Yachting in Malta and Cyprus

The Yachting Industry in Malta and in Cyprus has two key facets; pleasure yachts and commercial yachts. The latter are usually used as part of a business activity and which have fiscal advantages for Malta and Cyprus shipping organisations. With regards to pleasure yachts in Malta, apart from a brisk registration process, Malta offers a favourable regime for vat minimisation, potentially down to 5.4%, through a leasing setup. Beyond the advantages that the registration process and the VAT yacht leasing presents, Malta offers yacht marinas which are situated all over the Maltese Islands, including facilities for super yachts. Facilities such as fuel bunkering, technical services for repairs and services, as well as access to luxury on-site facilities and immediate access to other off-site facilities are all readily available for yachtsmen.

Our Malta Yachting Team

With long-standing experience in the Shipping and Yachting industry, iCompany assists and represents individual or corporate clients throughput different stages of vessel ownership. This includes:

vessel sale and purchase

chartering and leasing agreements

setting up for VAT Yacht Leasing Structures

marine mortgages, or other forms of securities

discharge of mortgages

ship owning and ship management companies

registration of vessel

bareboat charter registrations

tax advice

With strong links with all sectors of shipping and maritime law and the specialised lawyers, accountants and tax consultants in all maritime-related fields of law, including ship finance, litigation and admiralty, iCompany stands as the maritime law firm of choice for banks, other financial institutions and ship-owners seeking the most effective and advantageous financing.

iGaming Law

Malta is considered to be one of the top jurisdictions for achieving a gaming license. This is due to a number of factors, which include the improved licensing process, Malta’s central location in the Mediterranean and its experienced multilingual force.  Furthermore, we can contribute our success to a favourable corporate and gaming tax regime, low fees, reputability of the license and the advantageous European onshore business environment. Malta is also considered to be a hub for other forms of iGaming, such as digital gaming and the research and development related to it, gaming marketing, gaming software development and licensing. Our expeditious team offers high-quality services for gaming operators. Through our trusted network of collaborators, we can directly assist with all that is necessary to set up and maintain a Maltese gaming operation in the parameters of the iGaming Law Amongst others, our services include:

Gaming licensing and compliance

Key official (local director) services

International tax planning

Accounting

Company formation and administration

Payment systems, merchant other bank accounts

Bandwidth, web hosting and co-location

Website terms and transfer of technology agreements

Malta office location

Recruitment services and work permit 

iGaming Law – Cyprus

Members of our iCompany House are active members in the Cyprus gaming advisory community; we are represented on the legal & Regulatory Workgroup, the Tax Work Group and the pressure Group of MRGC. We have undertaken legal drafting tasks in the area of regulated online gaming in prominent gaming jurisdictions. The Betting Act of 2012 regulates gaming in Cyprus and covers both land-based betting activates as well as online betting activities for which one requires a Class A and Class B License respectively.

Maltese Investment funds

Other factors contributed to the success in Investment Funds such as:

sound and sensible regulation which takes into account the needs of businesses whilst safeguarding the interest of investors

A low cost and favourable fiscal base which renders business models feasible where they would be unworkable elsewhere

An approachable regulator, willing to discuss innovative ideas whilst requiring compliance to  the highest standards

Ease of access to the European market for investment

Quick application turnaround times

Flexibility as to the choice of service providers, e.g. local fund administrators not being required

Availability of self-managed structures

Sub-fund (protected cell company) legislation, permitting the creation of ring faced pockets of assets and liabilities within the same legal entity

Funds Managers are offered a variety of vehicles in Malta, which cater for a broad range of investment strategies to suit the needs of every type of investor. Most investment funds are structured as SICAVs, (investment companies with variable share capital) but can also be structured as an INVCO (Investment Company with fixed share capital), a unit trust, a contractual arrangement or a partnership.  The legal structures serve as vehicles for a variety of funds type, including Professional Investment Funds, retail funds and private collective investment schemes. The most popular investment fund type Malta offers is the Maltese Hedge Fund which forms part of the Professional Investor Fund (PIF).  PIFs can only be sold to investors who have a minimum amount of investment and satisfy a number of criteria, PIFs are very flexible and thus can be used as a vehicle through which to conduct innovative or unorthodox investment strategies. Maltese PIFs take three different forms to suit different types of investors. These are:

PIFs promoted to Experienced Investors (Experienced Investor Funds);

PIFs promoted to Qualifying Investors (Qualifying Investor Funds);

PIFs promoted to Extraordinary Investors (Extraordinary Investor Funds)

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