Income taxes

6 Months Ended

Jun. 30, 2021

Income Tax Disclosure [Abstract]

Income taxes

NOTE 11 – INCOME TAXES

Marshall Islands, Malta and Liberia do not impose a tax on international shipping income. Under the laws of Marshall Islands, Malta and Liberia, the countries of the vessel-owning subsidiaries’ incorporation and vessels’ registration, the vessel-owning subsidiaries are subject to registration and tonnage taxes, which have been included in vessel operating expenses in the accompanying condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations.

In accordance with the currently applicable Greek law, foreign flagged vessels that are managed by Greek or foreign ship management companies having established an office in Greece are subject to duties towards the Greek state, which are calculated on the basis of the relevant vessel’s tonnage. The payment of said duties exhausts the tax liability of the foreign ship owning company and the relevant manager against any tax, duty, charge or contribution payable on income from the exploitation of the foreign flagged vessel.

Pursuant to Section 883 of the Internal Revenue Code of the United States, U.S. source income from the international operation of ships is generally exempt from U.S. income tax if the company operating the ships meets certain incorporation and ownership requirements. Among other things, in order to qualify for this exemption, the company operating the ships must be incorporated in a country, which grants an equivalent exemption from income taxes to U.S. corporations. All the vessel-owning subsidiaries satisfy these initial criterias.

In addition, these companies must meet an ownership test. The management of Navios Partners believes that this ownership test was satisfied prior to the IPO by virtue of a special rule applicable to situations where the ship operating companies are beneficially owned by a publicly traded company. Although not free from doubt, management also believes that the ownership test will be satisfied based on the trading volume and ownership of Navios Partners’ units, but no assurance can be given that this will remain so in the future.