For more than 15 years, the industry has been talking about a workable Yachts Engaged in Trade (YET) regime in Italy. Italian Customs finally delivered it. As of May 2026, non EU flagged superyachts – in particular those registered in the Marshall Islands, Cayman Islands and Isle of Man, whose YET frameworks are already well established – now have a formal path to combine private use with carefully controlled charter activity in Italy. For owners, family offices and their advisers, this is a rare shift in the rules of the game: it creates new options for how these yachts can be used in one of the most important yachting markets in the world, but it also introduces new, and not yet widely understood, challenges.
The opportunity is attractive: retain the advantages of a non EU flag (for many, Marshall Islands, Cayman Islands or Isle of Man) and existing structures, while opening the door to Italian based charters that were previously very difficult to do properly. But the regime is new, untested in practice, and sits at the intersection of EU customs, Italian VAT, insurance, regulation, flag state requirements under those registries, and day to day charter operations. For an owner or family office, the real issue is not the headline announcement, but how this regime interacts with your current holding structures, financing, tax assumptions, preferred flag and cruising patterns. This is where Stephenson Harwood come in: we are the experts on YET in Italy and the only law firm with offices in all three global yachting hotbeds – France, Italy and Greece. That combination allows us to align the new Italian regime with your broader Mediterranean and ownership strategy in a way that is both commercial and defensible.
In response to this development, we have created a dedicated “YET Italy Charter Pack” specifically for yacht owners, family offices and their trusted advisers, including those already operating under Marshall Islands, Cayman Islands or Isle of Man YET regimes or considering a move to those flags. It is not a generic summary of the Circular; it is a focused toolkit explaining what this regime can mean for your yacht or fleet, and how it can be made to work in practice alongside your wider objectives and constraints.
If you are considering Italian based charters or you simply want to understand whether this long anticipated regime fits your ownership and tax planning, the next step is to speak to us directly. To access our YET Italy Charter Pack and discuss what the new Italian YET regime really means for you, please contact Ezio Dal Maso, Head of the Stephenson Harwood Superyacht team
