Now it’s official: Croatia reduces tourist tax for skippers from 17 June 2021 by 20%.

Croatia lowers also for the year 2021 the spa tax for skippers by 20% with effect from June 17, 2021, as the Croatian Ministry for Tourism and Sport now announced and as it was published in the Croatian Law Gazette now. The measure is intended – as it was heard from the Croatian Ministry of Tourism headed by Dr. Nikolina Brnjac – to further promote nautical tourism in Croatia. The reduction in the tourist tax for owners of water sports vehicles, i.e. ships, boats and yachts, will apply from June 17, 2021 for the entire year 2021 from the effective date. Payments already made for a period beyond June 17 will also be affected.

For overpayment, the period will be extended

Owners of ships, yachts and boats that have already paid the tourist tax before the decision of the Ministry of Tourism, for which the period for which the tourist tax has already been paid shall be extended in accordance with the so-called overpayment, provided that the period for which the tourist tax for skippers has been paid continues beyond the deadline, June 17, 2021. As things stand, there are no plans to refund overpaid spa tax as an amount. For clarification, here are some examples:

Example 1:

The owner has paid the skipper’s resort tax from June 1, 2021 to June 16, 2021. In this case, he is not covered by the new regulation and will not receive credit for additional days. The period for which the spa tax was paid does not extend beyond June 17.

Example 2:

The owner has already paid the spa tax in a lump sum for the entire year 2021. He receives a discount of 20%, which is also credited to him the following year, 2022. The period is extended, so to speak.

Example 3:

The owner has already paid the tourist tax for skippers from June 1 to June 30. The amount remains unchanged in the amount until June 17, from June 17 to June 30, the amount for the spa tax is reduced by 20%, i.e. for the paid period of 30 days, the owner receives a credit of (roughly calculated) 6 days for the year 2021. The owner could therefore extend his stay until July without paying the spa tax.

Determine the most favorable variant via SeaHelp Kurtaxe Rechner

In general, owners have the choice of paying the tourist tax either as a lump sum for a certain period of time or to pay according to the actual number of people and the thereby necessarily fixed number of nights on board. Which variant is the more favorable for the individual use of yachts, ships and boats with an overnight stay on board can be determined with the SeaHelp calculator on the SeaHelp homepage, which will be changed accordingly on the cut-off date, June 17, 2021. With the new regulation of the tourist tax according to the current model, one should already take a closer look, because it can be worthwhile in some cases to deviate from the flat-rate payment method.

SeaHelp advice: do not transfer tourist tax in a lump sum for the time being

SeaHelp had previously informed its members that efforts were underway to reduce the resort tax for owners in order to promote water sports tourism in Croatia and advised that, until a decision is made by the Ministry of Tourism, amounts should initially be determined via the Croatian online portal for individual use only and transferred before use begins.

Application not required

As of today, no applications are required to be made for overpaid amounts, supposedly these amounts will be credited if they concern the period beyond June 17. How it is actually carried out in practice, however, SeaHelp has no further knowledge of this yet. There is definitely still the possibility that the regulation will be supplemented to define individual procedures more clearly.

Here is the current table of tourist tax for owners in English:

 
Questions on this topic can also be made by email at nautika@htz.hr.