Law and safety
Fiscal representatives and TYBA agents, and why they appear in your paperwork
What is a Thai fiscal representative and why does a charter need one?
The short answer
What is a Thai fiscal representative and why does a charter need one?
A foreign-flagged yacht chartering in Thailand cannot deal with the authorities directly. It appoints a Thai fiscal representative, a local company that applies for the Superyacht Charter Licence, declares the yacht's movements, and accounts for the 7 percent VAT and 5 percent corporate income tax on charter revenue. Licence applications are submitted through agents authorised by the Thai Yachting Business Association, the industry body founded in 2014. This is why a compliant charter can name the representative when asked, and why an operator who cannot name one is probably not inside the regime.
The problem the structure solves
A Cayman-registered yacht owned by a British Virgin Islands company cannot be a Thai taxpayer, and Thailand is not going to let untaxed commercial revenue be earned in its waters. The fiscal representative is the bridge: a Thai company that takes on the reporting and the tax obligations for the yacht's charter activity.
What the representative does
- Applies for the Superyacht Charter Licence with the Ministry of Transport.
- Declares the yacht's movements while it is chartering in Thai waters.
- Accounts for the 7 percent VAT on the charter fee and the 5 percent corporate income tax on charter revenue.
- Is the party the authorities deal with when something needs answering.
Where TYBA comes in
The Thai Yachting Business Association was founded in 2014 and traces back to the Marine Alliance of Thailand in the late 1990s. It is a volunteer-run trade body covering builders, charter operators, brokers, marinas, refit yards and management companies. Licence applications go to the ministry through TYBA member agents, which is why membership keeps appearing in this conversation.
Membership is not a licence and it is not a quality mark. What it tells you is that the operator is inside the channel through which the paperwork actually moves.
Northrop & Johnson has held a seat on the TYBA board for over a decade, which is the only publicly documented association position among the operators listed on this site. That is a fact about publication, not a ranking: other members simply do not publish it.
Last checked 6 September 2026. Rates, fees and regulations in this market change every season, so figures on this page are correct as at that date and not afterwards. How the figures are gathered.