Yacht Charter Accounting: What Owners Must Track Every Month
Yacht charter accounting has to reconcile more than bills and bank transactions. The books must connect charter revenue, commissions, APA activity, crew and operating costs, owner funding, personal use, capital improvements and tax-basis records into one traceable financial system.
Yacht charter accounting is the monthly process of turning charter settlements, vessel spending, crew costs, owner funding, personal use and capital projects into a reconciled financial record that an owner can actually use. It is substantially more detailed than entering marina bills and credit-card transactions into bookkeeping software.
A professionally operated charter yacht can have multiple bank accounts, vessel cards, charter receipts, broker deductions, management-company transactions, APA activity, payroll, foreign-currency spending, shipyard invoices, owner-paid expenses and substantial refit costs moving through the books at the same time.
At a minimum, the books should reconcile gross charter revenue, deposits, commissions, management fees, APA activity where applicable, crew costs, operating expenses, bank and card transactions, accounts payable, owner funding, financing, charter versus personal activity, capital expenditures, the yacht's use calendar and the records supporting the vessel's tax basis. The close should end with financial statements and owner reports—not merely a categorized transaction list.
How Is Yacht Charter Accounting Different From Ordinary Bookkeeping?
Ordinary bookkeeping can answer a basic question: What did the company spend? Yacht charter accounting must answer several additional questions simultaneously: Who funded it? Which charter or operating period did it relate to? Was it an ordinary vessel cost, a capital improvement, a guest expense, a personal cost or an owner transaction? Was it paid in another currency? Does it affect the yacht's tax basis? Is there supporting documentation?
This distinction is important because the typical broad accounting-service model— bookkeeping, financial statements, cash-flow analysis and internal controls—does not by itself explain how a yacht's actual transaction cycle should work. A charter yacht requires vessel-specific classifications and reconciliation procedures.
Good Yacht Accounting Connects the Entire Financial Record
Good yacht accounting does more than record expenses. It connects charter operations, personal use, owner funding, capital improvements and tax reporting into one traceable financial record.
For owners needing broader ongoing financial administration—including invoice workflows, owner reporting, cash-flow oversight and vessel financial controls—see Financial Administration for Yachts .
What Does the Monthly Yacht Accounting Workflow Look Like?
The strongest accounting structure follows the transaction from the source document all the way to the owner's monthly financial statements and year-end tax records.
1. Record Charter Revenue and Deposits Correctly
A charter settlement should not appear in the general ledger as a single unexplained bank deposit. The accounting record should preserve enough detail to reconcile the underlying charter documentation to the money actually received.
Depending on the arrangement and accounting method, the books may need to distinguish charter deposits or advance receipts from earned charter revenue. The accounting system should be designed around the actual contracts and flow of funds rather than forcing every incoming payment directly into revenue.
For every charter, retain the charter agreement, invoice or settlement record, charter dates, gross charter amount, deposit history, commission calculations, management-company statements and the corresponding bank activity.
IRS recordkeeping guidance states that records should identify the sources of receipts and that supporting documents for gross receipts can include invoices and bank deposit records. That general requirement becomes particularly important when a charter yacht receives money from several brokers, managers or payment sources during the season.
2. Separate Gross Charter Revenue From Broker Commissions
Recording only the net cash reaching the yacht account destroys useful financial information. The books should normally preserve gross charter revenue and separately identify brokerage commissions or other deductions supported by the charter settlement.
Suppose a charter statement shows a gross charter amount of $100,000 and $20,000 of brokerage commissions, with $80,000 reaching the owner side. Recording only an $80,000 revenue deposit makes it difficult to understand the yacht's actual sales volume, commission expense and effective commercial cost.
The monthly close should therefore reconcile: gross charter amount → commission and authorized deductions → net amount due → cash received.
3. Track Charter-Management Fees Separately
Charter-management fees should not disappear inside a broad professional-fees category if the owner wants to understand the economics of the charter program.
The accountant should distinguish brokerage commissions from ongoing charter-management fees, yacht-management charges and other administrative costs. This allows the owner to evaluate both the cost of acquiring charter business and the cost of administering the vessel.
4. Reconcile APA Activity and Guest Expenses
The Advance Provisioning Allowance, commonly referred to as APA, generally represents funds advanced for charter-specific expenditures under the applicable charter arrangement. From an accounting perspective, those funds should not automatically be treated as ordinary owner revenue.
The accounting system should separately track the receipt and disposition of APA funds based on the actual charter documentation and settlement process. Guest-related spending may include fuel, food and beverage, dockage, local charges, transportation and other expenses attributable to that charter.
At charter completion, the accountant should be able to trace the opening APA balance, expenditures, additional funds requested if applicable, adjustments and the final settlement or refund.
5. Reconcile Crew Payroll and Contractor Costs
Crew is frequently one of the largest recurring yacht operating costs. The monthly books should reconcile the payroll register or approved crew payment schedule to actual cash movements and applicable payroll-related liabilities.
Depending on the vessel and employment structure, the accounting categories may include gross wages, employer payroll taxes, benefits, allowances, bonuses, crew travel, recruitment, training, medical costs and contractor payments.
Do not infer a worker's employment or contractor status from the bookkeeping category. Worker classification and payroll compliance are separate legal and tax determinations that should be handled by the appropriate payroll, tax and legal professionals.
6. Track Fuel, Dockage, Insurance, Repairs and Maintenance by Useful Category
A yacht accounting system should allow the owner to identify what actually drives annual vessel cost. Large categories should not be compressed into a single account called “yacht expenses.”
At a minimum, consider separate ledger categories for:
- Fuel and lubricants
- Home berth and transient dockage
- Insurance
- Routine repairs
- Planned maintenance
- Engineering and mechanical work
- Deck and exterior maintenance
- Interior maintenance
- Communications and subscriptions
- Safety and compliance costs
- Crew expenses
- Professional and management fees
Additional tracking by department, vessel project or charter may be useful when the yacht is large enough to justify that level of detail.
7. Separate Owner-Paid Expenses, Contributions and Distributions
Owners commonly pay vessel expenses personally or transfer money into the yacht's operating account when additional funding is required. Those transactions should not automatically be recorded as revenue or vessel expense without considering what actually occurred.
The books should distinguish an owner contribution or advance from charter revenue. Similarly, an owner-paid shipyard invoice may require recording the underlying asset or expense together with the corresponding owner funding or payable.
Distributions, reimbursements and amounts due to or from the owner should be separately identifiable so that the balance sheet can explain the owner's relationship with the yacht-owning entity at month-end.
8. Separate Loan Principal From Interest
A yacht loan payment is not necessarily an operating expense equal to the cash payment. Principal generally reduces the outstanding loan liability on the balance sheet, while interest is separately recorded based on the financing records and applicable accounting treatment.
The monthly close should reconcile the accounting loan balance to lender statements and maintain support for interest paid during the year.
This distinction is also critical for owner cash-flow reporting. A yacht can have an operating result that looks very different from its actual cash requirement after debt service is considered.
9. Distinguish Charter Activity From Personal Yacht Use
A charter yacht may also be used personally by its owner or related parties. The accounting records should not wait until year-end to identify those periods.
Maintain a contemporaneous use calendar and identify costs that are directly attributable to specific personal or charter periods where appropriate. The final federal tax allocation is a tax determination, but the accountant must first preserve the underlying facts.
IRS Publication 527 expressly includes a qualifying boat within its definition of a dwelling unit and discusses allocation where property has rental and personal use. The exact application to a particular yacht and charter operation depends on the facts, which is why contemporaneous use tracking matters.
Owners establishing a charter operation can coordinate these records through Yacht Tax Advisory and Charter Business Implementation so the accounting and personal-use systems are established before the first year has to be reconstructed.
10. Separate OPEX From CAPEX and Maintain a Refit Ledger
The difference between operating expenditure and capital expenditure is one of the most important classification issues in yacht accounting.
Routine recurring operating costs may flow through the profit-and-loss statement, while certain acquisition, improvement or other capital costs may need to be recorded on the balance sheet and included in an asset's basis. The correct federal tax treatment depends on the nature of the expenditure and applicable tax rules.
Large yacht refits should therefore have a dedicated project ledger rather than being posted indiscriminately to repairs and maintenance.
For major projects, preserve:
- Shipyard contracts
- Approved change orders
- Vendor invoices
- Technical descriptions
- Payment records
- Project dates
- Asset or component affected
- Accounting classification
- Tax-review status
- Disposal or replacement information
IRS Publication 946 explains that capitalized amounts are included in the basis of property rather than treated as current deductions, and its recordkeeping guidance calls for documentation of acquisition costs, repairs, maintenance and capital improvements where relevant.
11. Reconcile Multicurrency Bank Accounts and Foreign Transactions
Yachts frequently operate across jurisdictions and incur spending in U.S. dollars, euros, pounds sterling and other currencies. That creates accounting issues that ordinary single-currency bookkeeping may not expose.
Each foreign bank or card account should be reconciled in its native currency, while the accounting system also records the appropriate reporting-currency amount. Exchange-rate differences should not be hidden inside fuel, dockage or vendor costs merely because the payment settled at a different dollar value.
The accountant should use a consistent exchange-rate methodology appropriate to the accounting framework and maintain enough information to explain material foreign-exchange gains, losses and balance-sheet differences.
12. Reconcile Every Yacht Bank and Card Account Monthly
A bank feed is not a bank reconciliation. Importing transactions into accounting software does not prove that every transaction has been recorded correctly or that no transaction is missing.
Every operating bank account, reserve account, foreign-currency account, vessel card and relevant management-company clearing account should be reconciled to an external statement.
Unreconciled differences should be investigated before the month is closed. Common causes include duplicated entries, missing card charges, transfers recorded only on one side, refunds, foreign-exchange differences, outstanding payments and transactions posted to the wrong entity.
13. Create an Invoice Approval and Accounts-Payable Workflow
The payment process should answer four questions before cash leaves the yacht's account: Is this invoice valid? Who ordered or approved the work? Is the amount correct? Has it already been paid?
A basic yacht accounts-payable workflow may include invoice receipt, coding, operational approval, owner or management approval where required, payment authorization, payment execution and attachment of final payment evidence.
Larger invoices and refit expenditures may require additional approval levels. The exact authorization matrix should reflect the owner's management arrangement, captain authority and spending limits.
14. Reconcile the Financial Records to the Yacht's Use Calendar
The use calendar should be treated as an accounting support schedule—not merely a captain's operational calendar.
Each month, reconcile completed charters, owner trips, related-party use, yard periods, repositioning, maintenance periods and other significant activity to the accounting records. This can identify expenses coded to the wrong charter, missing charter revenue, personal-use activity that was not reported to the accountant and vessel periods requiring additional tax review.
Contemporaneous documentation is generally stronger than attempting to reconstruct use many months later. IRS depreciation recordkeeping guidance similarly emphasizes maintaining evidence of the amount, date and purpose of relevant expenditures and use.
Sample Yacht Charter Chart of Accounts
The exact chart of accounts should reflect the yacht's size, entity structure, charter model and reporting needs. The following framework illustrates how a vessel-specific ledger can be organized.
| Account Group | Illustrative Accounts | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| Cash & Banking |
Operating Bank – USD Operating Bank – EUR Vessel Card Clearing Charter / Deposit Clearing |
Separates operating cash, currencies and temporary settlement activity. |
| Receivables & Advances |
Charter Receivable Vendor Deposits Prepaid Insurance Other Prepayments |
Prevents deposits and advances from being automatically expensed. |
| Fixed Assets |
Yacht Acquisition Cost Capital Improvements Refit Assets Equipment & Tenders |
Supports asset and tax-basis tracking. |
| Liabilities |
Accounts Payable Payroll Liabilities Yacht Loan Payable Owner / Related-Party Payable |
Shows amounts owed at month-end rather than only cash already paid. |
| Owner Equity |
Owner Contributions Owner Distributions Prior-Year Equity / Retained Earnings |
Separates owner funding from charter income. |
| Charter Revenue |
Gross Charter Revenue Other Charter Revenue Charter Adjustments |
Preserves gross charter activity rather than recording only net receipts. |
| Charter Costs |
Broker Commissions Charter Management Fees Charter-Specific Costs |
Allows the owner to measure net charter contribution. |
| Crew |
Crew Wages Employer Payroll Costs Crew Benefits Crew Travel Recruitment & Training |
Provides meaningful visibility into one of the largest vessel cost categories. |
| Vessel OPEX |
Fuel Dockage Insurance Repairs Planned Maintenance Communications Safety / Compliance |
Tracks ordinary operating cost by useful management category. |
| Administration |
Yacht Management Accounting Legal Banking Fees Professional Fees |
Isolates administrative cost from physical vessel operations. |
| Financing |
Interest Expense Loan Fees Foreign Exchange Gain / Loss |
Separates financing and currency effects from core operating activity. |
| Owner / Personal |
Owner Personal Costs Owner-Use Direct Costs Related-Party Activity |
Preserves mixed-use information for management and tax review. |
What Should a Yacht's Monthly Close Calendar Look Like?
A defined close calendar prevents bookkeeping from drifting several months behind the yacht's actual activity. The precise timing can be adjusted around management-company and charter reporting cycles.
| Target Timing | Close Activity | Expected Output |
|---|---|---|
| Days 1–3 | Collect prior-month bank statements, card statements, charter settlements, invoices, receipts, payroll records and management reports. | Complete document set and missing-item list. |
| Days 3–5 | Enter or review transactions, invoices, owner activity and inter-account transfers. | Updated general ledger and accounts payable. |
| Days 5–7 | Reconcile banks, vessel cards, payroll and multicurrency accounts. | Reconciled cash and card balances. |
| Days 6–8 | Reconcile charter revenue, commissions, charter-management charges and APA activity where applicable. | Charter reconciliation by voyage or booking. |
| Days 7–9 | Review owner payments, owner contributions, personal costs, loan activity, refit spending and potential capital expenditures. | Correct balance-sheet and classification schedules. |
| Days 8–10 | Reconcile the accounting records to charter and owner-use calendars. | Updated monthly use schedule. |
| Days 10–12 | Compare actual expenses with budget and investigate material variances. | Budget-versus-actual and variance report. |
| Days 12–15 | Final accounting review and preparation of owner reporting. | P&L, balance sheet, cash funding report, CAPEX schedule and supporting dashboards. |
What Financial Reports Should a Yacht Owner Receive Every Month?
An owner should not have to interpret hundreds of ledger lines to understand whether the yacht stayed within budget, how charter operations performed or how much cash will be needed. The monthly reporting package should convert the accounting records into owner-level financial information.
How Should the Owner Cash-Funding Report Work?
An owner funding request should not simply state, “Please wire $250,000.” It should explain why the yacht requires the money.
A useful funding report begins with available unrestricted cash and then considers expected near-term inflows, payroll, dockage, insurance, large vendor payments, credit-card settlements, refit obligations, debt service and a reasonable operating reserve.
The owner can then see whether the funding requirement reflects normal operations, a seasonal timing issue, a large capital project or material overspending.
This is one of the areas where yacht financial administration goes beyond ordinary bookkeeping: the owner needs visibility into future cash requirements, not merely a historical record of cash already spent.
Who Should Provide What? Yacht Accounting Responsibility Matrix
Yacht accounting works best when each professional has a defined role. The accountant should not attempt to replace the captain or charter manager, and operating personnel should not be expected to make unsupported tax determinations.
| Party | Typical Monthly Inputs | Primary Responsibility |
|---|---|---|
| Owner / Family Office | Owner-paid expenses, funding transfers, personal-use information and major approvals. | Provide complete information, approve material spending and review financial reports. |
| Captain | Operational invoices, receipts, vessel-use details, maintenance context and approvals. | Confirm operational purpose and factual context behind vessel spending. |
| Purser / Yacht Administrator | Receipts, petty cash, crew expenses, card support, guest-cost detail and invoice records. | Maintain and transmit day-to-day vessel documentation. |
| Charter Manager / Broker | Charter contracts, settlements, commission statements, deposits and booking records. | Provide commercial charter documentation and settlement information. |
| Yacht Manager | Vendor records, management fees, budget information, payments and operating reports. | Coordinate agreed vessel-management responsibilities. |
| Bookkeeper / Yacht Accountant | All financial source records from relevant parties. | Record, classify, reconcile and prepare the financial ledger and monthly reports. |
| Tax Adviser | Financial statements, use records, basis schedules, owner activity and supporting documents. | Determine applicable federal and state tax reporting based on the facts and law. |
| Attorney / Maritime Specialists | Legal and regulatory facts when relevant. | Address legal, ownership, maritime and regulatory matters outside the accountant's scope. |
What Tax-Basis Records Should Yacht Accounting Preserve?
A yacht's accounting records should maintain a permanent trail supporting the cost of the vessel and subsequent capital additions. A year-end accountant should not have to reconstruct acquisition and refit basis from bank statements several years later.
The permanent tax-support file may include:
- Purchase agreement
- Closing statement
- Purchase invoices
- Acquisition-related cost detail
- Placed-in-service documentation
- Fixed-asset schedule
- Major refit invoices
- Improvement ledger
- Asset disposal records
- Financing records
- Prior depreciation schedules
- Business and personal-use records
The accountant's role is to maintain organized facts and schedules. The tax preparer or tax adviser must determine how the expenditures, depreciation, mixed use and other items are ultimately reported under the applicable tax rules.
IRS Publication 946 explains that depreciable property generally must be owned by the taxpayer, used in a business or income-producing activity, have a determinable useful life and be expected to last more than one year. It also states that depreciation generally begins when property is placed in service. These are reasons the acquisition and placed-in-service file should be established at the beginning—not recreated at disposition.
What Should the Tax Preparer Receive at Year-End?
A year-end tax handoff should be a controlled package of reconciled records, not a folder containing twelve months of unsorted statements.
| Workpaper | What It Should Explain |
|---|---|
| Year-End Trial Balance | Final account balances used to prepare the tax return. |
| Profit & Loss | Annual charter revenue and vessel expenses by meaningful category. |
| Balance Sheet | Cash, assets, liabilities, loans and owner equity. |
| General Ledger | Transaction-level support for the financial statements. |
| Charter Revenue Workpaper | Gross revenue, commissions, management deductions and cash receipts. |
| Use Calendar | Charter, owner and relevant related-party use by date. |
| Owner Activity Schedule | Contributions, distributions, reimbursements and related balances. |
| Fixed Asset / Basis Schedule | Acquisition cost, additions, improvements, disposals and prior depreciation. |
| Refit Workpaper | Material project costs requiring repair-versus-capital review. |
| Loan Schedule | Beginning debt, principal payments, interest and ending balance. |
| Payroll Support | Payroll expense and related tax-reporting records where applicable. |
| Unresolved-Items Schedule | Transactions or tax questions requiring preparer judgment before filing. |
Owners entering charter can use Yacht Tax Advisory and Charter Business Implementation to establish the chart of accounts, use tracking, basis records and year-end handoff framework before the accounting year begins.
Red Flags in Yacht Accounting
Yacht accounting problems rarely begin with one catastrophic transaction. They usually accumulate through small failures in documentation and reconciliation until the owner can no longer rely on the financial statements.
Why Monthly Yacht Accounting Matters Before Tax Season
The purpose of monthly accounting is not merely to make tax preparation easier. It gives the owner a reliable financial record while there is still time to act.
If fuel is substantially over budget in May, the owner should know in May—not the following March. If a charter settlement is missing, the discrepancy should be identified during the close. If a major refit invoice may require capitalization review, the supporting technical documentation should be retained while the project team still understands exactly what was done.
IRS Publication 583 explains that good records help a business monitor its progress, prepare financial statements, identify the source of receipts, track expenses, prepare tax returns and support items reported on those returns. Yacht charter accounting applies those recordkeeping principles to a substantially more specialized vessel environment.
Frequently Asked Questions About Yacht Charter Accounting
1. What is yacht charter accounting?
Yacht charter accounting is the process of recording and reconciling the financial activity of a charter-operated yacht, including charter revenue, commissions, APA activity where applicable, vessel operating costs, crew, owner transactions, financing, personal use, capital expenditure and tax-support schedules.
2. How is yacht accounting different from normal bookkeeping?
Yacht accounting requires vessel-specific transaction classification and reporting. In addition to normal bookkeeping, it may require charter-by-charter revenue reconciliation, multicurrency accounting, owner funding, APA tracking, crew-cost reconciliation, use calendars, refit ledgers and yacht-basis schedules.
3. Should charter revenue be recorded gross or net of broker commissions?
The accounting records should generally preserve enough information to reconcile the gross charter amount, applicable commissions and other authorized deductions to the net cash received. Recording only the net deposit can obscure the yacht's actual commercial activity.
4. How should yacht charter deposits be accounted for?
The correct treatment depends on the agreement, timing and accounting method. The books should distinguish deposits or advance receipts from earned charter revenue where appropriate rather than automatically treating every incoming payment as current revenue.
5. What is APA in yacht accounting?
APA generally refers to an Advance Provisioning Allowance funded for specified charter-related guest expenses under the charter arrangement. The accounting system should track the receipt, expenditures, additional funding and final settlement separately based on the actual charter documentation.
6. What yacht expenses should be tracked separately?
Useful categories commonly include crew, payroll-related costs, fuel, dockage, insurance, repairs, maintenance, communications, management fees, professional fees, charter commissions, financing costs, refits, capital improvements and owner-related costs.
7. How should an owner's cash contribution to the yacht be recorded?
Owner funding should be recorded according to the actual legal and accounting nature of the transaction, such as an equity contribution, advance or amount due to the owner. It should not automatically be classified as charter revenue.
8. How should owner-paid yacht expenses be handled?
Record the underlying vessel expense or asset and separately record how the owner funded it. Preserve the invoice and payment evidence so the transaction can be traced from the underlying cost to the owner's payment.
9. What is the difference between yacht OPEX and CAPEX?
OPEX generally describes recurring vessel operating costs, while CAPEX generally refers to expenditures associated with acquiring, replacing or improving longer-lived assets. Financial and tax classification should be based on the facts and applicable accounting and tax rules rather than the label used by the captain or shipyard.
10. Should a yacht refit be recorded as repairs and maintenance?
Not automatically. A major refit can contain routine repairs, replacements and capital improvements. The project should be tracked in detail so the accountant and tax adviser can determine the appropriate treatment of each material component.
11. Why does a charter yacht need a personal-use calendar?
A use calendar preserves the factual record of charter, owner, related-party and other vessel use. Mixed personal and commercial use can affect tax analysis and expense allocation, so the facts should be recorded contemporaneously rather than reconstructed after year-end.
12. What reports should a yacht owner receive every month?
A useful package normally includes a profit-and-loss statement, balance sheet, budget-versus-actual report, variance analysis, owner funding or cash-flow report, charter reconciliation, CAPEX/refit schedule, accounts-payable report and relevant use-calendar reporting.
13. Does a yacht accountant replace the yacht management company?
No. Yacht management and yacht accounting perform different functions. A management company may coordinate vessel operations, vendors and administration, while the accountant records, reconciles and reports the financial consequences of those activities. The two functions can work together.
14. When should yacht charter accounting begin?
Ideally, the accounting system is established before the yacht begins accepting charters. Bank accounts, chart of accounts, revenue workflow, owner funding procedures, use calendars, basis schedules and document responsibilities are significantly easier to establish prospectively than reconstruct later.
15. What should a yacht accountant give the tax preparer?
The handoff should generally include reconciled year-end financial statements, the trial balance and general ledger, charter revenue workpapers, owner and related-party schedules, yacht-use records, fixed-asset and basis schedules, major refit detail, financing records, payroll support and a list of unresolved tax-classification questions.
The Bottom Line: Yacht Accounting Should Explain the Financial Reality of the Vessel
A list of paid invoices is not complete yacht accounting. A management-company funding request is not a cash-flow report. A charter deposit is not automatically charter profit. And an annual profit-and-loss statement, standing alone, cannot explain owner funding, personal use, capital improvements or the yacht's tax basis.
The objective is to create one financial record in which the owner can trace activity from the charter agreement or vendor invoice through payment, accounting classification, reconciliation, owner reporting and ultimately the year-end tax-support package.
That structure gives the owner better information during the year and gives the tax adviser substantially better records when tax treatment must be determined.
Build the Accounting System Before the Records Fall Behind
If your yacht is entering charter, MFS can establish the accounting, use-tracking, basis and year-end tax-support systems before missing records become a reconstruction project.
Build Your Charter Accounting SystemMcGregor Financial Services provides accounting, tax and financial advisory services. Accounting and tax treatment depends on the yacht's facts, ownership, contracts, transactions and applicable law. Maritime, legal, licensing, insurance and regulatory matters should be addressed with appropriately qualified professionals. No particular deduction, depreciation treatment, tax result or charter profitability is guaranteed.
Primary Tax & Recordkeeping References
- Internal Revenue Service — Publication 583, Starting a Business and Keeping Records: IRS Publication 583
- Internal Revenue Service — Publication 946, How To Depreciate Property: IRS Publication 946
- Internal Revenue Service — Publication 527, Residential Rental Property, including federal guidance concerning personal use of qualifying dwelling units: IRS Publication 527
These federal publications provide general recordkeeping and tax principles. The appropriate treatment of a particular charter yacht, expense, mixed-use arrangement, asset or transaction should be determined from the owner's actual facts and applicable law.