Legal & Financial

The nationality of a vessel is a technic to assign any ship or  vessel to a certain national legal statute or jurisdiction of a concrete state under whose laws the vessel is registered or licensed. Ships have the nationality of the State whose flag they are entitled to fly  and …

How can employers play a greater role in supporting the mental health of their employees? The focus for Mental Health Awareness Week is stress. The campaign aims to understand how many of us are living with high levels of stress and what the triggers are. Research by the Mental Health …

I’ll start with a bit of good news for a change this month. A study released last month appears to add weight to the growing evidence that the end global reliance on oil and fossil fuels is on the horizon, and we are going to be there in a small …

The purchase of a pleasure craft from a taxable person in terms of VAT – company or entrepreneurial – in Spain in principle obliges payment of the VAT at the general tax rate of 21%. We have to distinguish several cases. The seller is an individual not acting as entrepreneurial: …

Putting in place the right solution for administering your estate can ease the pain and pressure for your family. Throughout your lifetime, you are likely to have accumulated a substantial estate of property, investments, cash and valuable belongings. When you die, you will understandably want to ensure that your beneficiaries …

In The Islander’s home port of Mallorca there has been much discussion of late about the regional government’s restrictions on short term holiday rentals in the regional Capital of Palma. The problem they seek to address is the rapid rise in monthly rents pushing prices beyond the pockets of ‘normal’ …

According to the Spanish national and EU VAT legislation the general idea is that supplies or services of refit rendered in Spain to non EU pleasure crafts transported outside the EU by non established boat owners are subject to Spanish VAT if the vessels are destined to private use. This …

The recent spike in volatility highlighted once again that attempting to time the market is difficult and can be costly. A month or so on from February’s correction, the bull run for equity markets has entered its tenth year. But it would be wrong for investors to assume that the …

Frequent question: is it true that if you help anybody at sea you have a right to a compensation or even a percentage of the vessel? Along the history the salvage has been considered a question of seamanship honour and when a person was in peril it has been always …

Facebook is in trouble again. Founder and king of the billionaire geeks Mark Zuckerberg shunned his trademark jeans T-shirt and trainers in favour of suit and tie and began apologising to anyone who was ready to listen to him, which turned out to be virtually everybody. It transpired that the …