As if hurricanes, crashing stock markets, nervous lenders, ex-spouses and pirates were not enough for luxury yacht owners to contend with, a new threat has appeared on their horizon – the taxman.

Several owners, it seems, have been "avoiding" Value Added Tax a little too enthusiastically and the European Union, at the request of the Dutch and French authorities, has launched a crackdown on strategies promoted by advisers which have resulted in €31m of additional assessments in The Netherlands alone.