Amendments to the Merchant Shipping Law of 2010
On 15 April 2020, the Cyprus Merchant Shipping Law has been amended as follows:
Eligible Ship
The definition of ”Eligible Ship” has been extended in order to include cable laying vessels, pipeline laying ships, research vessels, mobile offshore extraction platforms, offshore oil and gas support vessels, multi-purpose support ships, break-bulk support ships and other types of support vessels, cruise ships, commercial yachts and accommodation ships for offshore workers.
Maritime transport
The definition has been amended in order for auxiliary activities to be subject to tonnage tax, provided that the revenues will not exceed 50% of the activities of the total gross revenue from the operation of each eligible vessel under tonnage tax by an eligible ship-owner or eligible charterer in maritime transport.
Bareboat chartering
Restrictions have been imposed under which income from bareboat chartering will be subject to tonnage tax only if:
- the charterer is part of the same group of companies as the ship-owner;
- the chartering period does not exceed 3 years AND
- the ship-owner is not himself able to use the ships in question in maritime transport
Crew members
The tax exemption of crew members has been extended to the employment income of masters, officers and crew members of community flag eligible ships
