The tourist tax for boats and yachts in Croatian waters can be paid from 17 July 2020 through the portal of the Croatian National Tourist Board, as the Croatian National Tourist Board announced in a press release of the same day. This eliminates the tiresome obligation to make a cumbersome settlement of the payment of the tourist tax for boats and yachts with the responsible harbour captain of the respective berth.
Croatian visitor’s tax rally not applicable
The previous practice of paying the legally required tourist tax for boats and yachts in Croatia to the harbour captain has already been winkingly described by most water sports enthusiasts as a “tourist tax rally”:
First of all, the way went to the harbour captain, who calculated the tourist tax for the desired period and issued a payment slip. The boat or yacht owner then went to the nearest bank and paid the required amount in Croatian Kuna. If the tourist tax was to be paid for a longer period of time, the corresponding amount of money had to be exchanged from Euro to Kuna.
Waiting times at the port captain and bank are not applicable
With the bank-approved deposit, we then went back to the port captain, who issued the required papers. Of course, the whole procedure was always connected with waiting times, depending on the rush. First with the harbour captain, then with the bank and again with the harbour captain it was: Queue up.
Especially in times of the coronavirus an untenable condition, because here the rules of distance were violated again and again and unnecessary contacts were made. Even if some owners combined the payment of the tourist tax for boats and yachts with a nice chat among like-minded people, nobody will miss the old way of payment of the tourist tax. In addition, nobody would like to queue at the harbour captain and the bank in the current corona situation with mask duty at outside temperatures of up to 30 degrees.
SeaHelp-Service for permit & tourist tax will be continued
To relieve boat and yacht owners of this procedure, which can take up to four hours, SeaHelp has introduced a special service, which, for a small fee, saves owners the hassle of having to wait in line to pay the tourist tax. This service has already been heavily used in the past. Anyone who wants to continue to use the online portal of the Croatian National Tourist Board to make payments through SeaHelp in the future can of course continue to use this service. SeaHelp would like to take this opportunity to point out that the free solution via the portal is also available.
Tax for boats and yachts – but no permit
At present, the application for or extension of the permit to sail in Croatian coastal waters is not yet integrated into the payment system. Here the way is still, as described above, cumbersome via the port captain. Who would like to save himself this, can naturally further at any time the SeaHelp-Service take up.
Online procedure works in test
SeaHelp has already tested the payment of the tourist tax for boats and yachts online and was positively surprised:
The respective boat lengths were displayed with different symbols on the homepage of the Croatian National Tourist Board under the link (https://nautika.evisitor.hr). By clicking on the length that suits your own boat or yacht, another window will open where the user can select the appropriate period for his stay. In a further field the start date is then marked on a virtual calendar and a stored calculator calculates the payable tourist tax for boats and yachts in Croatian Kuna. To complete the order process, you then enter your e-mail address and you will be taken to the payment method selection page. When this step is also completed, you will receive a confirmation e-mail including attachment as a pdf form with order number and ID, which also shows the payment status.
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Print out and carry along the receipts for the tourist tax
In the initial phase, it is recommended that you take all correspondence with the Croatian National Tourist Board regarding the boat or yacht documents, so that you can show them at any inspections.
On homepage of the Croatian National Tourist Board
If you do not want to book a package over a certain period of time, do not choose one of the boat symbols on the Croatian National Tourist Board’s website, but choose the “Payment by number of persons” section. Here it is possible to pay the tourist tax, or as it says on the page of the Croatian National Tourist Board, the “tourist fee”, both per person and exactly for the desired days.
Overdue solution
The solution of paying the tourist tax for boats and yachts was long overdue. The only regret is that a solution has still not been found for tourists from countries such as Germany or Austria with which the permit can also be paid for online. Who would like to save himself this, however, can still go the way about SeaHelp.
