Pleasure boat registration and navigation tax: what changed in 2022

2022 brought its share of changes to the boating world: a new vessel registration procedure, the DAFN, paperless navigation documents… Bateau-immatriculation.com takes stock of recreational boating in 2022.

Registering a pleasure boat in 2022

Since 1 January 2022, the administrative formalities for registering a pleasure boat for navigation at sea have been simplified. The registration application to Maritime Affairs and the application for francisation (the right to fly the French flag) at the Customs Office have been merged into a single procedure: registration. It is carried out with the nearest Délégation à la Mer et au Littoral (DML) or Direction Départementale des Territoires et de la Mer (DDTM). It still applies to pleasure boats over 2.5 metres (sailing boats, motorboats, personal watercraft).

The DDTM issues a registration certificate as a secure PDF. It now replaces both the navigation card (carte de circulation) and the act of francisation, and assigns the vessel an identification number (2 letters, the initials of the issuing office — the former maritime district — followed by 6 characters). Apart from a change (engine, ownership…), which must be declared within one month and triggers a reissue of the certificate, the document has an unlimited lifetime.

Since 2022, the term "home port" has been replaced by "port of registration".

The registration certificate must be kept on board the pleasure boat and be available for inspection at any time by an authorised officer who requests it.

Although no format (paper or digital) is clearly imposed, Bateau-immatriculation.com recommends printing and laminating it so that it can be shown during an inspection at sea.

The DAFN and the passport duty merged in 2022

Until 2021, to navigate at sea you had to pay either the DAFN (annual francisation and navigation duty) or the passport duty (for navigation under a foreign flag while being a French tax resident), both for the same amounts. This applies to all pleasure boats (sailing boats, motorboats) with a hull length over 7 metres or an engine with an administrative power of 22 administrative horsepower or more, and to personal watercraft (jet-skis, sea scooters) with an actual power of 90 kW or more.

Since 1 January 2022, the DAFN and the passport duty have been merged into a single annual tax on personal-use maritime craft (TAEMUP). The tax is paid online between 1 January and 31 March to the Directorate of Maritime Affairs (no longer to the Customs Office). The amount does not change, except in the event of a change of engine: the age-related reduction has been frozen since 01/01/2019, with no further changes possible.