operated, and is the person the captains liabilities get bumped up to under Respondeat Superior. Now the captain can be the operator, but it only happens when they are also the owner, so no shield there.

Also, a 75' boat needs a permanent crew member to care for the vessel. It's one persons full time job to keep a 75' boat in proper condition, and it needs to be a good multi talented individual.

You may want to check case law on that.