Billionaire Mark Zuckerberg Has Non-US Flag on His Megayacht to "Dodge Taxes"

Late last year, rumors started making the rounds that Zuckerberg was in the Netherlands, visiting the Feadship shipyard to potentially discuss a deal. Not that he was ever the talkative guy, but Zuckerberg never really came across as a superyacht guy, so it was assumed that there was no foundation to the rumor.

Then, in early 2024, word got out that Zuckerberg had bought Project 1010, a gigantic and highly controversial new megayacht that Feadship was building for Russian oligarch Vladimir Potanin. Potanin is a sanctioned individual, so he couldn't take delivery of the vessel, which left Feadship with no other alternative than to seek an exemption from the government to sell it to another owner.

That owner was Zuckerberg. With the megayacht, which he later christened Launchpad, he also bought a shadow vessel: the superyacht Dapple from Valve founder Gabe Newell, which now sails as Wingman. Both vessels are sailing under the Marshall Islands flag, which has prompted heated discussions about how he's "dodging taxes."

According to one report – the one that started the heated debates, in fact – Zuckerberg isn't just dodging taxes, which is bad in and of itself. He's also a hypocrite for buying a Russian's megayacht when he took a stand against Russian media and for getting a vessel with such a huge carbon footprint while he's lecturing others on cutting down.

There are merits to both these claims, of course, but as superyacht vlogger eSysman Superyachts notes, the reason why U.S.-based superyacht owners choose to register their vessels under other flags is also based on practical considerations. That's why they call it a "flag of convenience."

That's not to say that Zuckerberg and the other multi-millionaires and billionaires of the world aren't looking for tax exemptions wherever they can get them; it's just that the situation is a bit more complex than just the desire to avoid taxes.

One aspect of the situation regards regulations in the U.S. for privately owned superyachts over 300 GT (Launchpad has over 5,000 GT of interior volume, for comparison). Until President Trump signed a bill into law, regulation made no difference between merchant vessels and commercial yachts, which meant that the latter could be boarded by the U.S. Coast Guard for inspections whenever they entered U.S. waters.

With the new law, American superyacht owners can register their vessel in the country regardless of size but still subject to a string of conditions that make the use of the vessel not so convenient. They must always run it with a crew and captain who are U.S. citizens, they can't carry any type of cargo (not even larger personal belongings), and they can't charter it because it's "for private use." Only a handful of owners in the world can afford not to charter their superyacht to offset maintenance costs, which are usually 10-12% of the initial purchase price.

As with most things in life, big or small, there are nuances. But whatever the reason Zuckerberg had for registering his two vessels in the Marshall Islands, you can't argue against the hypocrisy of funding climate change activism while indulging in one of the most polluting activities out there.

EXCLUSIVE: Mark Zuckerberg's $300 Million Yacht Docked in Fort Lauderdale Flying Marshall Islands Flag in Attempt to Avoid Paying US Taxes https://t.co/SmTJFrW4Db

— Laura Loomer (@LauraLoomer) March 25, 2024