The Thai charter licence, and what happens to a charter without one

This is the part of a Thailand charter that nobody selling one wants to open with, and it is the part with the most at stake for the person paying. It is worth ten minutes.

Why a licence exists at all

Thailand, like most countries, reserves domestic commercial trade for vessels on its own register. A foreign-flagged yacht sailing into Thai waters with its owner aboard is a private vessel and needs nothing beyond ordinary clearance. The moment that same yacht takes money from a guest for a voyage inside Thai waters, it is trading domestically on a foreign flag, and without a specific permission that is simply not allowed.

For years that permission did not exist, which produced the situation Thailand actually had: a substantial grey fleet, chartering anyway, with the paperwork arranged to look like something else. The charter licence regime was created to bring that fleet into the open, and it has largely worked.

What the licence covers

The 24 metre change, and why it matters to you

The original threshold was 30 metres. The 2025 announcement lowered it to 24, and the Thai Yachting Business Association expects that to roughly double the number of foreign-flagged yachts eligible to enter the Thai charter market.

For a charterer the effect is specific. A great many attractive charter yachts sit between 24 and 30 metres, and until 2025 those hulls had no legal route into Thai charter at all if they were foreign-flagged. Some chartered anyway. If you are looking at a yacht in that band, the licence question is newly answerable and therefore newly worth asking.

What actually happens if the yacht is not licensed

• Seizure of the yacht by the Marine Department, which ends the charter immediately and wherever it happens to be.
• Fines against the operator and the owning company.
• Deportation of guests and crew, because a guest on an illegal commercial voyage has entered on the wrong footing.
• No insurance. A policy written for private use does not respond to a commercial charter the insurer was not told about, which is the risk that outlives the holiday.

The insurance point is the one people underrate. Seizure is dramatic and rare. An uninsured injury on an undeclared commercial voyage is quiet, plausible and financially open-ended.

When the licence does not apply

Two large parts of the Phuket market sit outside this regime entirely, and that is legitimate rather than suspicious.

• Thai-flagged commercial vessels. The day fleet out of Chalong, most bareboat catamarans and a large share of the crewed fleet under 24 metres are Thai-registered and licensed domestically. Different rules, properly followed.
• Yachts under 24 metres on any flag. The Superyacht Charter Licence does not reach them. They still need to be commercially operated under whatever regime applies to them, but not this one.

How to check, without becoming a lawyer

You do not need to verify a licence yourself. You need to ask a question that is uncomfortable to answer vaguely, and then notice how it is answered. A licensed operator answers in one line with a reference number. An unlicensed one answers with reassurance.

1. 01What flag does the yacht fly?
2. 02If it is foreign-flagged and 24 metres or longer, what is the Superyacht Charter Licence reference and when does it expire?
3. 03Who is the Thai fiscal representative, and are they a TYBA member agent?
4. 04Will the charter agreement name the yacht, the owning company and the licence, or only the broker?
5. 05Is the 7 percent VAT shown separately on the invoice, and against which company's tax number?

The VAT question is the quiet one. Tax on a licensed charter is 7 percent VAT on the fee and 5 percent corporate income tax on the revenue, paid through the fiscal representative. An operator who cannot show you VAT on an invoice against a Thai tax number is probably not inside the regime that produces it.