In August 2004, yachts were surprised early one morning to be knocked up by officials from the Fiscal authorities and asked to pay a 'circulation tax'. This occurred in several places, and the marina authorities in Lagos had not been warned or consulted. Not surprisingly, people were upset at suddenly being asked to pay a reasonable amount of money. Some of those asked to pay had only recently arrived in Portugal, although it is believed that the tax only applies to boats that have been in Portugal for 6 months.
Having heard of this furor, it was with some trepidation that we booked Fuga into a berth for 6 months in November. We had arrived in Portugal in mid September, and had briefly entered Spain (but without any documentary evidence) in late October. Accordingly we made enquiries and were led to believe that the tax became due in June and that if we left Portugal before then we would not be 'caught'. We were re-assured too once we had had sight of the charge tables: it appeared that Fuga would only be charged about 150 euros, so it was not a life and death matter.
The charge should be seen in the context of the privilege of cruising in this beautiful country, where overall costs are so much lower than in other parts of Europe.
In view of the continuing concern, we have tried to obtain some confirmation of the current position, and dropped a line to the Director of Marina de Lagos, Martinho Fortunato, who replied:
Dear John,Last year's tax tables are reproduced below. The tax depends (we believe!) upon the age of the boat, its gross tonnage, and the total horsepower of the engines.
For older boats, use the right hand column of prices, and for younger boats the left hand column. It is not clear whether the charge depends on the age and will move this year to 1987, or whether the year 1986 is considered a fixed watershed. Then find the line appropriate to your tonnage in the second column. Multiply the tonnage by the figure in the first column, then add this to the result of multiplying the horsepower divided by 10 by the figure in the second column. If in doubt work the example at the bottom as a check.
Sorry, all you motor boaters with big engines, but that is life!
